What do people think of Careers Advisors?

[Somethingkindaoooo]

So, for people who work in education... what are your thoughts?
I work in a few places atm, so secondary, college level, and adult work.
I generally love my job. I have many many years of experience, and I believe I do help people.
But dealing with academic staff is sometimes so challenging. I get spoken down to constantly. People don't seem to understand the role , so when I do my actual job, people often get a bit shirty.
So, I'm curious- do academic staff value careers advisors at all?

That's been pretty standard for a while. It's standard for universities to ask for English and maths too.

Can English be taken by on line providers right now? I know there will need to be an exam but it might help to keep going with leaning. I would also try and drill down into what your DS needs to do to improve and practice practice practice. I assume he needs a 4 not a 5 so with nothing else going on at the moment it’s the best time to try and improve. Your DS could try and get a job with the qualification he does have. That’s what I had to do without maths O level.

I think you did know the outcome of DS not passing English because it would have been in the course requirements for the next level course he now wants - which was no doubt freely available. He gambled and lost. He is just going to have to get this gcse at the required level and accept life is tough. From your other posts you have made millions of £ from property so I’m not losing too much sleep for the “Oliver” situation.

BubblesBuddy
The course requirements changed. If he had started a year later he would not of got onto the course (which he passed with virtually perfect scores in his tests and assessments)
If he had started a year earlier he would have had no problems and would have automatically been doing level 3 this year.

If you had read my other posts it said I saved millions. Not made.
Apart from selling stuff at the right time Dp was asked to join an industry scheme through the place he worked. The scheme had been going for many many years.
One where you get a quite good return but if anything went wrong they would come to you to pay. I didn’t like the risk. He was the only one of his peers to refuse. We were the only ones who kept our house and wasn’t left with eye watering debts

I am atm on UC alongside my Dp and now adult children.

I have not worked in 4 years. Last year I spent time preparing and was going to start again in the New Year because Dp was feeling better. That has been put on hold.

Any money we had was spent to try and keep Dp alive. Diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer 4 years ago and given 2 years to live. He was refused an operation on the NHS that would have bought him more time or might have even saved his life and keeping us going for about 2 years because he was off sick but wasn’t being paid and when I wasn’t working because Ds wasn’t being taught at school and couldn’t read or write. So I had to HE him.
He is severely dyslexic and has dysgraphia. He didn’t learn to read properly till he was 12.

There are a lot of people in my situation. Glad to know we have nothing to worry about.

(I think it’s also worth taking A levels that keep options open. For those doing BTecs, the options are closed down quicker. Therefore before choosing a vocational course at 16 there does need to be an understanding that these courses lead the DC in more defined directions at an earlier age*

Actually, pathways to academic courses are becoming much more flexible. BTECs have been pretty widely accepted for a range of degrees for some time.

It will probably change in the near future, but at the moment, university's are operating in a buyer's market. I'm continuously surprised.

The best careers advice comes from people in the industry. Its not really possible for one person to know everything. Although its good if parents dont guide their children to have someone to try and ensure they make the right move to suit them be that apprenticeships, college etc. Its easy for children to drift.

If I were a careers advisor I would be linking children with locals in industries they are interested in for a general talk. Not about being given a job but to talk about what its like.

And use almuni to come in to talk about their experiences.

That sort of thing.

The A level Btec options should be taken on skills and ability. A large number of children will not do their best at A levels as they are tough and academic. If a student isnt able in both those areas BTECs are great. Often by 16 students have a passion even if they dont know what job they want.

Also some things called soft skills are whats needed to achieve. Hard work and dedication. A good work ethic. Will get them a long way.

Its not really possible for one person to know everything
Career guidance isn't about knowing everything.

If I were a careers advisor I would be linking children with locals in industries they are interested in for a general talk. Not about being given a job but to talk about what its like

And use almuni to come in to talk about their experiences

This has been happening in universities for years - most universities have entire employer engagement teams.
Engagement and encounters with employers feature in The Gatsby Benchmarks which are now statutory on schools and colleges.

Somethingkindaoooo: I think I maybe didn’t explain myself clearly.

I didn’t mean BTecs cannot be used for qualifications towards university entry, I meant that they force the DC to make their mind up about a career earlier than is perhaps sensible for some.

If you take Engineering BTec but not Physics A level, you wouldn’t get a place on a Physics degree that requires Physics. If you had studied Maths, Physics and Geography at A level not only is Physics an option but so is Geography, Maths, Engineering and lots of other courses too.

