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Original poster

Are sixth form careers guidance and work experience opportunities much better in private schools?

54 replies

dithering14 · 01/09/2014 22:18

DD1 is weighing up the pros and cons of changing from a state school to a selective private school for sixth form. She is an academic all rounder who does not know what she wants to do and has no particular leaning towards professions such as medicine or law. She would therefore really benefit at some stage from better careers information and wider choices of work experience than her present school or we could offer.
We'd love to know from your experiences whether you think there is a tangible difference to what is offered in the better know private schools? Does it matter anyway if students can avail themselves of career advice and networking at university?

OP posts:
TheWordFactory · 02/09/2014 08:05

In my experience of visiting a lot of schools as part of the access program, provision got advice on universities (particularly selective ones ) is pretty poor.

That's not to say some schools do it well or that you can't find the info elsewhere.

titchy · 02/09/2014 08:01

I have no experience of private, but as they only have one year till they have to apply, I doubt much, if any of that year would be spent succession of visits from journalists, doctors or barristers. Suspect though that more parents would be in the professions and a child might gain an insight through that.

Careers guidance though I think is woeful in the uk - in both sectors.

Original poster
dithering14 · 02/09/2014 06:58

Titchy* you are right about organising work experience herself but that presupposes that she knows what she might be heading towards.
I am not talking about about generic benefits from part time work but instead whether private schools offer better opportunities for insights into what different careers involve and more application options for future holiday work placements or internships. Of course it could all be down to parental networking rather than the schools Smile

The sort of private career advice that you mention including online ones seem to be a bit nebulous from what I can gather but I may be wrong. I would have though that talks from people actually doing the jobs or work experience would be more likely to help a DC have an idea of what different jobs actually entail.

OP posts:
titchy · 01/09/2014 22:48

She should be sorting out her own work experience! Can't comment on careers advice but she can find out a lot herself surely, and maybe pay for a private session with someone - much cheaper than two years of fees.

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