Dentsu Inc. and Nippon TV jointly held the "Future Jobs School for 14-Year-Olds" at a school in Tsukuba City.

Dentsu Group's cross-group organization "Future Business Creation Research" and Nippon TV R&D Lab jointly held a workshop titled "Future Jobs School for 14-Year-Olds" at Midori Gakuen Compulsory Education School in Tsukuba City. The workshop took place from February to March 2022, with 87 eighth-grade students (second-year junior high students) participating. Aiming for individually optimized career education that values each student's abilities and aspirations, the program was designed to foster students' imagination and encourage independent discussion.

As times change, the occupations needed by society also evolve. Occupations like YouTubers and social media influencers, which rank high in "dream job" surveys these past few years, didn't exist 20 years ago. In today's "VUCA" era—characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—where the future is unclear and difficult to predict, entirely new occupations may emerge in the next 10 or 20 years.

The "Future Career School" program was designed based on this understanding. It recognizes that children today need education focused not on choosing from existing careers, but on creating future careers to solve the challenges they will face and achieve fulfilling lives.

The workshop targeted eighth graders (second-year junior high students), who possess both free-thinking abilities and developing knowledge. Employees from the Dentsu Group and Nippon TV participated as mentors to stimulate ideas. Structured in three phases—orientation, work sessions, and a presentation event—the program consistently emphasized the importance of thinking freely, prioritizing personal aspirations and others' happiness over "adult-defined correct answers," and building confidence in one's own ideas. Numerous design elements were incorporated throughout to facilitate student creativity.


At the presentation session, students who conceived 20 particularly unique ideas from the 87 future job concepts presented them confidently, bringing the Future Job School to a close.


Future Business Creation Research and R&D Lab will continue developing and exploring knowledge to envision the future we should strive for. Simultaneously, they will consider initiatives targeting children who will shape that future. Specifically, they aim to enhance personalized career education for students and children, tailored to their needs and incorporating corporate requirements, to help create an exciting future.

■Comments from Workshop Participants
・When students returned to class after interacting with mentors, hearing the mentors say "That's great! That's amazing!" – feeling 100 or 200 times more impressed than they themselves felt – the students said "It was fun" and "It was interesting." I think that made them think, "Let's make it even more interesting" and "Let's think about more possibilities." (Midori Gakuen Compulsory Education School Teacher)

・I believe children possess a perspective entirely different from ours as adults. It made me realize anew how much more we should focus our efforts on expanding that potential and connecting it to the future. (Dentsu Group Member)

・I believe various problems will arise in society going forward. Since it's our generation that must solve them, I felt a stronger sense of mission: to truly believe in my own capabilities and actively shape the future. (Student)

About Dentsu Inc.'s Group-wide Organization "Future Business Creation Research":
The impact of COVID-19 and the need to address the SDGs mean we can't envision new growth by thinking about the future as we always have. Launched to meet the needs of companies and society in such times. This group-wide organization leverages the future-creation expertise of Dentsu Japan Network companies to "visualize the future," identify future value, and bring it to life. Its mission is to utilize unique insights into future society and future consumers, envision a well-being lifestyle from both perspectives, and generate and launch the business ideas necessary to realize that lifestyle.
https://dentsumirai.com/
 

About Nippon TV R&D Lab:
The "R&D Lab" is an organization born within Nippon TV to contemplate and create the "future value" we can provide. Its mission is to "explore the value Nippon TV can offer to society" while researching "future needs" arising from changes in the social environment, consumers, technology, media, content, and the advertising industry. It identifies partners both inside and outside the company to execute plans for "what Nippon TV should do for the future."
A TV station wanting to connect with all sorts of places note／Nippon TV R&D Lab
https://note.com/ntvrdlab/