Learn to Earn

This year Markethill High School hosted a Young Enterprise programme for year 10 called Learn to Earn. This programme introduced pupils to the world of work, finance and budgeting. The programme was extremely interesting and a great opportunity for us to learn about our future and how to spend our money wisely.

We took part in many activities including team building tasks as we had to work together to come up with careers throughout the alphabet. This got us thinking of the many job opportunities that are available to us. The main part of the event consisted of our future aspirations and lifestyle where we had to consider such things as the career path we would follow and how much income we expected to receive, how many children we hoped to have and what type of house and car we planned to buy.

Throughout this event we learned the essential life skill of budgeting. Firstly, we totalled up the cost of what our dream life would cost and then compared it to how much money our future jobs would bring in. From this activity we learned that in order to keep our finances under control we sometimes have to do without some of life’s luxuries until we can afford them and in the meantime focus on the cost of living. We also learnt that no matter how attractive the paycheque is, it is important that we have inner happiness and job satisfaction.

This day proved very informative as it has given us a guide as to what to expect in the future. We were also provided with a booklet of information on jobs outlining average income, information about the career and the qualifications needed to achieve it. This will be useful as we select our GCSE subjects in the next few weeks.