LinkedIn recently announced that it was dropping the age of creating a profile from 18 to 13 in the UK. (14 in the US)
As from September 12th (in most countries) in short… children… will
be able to have a profile on a professional business to business networking site. What can the average 13 year old contribute to such a site. Some have said they believe this will be the downfall of LinkedIn, others are concerned the site will be populated by irrelevant messages and postings, it has even been suggested that LinkedIn is trying to become a Facebook.
I had my view on this, which if I am honest has changed over the last couple of weeks.
UK education system – am I right or wrong?
In my opinion the education system (in the UK) is still geared towards making pupils great academics to get a job. Get good GCSE’s, get great A Levels, go to a even greater university and then get a outstanding job. It happened to me 20 years ago, the career officer said to me “You will make a great solicitor!” “Have you thought about working in the city as a stockbroker?” “I think banking is where you would be best suited.” I appreciate this was just advice, but I don’t recall hearing “Where do you see yourself, what do you like doing?” or even better would have been “Oh, O.K, so you want to be a self employed business person… an entrepreneur?”
In my day it was all about getting into an office and doing a job, even the trades were discouraged, which is why I now pay £60 per hour for a plumber or electrician. I would have enjoyed the opportunity to do an apprenticeship a lot more than going to university and I think I would of become the best electrician/plumber/carpenter (what ever my chosen field was) there was and grown a successful business. What has all this go to do with LinkedIn for 13 year old’s?
What can kids contribute to LinkedIn?
Well your average 13 year old will not be able to make a valuable contribution to business discussions, they will not be able to network with the likes of One Direction or Jessie J, Will I Am (see I can be cool… I do know what’s popular) and I personally don’t feel that the average 13 year old will be turned on by LinkedIn. However, what about the 13 year old who isn’t average? The one who is focussed and knows exactly where they want to be in 10 or 15 years time, there are a few, I went to school with one. How much could he have gained by learning from groups on LinkedIn, talking to business owners, sharing his ideas and thoughts.
Now lets talk about those 16 year old’s, average GCSE’s
with little or no desire to go onto further education, destined to join the growing numbers of the unemployed youth. I know of a 17 year old who was in that position and has spent the last 12 months desperate to get himself a career, not a job. He knew what he liked and what he was good at, just didn’t know where those skills and passions could be applied. In my opinion this is where LinkedIn could be great, imagine the pool of knowledge he could tap into, the guidance from experienced professionals, the opportunity for him to position himself as a worthy candidate for work experience, doing what he is good at and passionate about.
At first I found myself joining the masses and wanted to protect LinkedIn from people who shouldn’t be on there, but when I look at a lot of profiles, a lot of people that are on LinkedIn and have no idea how to use it to professionally network with other business owners either. It is just another outlet for them to scream a sales message at people, who on the whole are just not interested. That is not a age related thing, that is an etiquette issue, or lack of knowledge on the purpose of networking or even just a lack of sales skills. I personally now believe that o.k. maybe a 13 year old is a little young, after all we all look back and can remember wanting to be grown up but in hindsight wished we stayed young for as long as possible, kids should be kids. 16 year old’s on the other hand, should we not be taking some responsibility to help would them into being valuable members of the workforce? It doesn’t matter whether they want to be a “sparks” (electrician) or a “grease monkey” (mechanic) a secretary, businessman or the next Richard Branson. LinkedIn has great people in all these areas and many, many more. This has got to be the best career advice site in the world.
But that is just my opinion… what’s yours?
Stuart Carpenter
Are you a parent? Are you concerned with your child’s online safety if they were to sign up to LinkedIn? Here is some advice.
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