[Closed] Career Guidance, for 15 year olds?

http://university.which.co.uk/

Not a bad place to start, might give her a bit of inspiration, 'something to aim for'.

Try http://www.fasttomato.com/index.aspx
Do the school do Morrisby testing?

apprentiship. Get some genuine skills.

Historically, it's always been possible to make a good living from the practise of law, medicine or finance.

A career in any of these areas makes moving overseas easy as well.

That said, an encyclopaedic knowledge of Pokemon and my little pony? There's some neat work going on in taxonomy at the moment...

I'd recommend A levels, as it keeps so many options open afterwards. Plenty of things she can do as a B tech too, if she prefers coursework to exams. Can restrict Uni options a bit if that's what she wants to do though.

As above get her on an appreticeship, a proper one not a plastic one working in some office ,but actually making something that can be seen by others and is of benefit to the country.

Engineering, construction, or the science based apprenticeships.

whilst doing a sports course at Leeds Met recently, noticed adverts for ALDI supermarkets for graduate trainee managers - 40k starting plus benefits plus Audi A4.............almost wished I was starting again.....................almost!!

+1 for apprenticeships - job based learning in any vocation.

I'll be pointing no.1 that way when time comes

A levels are more or less a given, the main problem is she just hasn't a clue what she wants to be doing later on, hence lack of a degree to aim at, hence the A level selection choice. School has said "look at your GCSE predicted grades, do what you're good at", which doesn't help as she is doing a wide spread, uniformly well.

Look at what subjects she really enjoys rather than just doing well at. Sounds like she is in the lovely if awkward place of being good at everything. Is there anywhere your way that offers the IB rather than A Levels, as this could be a good way of keeping options open.
If there are no specific vocational careers she is intent on (medic, vet, engineer etc) A Level choice does not matter so much - most grad schemes across all industries require a 2:1 regardless of subject taken.

I did what I thought I'd enjoy for A-Level, and enjoying a subject definitely makes motivation easier. I'm going to do Geography at uni because I enjoy it and it gets me outside, the fact it's a very employable degree is also a benefit.

Her special talents are an encyclopaedic knowledge of Internet crap, Youtube Videos, Pokemon and My Little Pony

Has she considered a career in the games industry? 😛

With my only experience being my own experience, my advice is rather limited, But Id definitely recommend doing at least one or two A-levels that are "traditional" or at least considered properly challenging and Russell-group acceptable. For a third subject then something more enjoyable is probably OK.

I gather kids do handfuls of AS first and then take a few of those forward to full A or something. At least get an AS in a science and maths.

That's of course if she definitely goes the A-Level route. Despite my cosy lifestyle coming on the back of good a-levels, Id still bear in mind vocational options for my boys when the time comes.

Maths
Maths
Maths

Well she only needs to do it for one A level
But NOT doing maths closes more doors than dropping any other subject.

If she has any strong views on where she wants to live that can limit your choice of industry, finance outside central London is pretty scarce, Automotive engineering restricts you to Essex or Coventry ish.
Every town needs a dentist and pharmacist.

N

If she wants to do science/maths at uni then that is what her A levels need to be, otherwise just pick what you enjoy IMO. What you actually do your A Levels in has very little bearing on uni outside of engineering/physics/maths type courses from what I can tell. It's pretty common for students doing courses such as Law not to have studied it at A Level. She's got plenty of time to decide what to do with her life-make sure she enjoys being a young adult, because let's face it, life gets rather serious rather quickly once you enter the rat race! I

Make sure she picks A-levels in subjects she's going to enjoy, that will invariably lead on to a uni course/job in an area that is also enjoyed.

It'd be important to keep a range of subjects if at all possible (I did 3 sciences and maths at AS, and then dropped maths at A2 this seems to have worked for me so far because I knew I wanted to do something science-y just wasn't sure what, but I know that it is limiting!).

Id definitely recommend doing at least one or two A-levels that are "traditional" or at least considered properly challenging and Russell-group acceptable.

This is probably important too - whatever she goes on to do afterwards having decent sounding a-levels is always going to be appealing!

I think http://www.prospects.ac.uk/ is aimed at people currently at uni, but it might be worth a look. You can fill out some questionnaire things based on your skills and interests and it suggests careers, and has information about the qualifications needed to get to them etc.

http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/Parents.aspx

midlifecrashes - Member

Her special talents are an encyclopaedic knowledge of Internet crap, Youtube Videos, Pokemon and My Little Pony.

As a parent, and someone who spent years advising students on their university choices at an FE college, this assessment is one of the most delightful things I have ever read. 😆

Don't do BTECs this coming from somebody who has done one, and is now unemployed.

Most universities don't accept them, and employers don't care much for them.

Do A levels (A level maths would be good) then either Uni or an High level Apprenticeship.

A lot of people want to do apprenticeships, she will be against people older than her and with possible previous experience in the role. To get an apprenticeship you have to convince an employer that you feel passionate about the role and that you are worth spending 4 years of teaching and funding on.

