To wonder how youngsters decide what they do with the rest of their life after Alevels if they don’t know what degree to do at Uni or field of work to go into.

[P0m3l0]

My son is doing 3 Alevels, bright and should get 3 As,wants to go to Uni so he can leave home but hasn’t got a clue what degree he wants to do or which line of work he wants to go into.

We’ve said not to rush into Uni and to have a year to think if he isn’t sure, look at other next steps eg apprenticeships etc but to be honest we’re not sure what he should do to come to such a big decision. He really hadn’t got a clue and it’s stressing him out.

Apprenticeship. Ffs.

Go to plenty of uni open days. Both DDs (separately) and I tramped round the country visiting different institutions.

Go to course talks in any of the possible subjects. This really helped to focus both DDs on the things which were important to them.

The problem is if she hates it of course but gets her degree, she is then ruled out of being able to get funding for another degree if she works out what her hearts desire is.

Alevel are maths, computer science and psycology. Has had experience in coding and cyber security which he originally thought he’d like to do via a computer science degree but now thinking neither are for him or even a computer science degree or even working in an office at all. He’s panicking. Trying to get him to not rush into a panic degree. Allure of leaving home which we’re all for not helping.

He prefers the US system of trying lots of subjects but trying to explain that sadly we have the system we have.

@Kite22 My son didn't like coding either - although he likes cyber and hardware which is why he went down the apprenticeship route for the hardware side of IT. The thing is about an apprenticeship he isn't burning his bridges, gets paid work experience and makes it easier to to get a well paid part time job if he goes to Uni at some point. By going to Uni and having false starts affects ability to get funding if you change direction - my son actually isn't in the same office a lot- he does various client sites a lot of the time and site projects

My dd got a job at McDonald's after 6th form, taught her good work ethic and that she never wanted to work in hospitality

Does he love any of his subjects?

I always think we are stuck in a society where there are ridiculous expectations about hitting certain milestones at certain ages

at 18 you should go to uni
at 22 you should graduate
at 25 you should… blah blah blah

society invented this silly milestones

there is absolutely nothing wrong with him taking a year (or more) out to mature a little, become a bit worldly wise, get some good experiences etc.

OP you're right to advise him not to rush. I do a lot of careers work and there's definitely no rush. Uni is expensive so he needs to be ready and to do something he will enjoy. It's not worth it otherwise.

My daughter is the same but not overly stressed. She's taking a year out and working for me, which she seems to be enjoying. But it's not a long term thing for her so at least that's one career path ticked off.

Perhaps an internship somewhere would be useful as sometimes it's better to know what you don't want to do and narrow it down that way.

My careers work involves lots of people from the entire workplace talking to students and answering questions about what we do, qualifications necessary etc. Is there anything like that in your area?

Sometimes it takes doing something you hate to figure out what it is you actually want to do!

Honestly this is so true- I was convinced I wanted to work on the events side of marketing, spent the summer between my 2nd and 3rd years of Uni with a large company organising and executing trade shows and hated it. However, also saw other functions of the company and that gave me a steer for what to do after I graduated (finance).

Gap year. Try for some work experience. Aim for an academic degree from top ranked Uni.

He'll be old a long time, he doesn't have to decide now.

If he doesn't want an office job, get him to learn a trade (if he has some manual dexterity). He'll either enjoy it or decide he does want an office job after all.

There's no need to rush off to university if he can find meaningful employment in the meantime.

by old, I mean adult - sorry not clear!

On the plus side, he will have maths and computing alevels which means he'll be welcome into most grad schemes that want someone numerate, regardless of what he ends up doing for a degree.

He could head off to Oz or NZ on a year out and do a physical job to see if working outdoors, manual type work is for him, as he's not keen on an office right now.
Working holiday visas are back now and a great way to try different things. And have a post alevel breather.

What ddoeshe do extra curricukar? D of e? Sport?
Outdoirs tree surgeon vulcanologist paramedic

My son was similar although was sure uni wasn’t for him so worked in a call centre and hated it, did some work with a joiner and didn’t really enjoy that. He’s a very practical lad so did an access to engineering course then loved the welding did a year welding then is on a 4 year apprenticeship and doing really well and enjoying it. It just took a wee bit of time for him to mature a little and realise what he didn’t want to do and to earn money etc

I'm mid 30s and still have no clue 😂 I just follow along with how it rolls

The best way to try the subjects is online materials, or textbooks from the library, and some universities you can acquire the course handbooks.

I'd consider getting some knowledge of each of the main academic subjects from Wikipedia as these will give a breakdown of what the course entails or how in-depth it will be, then match up which universities are best for x academic subject.

I did a business degree for exactly that reason. I hadn't a clue where I wanted to work but my degree covered basic accounting, economics, strategy, law, so seemed a reasonable choice.
I ended up in IT marketing but could have gone for police, army, finance, banking, retail, leisure.

Now ds has the same issue, rough ideas but nothing concrete so planning a degree in agricultural or environmental land management. He's doing works experience with a thatcher and a land agent. We'll see where it leads.

So I thought the Alevel subject and then a masters to specialise was a good idea and suggested maths which got a 👎 . He now seems to be thinking of marketing which is a start I guess but still a bit worried that it’s a panic idea.😩😬

These days marketing is considered a micky mouse degree

I desperately wanted to do to uni but had no idea what I wanted to do after that. So I studied my favourite subject at uni.

He has the rest of forever to decide what he wants to do! Why stress about it right now? Is uni the only route he'll have to leaving home? Why not get into a job, earn some money and see if he can earn enough to move out if thats what he wants?
If he still wants to go to uni, he can do that at any age, and for something he'll know he wants to go for after some general life experience.

My son knew from quite early that he didn't want to go to uni so started to think about engineering apprenticeships. He got 144 UCAS points. Then flirted with the idea of uni but not seriously. In the year after 6th form he worked in coffee shops and bars. He finally came back around to his original ambition of becoming a pilot. He has the savings to pay for his PPL which he's now doing, and working as a property inspector for a property management company. He's out and about which he loves (they took out a young driver premium out so he could drive the business car), living at home to save money, and is putting as much of his salary as he can in the bank towards commercial pilot licence costs whilst still enjoying live. He's 19 and the average age of pilot is 49 so he's probably a bit ahead of his game plan.

I was dissuaded from persuing my childhood ambition and I regret that. I will not make that mistake with my lad.