To think some career paths shouldn't be open to school leavers

[ChuffinAda]

Or 21 year old graduates.

I'm thinking careers such as the emergency services, social work, teaching etc where you need good people skills and life experience as well as qualifications

Aibu?

Dd friend is a 22 year old paediatric nurse im sure she is perfectly capable and she is a lovely compassionate person

YABU.
Very. very few jobs suffer from having a mixture of skills, experiences and preferences in a team.
Youth may bring some problems, but also fresh ideas, and lots of enthusiasm and energy. Age brings experiences. Blend it all together, and you can have a pretty unstoppable team.

YABU, especially about jobs such as teaching and social work where having fresh memories of being in the young people's position can be a positive bonus.

i agree, 16 year olds should not be allowed to be teachers. or ambulance drivers for that matter

yanbu

Yabvu. Personally if I was trapped in a burning building I'd want a young fit fire fighter getting me out. Not a 50 year old who would no longer pass the fitness test. (Quoting my male ff friend who at 50 has just retired because it's a young persons job).

Dd wants to be a paramedic. She's nearly 17. She's been working in a customer based job part time for a year, putting up with a lot of verbal crap, she received an award from the royal life saving society which is normally awarded to a lifeguard club for saving her friends life aged 15 and a certificate of commendation from the national rlss. She's been volunteering as a youth worker for three years and is trained in safeguarding, first aid and basic health and safety. She also volunteers with a charity working with disabled children.

She's no Angel...her bedroom is a tip! But she's a natural working with the public, with kids and has proved she can keep her head in a crisis.

DS's teacher this year has been an early twenties NQT and she has been fab - loads of enthusiasm, passion and dedication. No reason a 21 year old cannot have this.

I think that the days of 'oh just be a nurse/teacher' are long gone, you need the good grades as a minimum, and show drive/passion.

As for social work, don't you need quite a few good A levels? (Including an A in being a heartless know it all...).

None of those jobs are open to school leavers. The TRAINING for them is.
The training should give them the skills they need. Years on this planet doesn't necessarily mean anything and not all years spent give the sort of "life experience" you mean.

I qualified as a nurse at 21, nursing dying people, speaking with devastated relatives, laying dead bodies out. I had very little 'life' experience but looking back 18 years later I think I did absolutely fine. I was conscientious, I knew my limits & when I was out of my depth & I learnt to think on my feet quickly.

Everybody has to start somewhere.

You can't train as a teacher or social worker at 16

you can study qualification to go on to Uni and train

for both options work/voluntary experience is important as are grades

I was a 23 year old NQT, I did a bloody good job, still do after 10 years in the teaching world. Tbh I find a lot of teachers who survive in teaching over 5 years these days will do well no matter when they enter the profession. It is hackneyed to talk about vocations etc but these days teaching really is one with the amount of rubbish successive governments have thrown at us.

Fuck me! I agree this is one of the stupider posts!
I was 17 1/2 when I started my nurse training, I am good in my mid 40s because I have 28 years experience, not because I am 45!

What????

What on earth do you propose that these people do while they wait to be old enough for those careers?!

Good people skills are not something that comes with age. You can have them naturally, and if you don't then yes, you might learn them in time, but they're still not likely to be as good as if it came more naturally.

I think life experience can be very beneficial in the jobs you mention, but there are 18 year olds with a lot of life experience and forty year olds with next to none. It's not about age.

YABVU and making a huge generalisation based on age alone. I have some amazing student teachers aged 18+ who have so much more about them than I did at the same age. It's about the person, not their age.

going back a few years now but in 5th year (16/17) in scotland my english teacher was newly qualified and one of the best teachers i had, he had more enthusiasm and passion than the rest of the teachers put together made the subject a lot better
if i had more teachers like that i may have done better

so i disagree with you

Who says school leavers and graduates can't have life experience? There is plenty of living that can be done in someone's first 21 years.

As long as people in these roles are capable, feel capable and have the right training. No one should ever care if they have life experience or not.

I don't know about other professions but there is a national shortage of adult social workers. It is a considerable issue. You have no idea what you're talking about.

My dd is 17 and been offerered a TA apprenticeship in a sn school. She has been helping out with a playscheme for childrenvwith sn since she was 12 and done some respite care as well. She did work experience at the school and the HT noticed how good she was with the children and was affered the apprenticeship.
She wants to be an OT so will finish her a levels and probably take a gap year to do the apprenticeship as they are prepared to wait.
At 17 she probably has more experience than some people twice her age

YABU

As long as there is a good recruitment process, the selected candidates have the relevant qualifications & appropriate training is provided then age should not be a barrier

Life experience for teacher trainees is useful but not essential. Some mature teacher trainees are shocked at our lack of space and resources and don't stick around. Younger teacher trainees just suck it up and get stuck in. Younger trainees can only be a few years older than the pupils they teach which can help or hinder.

There will continue to be a shortage of Social Workers whilst some people think an A in being a "heartless know-it-all" is an essential qualification.
Child protection work is extremely difficult. Personally I think the training should be more rigorous.
I have worked with teams of teachers, nurses, psychologists, doctors and social workers. There were judgmental people in all professions and compassionate people in all professions too.
Age didn't come into it either. These jobs require both analytical intelligence and a heart.

Bruffin good luck to your dd
fwiw i was working with children with special needs at 16 and in a S W day nursery at 17 seeing all sorts of neglect and children with issues like many many young people i wasnt a silly girl im not sure what kind of life experences you are talking about op at what age do you think adults should start their career path ?