Ds doesn't know what he wants to do when she's older

[Thingsgettingstranger]

I'm a friend of things and using this account to post this as I don't have one. My son is 15 and in year 10. He has no idea what he wants to do when he's older. College applications start in September and so does open days/experience etc. I was wondering if anyone could suggest anything?

He loves sport and reading. He is extremely academically gifted, preducted top grades across the board and already achieving them. He doesn't really like most science or languages or maths, but likes English, geography, pe and biology. He wants to start earning straight away but doesn't fancy an apprenticeship anywhere we've looked. He doesn't really want to go to college but wouldn't mind. No to uni. The only interests he's shown are the army (but he went off that) and hotel work.

If anyone has any suggestions I would be very grateful. Thank you.

www.allaboutschoolleavers.co.uk/#root

This is an amazing group who have masses of advice and support about all the post 18 pathways. Really useful to "defear" the different avenues they can take.
They've got an excellent quiz that advise on industry sectors he might like (it's one of the best I've seen, very in depth).
He might find it useful to just know his options.
I'm a head of year in a sixth form; half my students don't have a clue what they want to do and if the other half at least a third will change their kind of what they want to do anyway!
Good luck to him.

Idea not kind

You don't need a masters for social work. I would also suggest that before embarking on a degree (a little way ahead, I realise) he contacts social services/hospitals to arrange a day of work experience, following a social worker ( or there's OT/physio and others) around for the day, ideally a few days in different settings with different practitioners e.g. Adults teams, children's teams. I'm not sure if it would be possible to visit clients in Children's work but a good old chat with a social worker would be useful. It's great that he wants to help people. I'll be honest, I know a lot of fed up social workers right now and I don't think the salary is worth it.

Well, that is all brilliant. The other thing for both him and you to remember is that he is still only in year 10. There's lots of time for him to change his mind about what he wants to do, how he feels about going away to uni, and well, everything, really. If I could go back and tell my 17 year old self one thing it would be not to worry so much. These decisions which all feel like they are going to determine your whole life really don't. There are loads of opportunities ahead of him to try all kinds of different things.