To feel scared about my dds future

[bullinchina]

recently, my DD missed her firm choice (rg in our city) but still wanted to stay at home, so cleared into the old polytechnic in our city. With the news that grad jobs have dropped by 50 % in one year, i feel so scared that she has no chances of getting a job. We cant afford resits and shes finding it extremely difficult to find the standard part time jobs anyway. What can she do to better her chances?

Shes been trying since her y12 summer, perhaps not taking it very seriously until this summer when her a levels finished. She has made some progress as now shes gotten one or two interviews

What can she do:

Keep plugging a way at getting a part time job. Christmas retail will start recruiting in October. Pubs and restaurants take on extra staff for the Xmas period - look at staffing agencies. It's only a temporary job, of course, but will then show other employers that she has some experience.
The university will also employ students in the bars, cafes, helping with events etc- get her to start looking asap at their jobs portal. It's a smaller pool of applicants than jobs outside uni

Volunteer but do it strategically - if she is interested in educational or health and social related psychology, then volunteering as a mentor for teenagers or people with certain health conditions would be very useful in future applications. The university will almost certainly have a volunteer co-ordinator/info pack and may run their own schemes like widening participation where they go into schools or work with people disengaged from education. Also look at any youth groups or groups working with people with mental health problems as they often have befriending or mentoring volunteering.
This will help a lot with future job applications.

Summer jobs: again, be strategic. She wants to earn money but also show useful experience ideally plus maturity, ability to deal with challenges. Look at jobs working in holiday camps for children including specialist ones offering respite or hosting families with children with special needs. Look now at old job adverts - how can she be a good applicant? There may be opportunities with the university to complete a first aid course for example - student unions often have a St Johns Ambulance group who do. Check both universities in your city. It then ticks a box for summer job applications next year. Uni volunteering will often mean she gets a DBS disclosure done so again, great to have that in place before summer job applications.
First aid and DBS also opens the door for babysitting and nannying - summer nannying is a potential job while also showing working with kids. Look at Koru Kids for example.

Extra curriculars: look at the student union groups, join something interesting, help run it and have a position on the management group for it. Doesn't matter if it's netball or knitting, it shows the right social skills.
If there is a psychology group, join it. Go to their talks, be on the board, suggest events, meet the speakers who come. It shows real interest in the subject beyond just the classes. Lots of students show very little interest in their subject beyond the minimum so stand out.

Lovely this is so helpful thanks. Shes thinking about volunteering for shout/mind/samaritans currently.

Also take up every opportunity to learn skills at uni.
There will likely be optional classes run by the tech/data/maths/stats departments on using Excel, introduction to python coding, using other software, making appropriate use of AI tools etc
It's free. Make the most of it. No one should be going to grad job applications without being able to function in Excel and understand why not to put the company data into CHATGPT so show that she can do that

If she doesn't know what she wants to "do" with regards to a career is it really worth paying out for university at this time?
There are likely plenty of jobs she could possibly get now (other than retail) that she might not have even thought of.
It all depends on the industry where you live. Many former "factory" towns don't have factories anymore but they have the distribution or packing warehouses.
I was very unaware of what industry was actually in my hometown when I was 18 so I missed out on potentially 100s of jobs that were out there.
If she wants a job she needs to look beyond the local shopping centre.
She can still go to university in a few years time if that's what she wants.

Polytechnics do not exist anymore. They are Universities in fheir own right, with many of them having fantastic education and student support. I say this with personal experience, having studied in them. Don't breed such unnecessary biases and worries in your head, which will in turn negatively affect your young daughter. Why is her chance of a part-time job higher in a red brick or RG, than at a post-92? For her future prospects, she needs a BPS accredited degree. During her education, she can seek support from the careers services or her tutors on part time jobs she can pursue. She is at the start of an exciting journey, why all this negativity?

Does her ex-polytechnic have good links with industry? Maybe look into occupational therapy: she could do an apprenticeship with the NHS, or an undergraduate degree (or a degree apprenticeship if your ex-poly offers it - some do) or a master's after her psychology undergraduate. An apprenticeship would be cheapest but I appreciate that apprenticeships are really hard to get.

What A levels did she take? DD is at a good RG university studying an integrated Masters in mathematical physics. She has her eye on a specific career and is doing everything to secure it including Summer internships. Even with all that she is very aware of the job market at the moment, even though AI will not affect that career.
DD gained grade As in her A levels in physics, maths and chemistry. She already works tutoring GCSE pupils and has told us that if her career doesn't pan out she will take a PGCE and teach physics or maths.

If the course is accredited by the BPS and she works hard, goong to a post-92 university won't make amy difference.

She doesn't need to know what she's going to do afterwards. Psychology degrees can lead to lots of things. E. G. Statisitcians in Civil Service; social work.

