[Closed] employment/ education/ jobseekers advice please

I would do some investigation your self into the rules for this exam. He may have miss understood or the person advising him miss understood.

My opinion is that unless you know everything about the proposed qualification, it's not worth taking a risk on.

I'm in the same camp as your Son, far from stupid (in hindsight sadly really far) but school wasn't for me and I joined the world of work almost without qualifications.

My opinion today is that unless you have a degree, and a degree that is a must-have for employment - certificates aren't worth much sadly, that's not the same as saying education isn't important, but as far as employers go - it's Graduate or Non-Graduate and frankly once you're into your mid-20s - no-one cares unless again it's a prerequisite for the job.

My Sister for example graduated from Brooks with a 1st in Business and Marketing or something back last June, even with the benefit of my Dad's network and references for all sorts of stuff she's struggling to find something - her education to this point has cost about £250k or more...

IMHO if he doesn't know what he wants to do now, he's better off accepting that he's got a shit job, most people's first job is shit - do a year or more of it and then use that experience / reference to jump to something better - or if you can afford to support him, enrol in a course that will give him a trade.

I know far too many people that, being dissatisfied with their job, decide to do something radical to change their path, re-train get in a load of debt and then find that their new career is just as shit as their old one, and now they are 3 years behind and up to their eye balls in debt.

it seems to me that people these days have an unrealistic expectation of work, this expectation is even higher the more qualifications you have as you feel that all that debt and hard work automatically entitles you to a rewarding career.

I'm fortunate - I work in an interesting industry and have worked my way up so that my work is by and large rewarding, but it's been a long (20 year) climb to this point and I've had to do some real shit to get here. New grads seem to expect to do what I do after 2 years and get despondent when they can't.

Perhaps teaching people to have more realist expectations of work is what we should all be doing.....

interesting views thanks, and i sort of know what you mean with education, ive always thought theres a lot of luck in just being in the right place at the right time and either knowing or meeting the right people rather than exams.

i think hes hoping that this qualification will be a springboard to do further education, with the goal being a job in science or something involving space, that sort of thing.  i know nothing about it really, and that non-existent knowledge fears that there just wouldnt be anything at all for him unless he had a forehead the size of a large house.  but...... hes miserable, and i always tell him the key to life is to be happy, so do what makes you happy.  ultimately that means leaving this job, so then its a case of what next?  better your education?  look for a better job?  thats an uphill struggle in itself in this day and age for someone who sh1t out at school.

thanks

Apprenticeship? He could get to degree level in time

First life lesson for most teenagers that life in the grown up world isn't as piss easy as they thought. Hence first jobs are generally crap.

On a more helpful level, sign him up to one of the forces. If he's as bright as he / you thinks he is, the RAF, if not, the army. Lots of first class training and education in many different areas and nowadays, he could do something within them that doesn't require him to directly kill people to death.

Futher plus points being, he earns half decent money, leaves home and gets on with his life.

Tricky one, as others have said this is probably mostly just he needs a reality check. Work is generally shit, it's why we get paid to do it. The fun stuff is what we do with the money we earn from it :p

I'd also be wary of gateway type exams, especially for something like a career as a scientist or the Space industry. The company I work for does a fair bit in the Space sector and from what I see of internal job postings you need to do have gone to Uni + got a lot of relevant experience even for what look like quite junior and low paid roles (admittedly this is largely on the software development side using very niche stuff so might be different to the engineering side). I have a feeling it's a bit like F1 though, perceived as the pinnacle of where you can work so they can be very very choosy about who they take on and a part of that is wanting degrees etc.

Not knowing him it's hard to suggest next steps but doing a stint in the Forces as suggested above isn't a bad shout - but again he's got to go in with a sense of reality and knowing that a lot of it will be shit.

It sounds like an apprenticeship with a tech/engineering company may be the best option. They'll help him get the quals he needs.