I also found it really hard to decide what to do at 16.

I would recommend you put together a short list of jobs she is interested in and then try to get her some work experience, this will help her make a better choice. Maybe even miss out a year for this.

Get her to do a year out working somewhere - soon brings rewards and a focus on what she might want out of life. PGL/Bunacamp etc

I'd advise some business skills such as marketing management and finance along with things she enjoys as these skills can help in almost any job

+1 matt outandabout

College education requires more independent learning, nobody will care if she doesn't try. That year will also allow her to grow up a bit and gain a mature attitude.

In college tutors didn't care that I did the bare minimum, so I just drifted through, I needed a more mature attitude.

I needed a more mature attitude.

I like the year out/abroad idea. I also like the idea of just get a job and come back to education when you know what you want approach. Trouble is, if you decide to go science/maths/ology route the A levels are pretty crucial and need to be decided in the next year, which is also limiting if she later wants to be a linguist. There isn't really a viable year out option for 16 year olds as far as I can see.

Matt - do you get gap yearers from bother before and after uni? We (my daughter and I) have been trying to work out what works best. I can see advantages and disadvantges of both approaches.

Oh...and a language is also highly helpful

We get both - as you say, advantage to both.
Pre-Uni we seem to work through the basic 'be on time, presentable, and right attitude while unraveling you from parents into your own life'. Seems to set them up for Uni with a firmer grasp on life, what they want and how to stay on an even keel more. I do think on balance the younger ones do get more out of it.

I'd love to know a foreign language, at least well enough to be conversational, increases job prospects massively. Also interested Matt, can't decide whether to have a year out before or after, so would be interested in what you've found with your gap year people.

I'm in Y13 now and will be finsihing in the summer. I cant agree more than schools are useless in suggesting pathways and helping. I went with what I enjoy English, Product design and business. I wish i'd taken maths and a science with my english, they looks good with pretty much anything and without maths so many uni courses are closed. Ultimately, maths would be a solid choice and even though I really didn't/dont enjoy it, suffer it. it's worth it. My email is in my profile if you want to ask me anything about sixth form / Choices / Uni Applicaitions just shoot me an email.

Maths most importantly.

Consider a language if possible (Personally I would go for one of Chinese, Russian or Spanish) - I'm rubbish at languages but always miss this.

Perhaps something IT(ish)

And then do things that are enjoyable and will ensure good grades.

Cheers all, lots to ponder.

ALDI supermarkets for graduate trainee managers - 40k starting plus benefits plus Audi A4

Same as 10 years ago, and they work you to the bone for it (not necessarily a bad thing)

Oh...and a language is also highly helpful

Hmmm beg to differ. What language do most other countries learn first of all?

Soundest advice is work experience. It will help her develop a better understanding than anything else.

Also, OP, are you university educated? This isn't an insult - other than a distant cousin, I was the first of my family to go to university. In spite of a public school education, I had zero careers advice.
My parents, bless them, were (and remain) hopeless when it comes to career advice. Sadly, A-Level choices increasingly require this thinking.

Mrs North's parents had both been to university, so she had a head start on why A-Levels were important to her future career choices.

A language is massively useful, increases the job market significantly, particularly if it's a fast growing economy or a language spoken by many countries, such as Spanish.

Just because you do well in something at school, doesn't mean you may want to do it as a living. I think school had hopes of me going into medicine, science, or something maths based, but to be honest, that sort of stuff came easily and didn't interest me.

I was in the fortunate position of knowing roughly what I wanted to do, I wanted to work outdoors in a physical job.
I had a good time pissing around with mates in the education system to get here, but I do something I really enjoy and could have equally gone into straight out of school.

Starting point would be the end point she wants (or doesn't want is equally valid, I didn't want an office job), this could be the task, like myself, or the money, which meant my cousin pursued a legal career to fund her shopping habit.

Get her to aim for happiness above all. Everyone can make money eventually but to be happy takes a certain set of skills

but the thing is we dont know what we want when we're young, only what we are conditioned to think we want. And that's not necessarily a BAD thing. Just we have to realise the "right" thing is not universal.

I ended up where I am because when I was 13 I got 90% in a geography exam and wanted to be a cartographer. From there through GCSE and A level selection to take me to a surveying course and some how I ended up in a lucrative little niche. None of that can be planned from the start.

Tell her to arm herself with some versatile tools. Maths, logic, something that covers emotional intelligence (that passed me by Im afraid), and an ability to adapt and consider what she wants in life and recognise none of it comes on a plate.

I had no idea what I wanted to do when I left school but the best question I got asked by a career advisor was "What dont you want to do?" and we went from there.

Give her £200 and tell her to buy some weed and make some money. She'll learn about cash flow, demand, availability, marketing, scalability and the legal restrictions of running a business.

