Millions of workers are being urged to visit state secondary schools and talk about their jobs and career history in a drive to help young people gain better insight into the world of work.
Under a new scheme launched on Monday, scores of leading employers including the BBC and the NHS will call for volunteers across the country to visit a school near them once a year and spend an hour talking with young people about their job.
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Inspiring the Future campaign, thought up by the charity Education and Employers Taskforce, is designed to tackle the "skills mismatch" between jobs and young people, and inspire schoolchildren to pursue careers they would not have otherwise thought of.
Nick Chambers, director of the charity, said young people were bombarded with a "distorting influence" from the media that to be successful, you had to be a pop star or football player.
"If you look at what young people aspire to be, its vets, actors and pop stars. A lot of the roles young people see are the roles they see on TV. There are few role models in other industries," he said.
"Young people don't often realise that behind the scenes of a TV presenter is a camera crew, receptionist, make-up artist, a marketing or legal team and so on."
Mr Chambers added: "The chances of becoming a pop star are limited but there are lots of jobs in that industry if that's what they're interested in. This is about matching people's skills with the jobs available."
The campaign launch comes as a new survey by the TES magazine shows 98pc of classroom teachers think it is important for young people to meet employers, but many do not have the chance to do so.
A third of state secondary schools have already signed up to the scheme, which aims to give pupils the same opportunities independent schools offer.
Almost 100 employers will also host a careers fair for 1,000 pupils as part of the launch, with big-name companies including Aston Martin, Virgin Trains and Wates on-hand to talk about the opportunities available.
Mr Chambers said: "The UK has this mismatch where employers cant find people for jobs and young people can't find jobs. The choices for young people today are more complex than ever.
"Twenty or thirty years ago, large companies offered traditional jobs in traditional industries, and young people would often follow their fathers into similar jobs.
"Now we have job titles that not everybody can understand which makes for a bewildering set of choices."
Inspiring the Future is supported by teaching unions and employer groups, and is the sister campaign of Speakers for Schools, which in January saw Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, attend a south-London school to talk about careers in computing and technology.
Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Mister, backed the Inspiring the Futurecampaign. He said: "Today we're calling on doctors, nurses, lawyers, builders, civil servants, farmers, mechanics, engineers and other working people to give up just an hour of their time to talk to students in their local state school about how they got where they are today."
Sir Roger Carr, president of the CBI, said: "There is nothing more compelling for young people thinking about their future careers than meeting and speaking to inspirational people who do the jobs they are considering. That is why the CBI is pleased to support Inspiring the Future.
"We desperately need to tackle the corrosive effects of high youth unemployment in the UK, so I would urge employers to sign up to this initiative and encourage their staff to get involved and provide valuable insights into their careers.”
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