She could consider doing teaching for a few years after her pysch degree before moving into further training for educational psychology.
She could do a route like TeachFirst and get paid to do teacher training.

PP means, working as a TA and studying to become a teacher through on-the-job training.

As opposed to spend 3-4 years at uni during a psychology BA and then a postgraduate PGCE/PGDE in teaching.

Tell her to train as an OT, much more of a career path and far more likely not actually work with people with MH problems than someone with just a psychology degree. Competition for training for clinical psychology is bonkers competitive. And takes years more study =not earning
OT is only three years and the NHS will always need them, so when this blip is over she will get a job.

How far off her grades was she and why does she want to stay at home?

Perhaps not going to uni this and reapplying next with grades in hand might help.

Alongside a paid job she could get some relevant work experience, volunteer with anything related to mental health.

Also perhaps broaden her options, not just the uni in your city.

This response is so braggy... there could be a plethora of reasons why and your children aren't better than hers just because they work.

OT is a good option with some caveats. Band 5 jobs are plentiful but anything above that is mostly centered around big cities. I am band 7 in a niche specialism and I am holding onto my job for dear life because there just isn't anything in my local area to transition into. lt is also much more difficult to transition into private practice as there is very little awareness of what OT is and, therefore, less demand. So there will always be a salary cap.
Pediatric or neuro OT is virtually impossible to get into because they don't employ band 5 and want someone with "experience" and the only way to get that experience is to spend years doing some obscure rotation post praying that you don't end up stuck orthopedics or wheelchair services for three years before your paeds rotation comes about.
Physio, on the other hand are much more flexible in terms of private work. Nursing is much more in demand across services and, especially, MH nursing.
All of this needs some considerable thought which is hard when you are 18 and have no experience with the service.
OP, did your daughter look into employment as an HCA? There is always shortage and it may give her some ideas on what would be a good clinical path for her. She can do it as bank while she is studying too.

The key thing with psychology degrees is whether or not they are accredited by the British Psychology Society.

As long as this new course is accredited, your daughter should be fine.

Lots of employers do completely blind recruitment now when it comes to anything that may introduce bias into the hiring process - when I've applied for CS jobs you have to submit a CV without the name of your university/schools on there as well as name, age etc. So I do wonder whether in some cases it will matter a lot less than it used to.

All sounds too blah for me.

She wants to work but hasnt tried very hard. She wants to get a apprenticeship but its too hard. She wants to do a degree but hasnt got any idea what she wants after. You are worried that there isnt going to be anything lined up for her after......you are right, there are hundreds of thousands of kids with similar intelligence pushing every door they can to get work, get experience and get applications in for whatever opportunity they can.

3 grades off, although there were some extenuating circumstances throughout her y13 (yc and mh issues) she also isnt very suited at traditional testing and instead does better at coursework

wants to work but hasnt tried very hard- i said she didnt try very hard whilst in sixth form. Over the a level summer shes been trying very hard indeed

apprenticeship- when have i said she wants a apprenticeship? I said the opposite, she doesnt want one because it specialises too early. I was simply stating that getting apprenticeships arent as easy as its portrayed on mumsnet, its very competitive and shouldnt be treated as a back ip option

i didnt realise she had to have her whole life planned out after her degree? She also does have some idea - to do a masters, get some work experience, then hopefully phd. Shes also hoping to do a placement year.

She’s better off speaking to recent graduates in her subject for up to date advice. What’s worked for them? What would they do differently if they could go back?

If she’s interested in a career as a psychologist, she could check out Dr Marianne Trent on YouTube.

Hmm ill tell her to research OT. We do live in a big city, and obviously she wont want to live at home forver so she can move where the money is. There are many many reasons why shes staying at home, but a minor one is that she wants to save up as much money as possible for the future, possibly to pay for her masters

We dont know any recent graduates, although shes talked about an app called linked in that she uses to connect with people? Shes the first person to finish education in our family and wider circle of friends as many of our family is illiterate (we are afghan). I feel so bad i cant help her, shes figuring it out basically all herself whilst being a young carer as well

When I went to uni I wanted to work in counter terrorism. Did IR with quantitate methods, wrote my diss in a CT related field, pursued learning Arabic… I thought I was gonna be head of MI5 or something.

Now I’m a Maths tutor primarily working with SEN and home educated kids from my multicoloured sensory friendly home office… worlds away from what I thought I’d do - not an armed police officer in sight. Let her do what she wants, if she ends up as a psychologist that’s amazing! Chances are though she will end up doing something totally different. What she wants to do could change a lot in three years.

So shes been applying to retail jobs and admin jobs eg gp receptionist. Basically any job that’s suitable on the nhs jobs website. what other jobs could she apply for? It seems that a degree is the minimum these days, even if its not explicitly stated on the posting