BTecs suit some DC but can narrow down career and study options when compared to A levels.

Many schools invite local businesses and professional people like solicitors and consulting engineers to attend careers evenings. Just for a flavour of what might be useful.

However I see posts on MN where posters happily say DH is an Engineer (of some unidentified branch) but doesn’t have Maths A level. This type of advice is hugely dangerous. It would be almost impossible to do an Engineering degree without a post GCSE qualification that included maths. So a feel good story about what might have been possible 25 years ago is worth nothing now. Therefore random advice like this is to be avoided at all costs.

It’s vital to have up to date info about current requirements and standards and not stories of people getting a lucky break that’s not possible now. So local employers can be useful but only if they know the current requirements for their industry and are active recruiters.

bubbles exactly. Which is why a combination of industry experience/insight and high quality advice and guidance is the ideal.
Careers advisers can't know the ins and outs of all jobs but they should be well versed on entry requirements and routes.

I actually think I might have made a half decent careers advisor! Bit late now.

It's never too late! I get a wide range of ages on my course. It's a really popular 'career change' career.

Kez200 yes ! At secondary school level making teens aware of business and industries that exist in their actual own town or area. Most teens are only really aware of jobs that family/friends of family work in. While there are some obvious places that people work - supermarkets etc it's amazing what people (teens) will be completly unaware of. As a teen as far as I was concerned in my town there was a factory. 'A' factory - just the one (it's quite famous for what it makes). I was vaguely aware of an old one on the edge of town where 'everybody's grandads once worked at' but I wasn't sure if was still actually a factory because it didn't make a product that was well known. Infact the town had (and still has) dozens of factories and industries that just weren't on my 15 year old radar. It also wouldn't have occurred to me that you could be something like a lawyer in my home town - lawyers work in fancy shiny offices in big cities don't they?
I had a vague idea about working in publishing - but didn't really know much about it and again thought of it as a Big City Job. I had zero information from careers people about this. Yet it turned out in the bigger town 30 miles away are two major UK publishing companies. One (if I had wanted to do a work experience there) I could of got a bus from around the corner from my house and got off at a stop right outside the company. Would of been nice to have had this information at 15.

When DD was at college a few years ago, her careers advice experiences were quite similar to what I experienced in the early '90s. Probably well-meaning advisors with limited resources, but the information they gave out was out of date and not helpful in a practical sense. She was still told that a degree was the key to a high-paid professional role and that studying Maths A Level rather than a BTEC Accounting course would help her "keep her options open". She tried to explain that maths was theory, which she doesn't like, and accounting was working with numbers, which she does, and did the accounting course anyway. She now has several jobs and accounting is very useful to her.

A relative of mine has recently got into the career she has always wanted at 37, having struggled due to crap advice from teachers and careers advisors. She was told that a Journalism course was not a well-respected entry into journalism and that she was better off doing an arts subject. She was also told (by teachers rather than careers advisors) that she wasn't confident enough anyway and to do something else. No-one was able to advise her on HOW to become more confident.
All the Journalism students got to make valuable industry contacts while she got further and further behind, then had to take an office job to make ends meet.

I have had a few good experiences. The university where I used to work brought in some really good and inspiring people to run employability-related things. A day learning public speaking with a drama coach has helped me far more in interviews and speaking situations than any number of earnest talks about confidence.

Actually the students from RG universities do earn more in their lifetimes than non RG and non university educated employees. It’s a fact. However the job you enjoy might not be best served via that route.

Many top journalists don’t have degrees in journalism. They have undergrad degrees from the very best universities (Oxbridge very dominant) and then do a masters. It helps if your name is Clarkson, Coren etc. It’s very hard to break in especially now local newspapers have died.

Thanks for saying it’s never too late to retrain but I fear at my age - it is!

Bubbles, you've sort of proved my point. The examples you use are journalists who got into it 20+ years ago. Also, most journalists do not work for newspapers any more. There is a huge specialist media industry which works differently.

Young Clarkson junior is very young! Jeremy’s daughter! Giles Coren is 50!!! I’m surprised at that so withdraw him as an example. I was mainly looking at mainstream newspaper journalists. I did read many journalists earn very low amounts of money and are paid per article. Some barely make £10,000 pa I read. I think it’s quite a high risk career choice but my neighbour’s DS works for a niche political journal and did interview Boris 2 years ago! Degree in psychology though but a great interest in politics.