More seriously, get as much work experience between education as she can. It's invaluable in helping you understand what your choices are and distinguishing herself from a bunch of other freshly qualified graduates. It's worth more than a well paying summer job in something irrelevant which might pay £3000 over each summer. Compare that to getting a relevant job immediately after uni or struggling in a call centre for a year trying to get something to talk about on your cv or at interview

And if you run your own business get her to do the book keeping and see how easy it is to make sure you get the money rather than an employer

Do things you're interested in. Don't do things because of career opportunities or money that you're not interested in, as you won't be very good at them.

As a computer specialist at a university, i'd say don't do a level IT subjects, one of the few subjects really no one is in favour of - if you're interested in computers, do maths. A Level IT is no use for further academic study, and won't teach you anything you need for any interesting job either.

If you have any idea of subjects that might interest you at uni, research the requirements and make sure you don't miss them - eg. If you are science-curious, you need science and maths.

I always knew I wanted to program computers, but didn't necessarily need a computer science degree for it. When I started my a levels, I was torn between uni in maths, french or music, so I did double maths, french and music. Turned out I was rubbish at music, and in the long term more interested in numbers than in linguistics or history, so that made the choice for me, but I'm glad I had the subject range to be able to make the choice.

Be aware that like people say above, you don't necessarily have to come to uni after a levels, and if you don't know what you want to do by then, waiting a bit doesn't have to put you at a disadvantage, and you obviously don't have to go at all if you don't want to.

Take advice from careers service at school, but be aware sometimes they don't have a clue - I knew I wanted to go to a top university, they did at one point suggest a btec in it, which wouldn't be recognised by any good uni unfortunately.

Oh yeah, vocational qualifications. While the courses may be fine, whatever they say about being a level equivalent is rubbish in terms of both employment and university, so be careful of them. They may be good for you, but they limit future routes a lot.

when i was 15, in '81, and attended the obligatory schools career interview, the career's specialist being the PE teacher, he said what do you want to do. i said i'm good at english, best subject, i love windsurfing, and i want to write for a magazine. i can still remember the guy being stumped, his best advice was a-levels which really was not much use to me because i really was not academically talented and just wanted to get on a plane and go to hawaii.

so i did 2 years catering college, the rationale being that i would be able to get a job anywhere in the world. and i did all through the 80's.

years later its the late 90's, i've grown up, went to uni as a mature student, have a well paid job with an upcoming agency in london. so i'm on a plane coming back from the states and a few hours out of heathrow wake up with a stinking hangover and realise that i had what would have been my dream job when i was at school (press and media for the pro windsurfing tour, basically making tv shows and writing for mags around the world) and i hated it.

less than a year later i'm in cornwall doing marketing for an fe college, 2nd largest one in the UK. traded a pressure cooker london job for easy work, regular 08.30-5pm/4.30 on fri, hours, never ever working on weekends.

i have done many many careers events, and my advice, based on my own life experience and also seeing first hand hundereds if not thousands of kids leave schhol and go to college, their experiences, challenges and where they end up, is this...

unless you are specifically dead set on a certain career path, or your goal at 18 is university, seriously consider vocational courses.

the range these days is phenomenal, far from the catering/plumbing/building only option when i was 16, and, when you leave it will have prepared you to get a job. if you do a-levels, and you decide at 18 enough education is enough, you will not have a specific skill.

in a few years time, should you decide you want a degree, there are great options to get on as a mature student either with direct entry dependent on what vocational qualification you have or via a pre-entry course.

op, trust me i have spoken to tons of parents and kids like you and your daughter, in fact the vast majority of people who attend a college open session are just like you its actually rare to get a kid come forward and say exactly what he wants to do.

i would say go to your local colleges, all of them are now starting to have open sessions, and see what they are offering. be wary of academics 'selling' you 'their' course, you do get many who just care about hitting their unit quota, but there are also some great people in FE who really do want to help kids get on.

main point is though, the days of jobs for life are long gone. i truly believe that 16 is way too young to be setting a course, great if you are dead set on a path, but for most its better to be fluid. get some work skills, get some cash, see what the big bad world is about, then if you want to change down the line you can.

Generally: choose subjects that your daughter finds interesting, that she may read at Uni (if that's an option) and that may be useful to her future career.

First and foremost, study subjects that she is interested in. A levels are very different to GCSE and require a genuine e interest if you are going to do well.

is you daughter more of a scientist or a humanist? Essays or calculation etc? That should be reasonably obvious. Maths is a subject that straddles both but remember its a big step from GSCE to A level. Good teachers should ensure an A at GSCE, but a genuine maths skill and interest are required for the step up. Ditto languages.

Languages are a great idea, if they suit your daughter, as fewer and fewer students study them. It may not get her better/ easier offers for Uni, but it will increase the chances of getting them in the first place.

If she is an artist/humanities person be careful not to over burden with too many heavy reading subjects eg, history and english

Does a likely career require certain subject? Does a likely degree require them eg economics and maths? Check Uni admission centres to see how they compare different subjects as they are becoming more discriminating about softer subjects ("studies" in the name 😉 )

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0127n71