Just a quick question: how old is he? Does he need to work? If you really want to help him, couldn't you support him for a couple years more,just to allow him to get a foot on the ladder he wants to be on? He could still do something part-time, if an apprenticeship isn't the way to go.

https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeshipsearch

I’ve applied to 4 different apprenticeship schemes having just turned 40.

timba, initial reaction to that was no way, do you know how hard apprenticeships are to get these days??  but after looking at the link i know if it were me id be quite enthusiastic applying for some of those.  hes 22 tho, they may snub their noses at someone that old applying?  would they be expecting school leavers or pay 'paper round money'?  thanks for the link tho, ill show him when he gets back from work.

slackalice, he did actually want the forces at one time, and yes itd be good for him i think, but unfortunately previous MH problems preclude him from that particular avenue.  not sure where this 'if hes as bright as he/you think hes is' comes from, maybe the OP was misleading.  hes no brainbox by any means, hasnt shown any real promise in that area, more wants to explore what hes capable of which he should have done at school.

thanks for the suggestions, appreciated.

EDIT as missed those last 3 replies:

Fuzzy, interesting to read your experience in that field of work.

mikey, we would certainly help all we can altho we dont have any savings, spare cash or anything really that would make a difference.  all we can give him is cheap living at home.

houns, same link as timbas, good to see youre all on the ball 🙂

thanks again

all we can give him is cheap living at home.

That's a big help, right there.

Ignore the negative Nancy's. You don't need a degree but if he does ultimately want to go for a degree make sure it's in something worth while. I am afraid to say business and marketing is not going to get you much. There is a lot to business and marketing but in real life but it's more of a hands on thing than theory. You will chances are end up in a admin roll then at some point maybe get a opertunity at a job somewhere rather than straight into a good marketing job.

He may be best doing a few odd jobs and not worry about keeping the job for now. Get exposure to different things. Save up go travelling.

Imo and ime crap office jobs are worse than crap manual labor jobs as crap office jobs tend to be dead end and full of a lot of wet people or beat people down to no motivation. More likely to see opertunies as a  lacky in a manual job seeing a skilled person and him think, "I would like to do that". There are loads of jobs out there that most people don't know about but if you travel a bit take random jobs in different industries you are more likely to hear about them.

What is he interested in?

22 and worrying too old to apply for an apprentiship? As mentioned I’m 40 and have been made to feel very welcome in applying. Regarding wages, yes most are NMW, but that’s only for a year or two. Some of the apprenticeships I’ve applied for start at approx £20k.  Be warned, it’s a slow process, a few I’ve applied for don’t start until September so still going through the recruitment process, a couple don’t start until next year. Aside from the website noted above also look at industry/company own websites. I’m looking at getting in to facilities/networks (national grid, rail etc etc) SSE have just opened their application process, sadly none near me.

I’ve also just started an Open University degree, I’d recommend having a look in to this too. Yes have to pay for it but Student Finance tuition fee loan covers it. He can jump straight in and do a degree or do a few access courses first to see if he’s cut out for it.

"22 and worrying too old for apprenticeships?"

to be fair thats just me, not him thats said that.  twas my initial thought, he may feel differently, and after reading your thoughts that would be where my advice would lead for him too.

"what is he interested in?"

space and ONLY space at the moment 🙂  doesnt listen to us when we say its unlikely he'll get into that field and to hedge his bets with somethings else, but then again, who ever listened to their parents 😉  FWIW i admire gritted determination and wish anyone to succeed in something if theyre that determined, but obviously we worry that hes sticking all his eggs in one basket for something he wont acheive and be left with nothing but disappointment and back to dead end jobs.

Some further reading

http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/q64-ast

http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/s10

(just type ‘space’ in course search)

Another vote for the RAF. You can (used to be able to) apply for an aircraft technician (airframe or propulsion specialist). Either would be a good step in the direction of 'Space' as there are a lot of transferrable skills.

Space is a pretty broad aspiration.  He needs to narrow it down.  I'm guessing he needed to have strong aptitude for school to be involved in research though.

It's good he's showing some form of motivation though

And having  any old job isn't always worth it so while he's young it's a good time to do something when things such as apprenticeships, uni etc is available.