Introduction

Last week you explored some key concepts about jobs, professions, industries/businesses and sectors. As a result, you should have a more complete understanding of how your job fits into the parts of the economy most related to the area of your work, or that which you wish to enter – the bigger picture. You also spent some time considering how these might affect your perspective on your work and generate career options, identifying areas of interest to follow up and scheduling time to do so.

This week you will be looking at the even bigger picture – the external factors that affect all economies and, in turn, the jobs, professions, industries/businesses and sectors within them. Identifying and understanding these forces will help you to anticipate changes and developments closer to home. This will help you to think about what you might do within your current job to accommodate or even take advantage of these, and also to see what opportunities might exist elsewhere.

Lynne Johnson introduces you to Week 2 in the video below.

As with Week 1, you’ll need the Toolkit or your notebook to jot down your thoughts and responses to the activities.

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• describe how a broad range of external factors – political, economic, social and technological – affect the way organisations operate
• understand what a PEST (political, economic, social, technological) analysis is and how it can help you to understand your sector
• use a PEST analysis to identify the specific factors that might impact on your organisation
• identify the resources your organisation possesses to deal with these challenges.