Degree ideas

[chopc]

My DS is in year 12 and is doing IB and his higher level subjects are Maths, Chemistry and History

He has no idea what career he would like to do. I would imagine his future career will
Involve numbers but HL IB Maths has taken its toll and he doesn't want to do a Maths related degree

I know he can study his favourite subject at Uni which is History but I have heard from many sources that a Maths/ Science related degree will have better employment prospects.

It wouldn't matter so much if he knew what he wanted to do but as he doesn't, I am wondering if you could suggest some degree subjects and I will then look it up

The careers service at school
were useless as they said anything relating to maths, chemistry or history would be for him but we knew that anyway

A good university will have regular career fairs with varied employers, panel talks, etc. If he wants money then he should aim for a spring week with a major bank, see whether he likes it. This is the easiest way to get in because it leads to an internship, then graduate job with less effort. Less competition too, because only the clued up people apply that early. Everyone else is busy behaving like a normal first year.

It's worth pointing out that ALL universities have a careers and and employability service and will do regular careers events.
You should look at Graduate Outcome data for not just the institutions as whole but individual subjects too. It's important to look at graduate level employment not just positive destinations.

Also, don't assume that's it's only RG or elite universities that do well at this!

Well, 'once a year' and 'once a month' are both regular. But the latter is better than the former, no?
A 'good' university's career service will have skills workshops, CV sessions, individual coaching. Access to a diverse set of employers, especially to niche ones which aren't on all the big graduate websites like TargetJobs.
'Regular' means several different career fairs, targeted at different fields/degrees throughout the year. Individual panel events outside of the career fairs, organised by the career society or student bodies.

I went to an 'RG' university and I had a lot of support with personal mock interviews, CV review etc. Also got to speak directly with a lot of employers and attended many insight sessions.

DP went to a not very well regarded university. 2 career fairs. One STEM, One not. One CV skills workshop. 2 career 'advice' sessions. A few big employers at the career fair, but mostly small regional ones. No personalised support, no mock interview, CV coaching., advice on internships etc.

And it shows! He was one of the few to get onto a major graduate scheme, despite a very marketable degree (Computer Science). Most of his friends have no ambition. They live at home and work for small companies.

Now as an employer I do a lot of graduate outreach and recruitment and sadly nothing has changed.

I don't buy into the principle of 'elite' or otherwise. Some not well regarded universities, in 'general' are excellent in their area of strength with placements, close links etc to specialist employers. This doesn't mean it's equally as good for students studying different subjects.

For people like the OP's son it's important to get into a university with good links to a variety of top employers. And as an aside, it's doubly important for people without the connections, like me. I did not know this whole world of graduate jobs existed until I went to uni and benefitted greatly from the atmosphere. If nobody had told me as explicitly as my uni had I wouldn't have achieved my full potential.

Also I know someone will jump on me and say I'm a snob - there's nothing wrong with working for small companies on a lower pay. (i don't mean fancy startup or anything). If that's what you want, fine.

But since the OP's son wants to earn well. My advice is geared towards that...

Also @TheMoops yes, I agree that it is not all about RG. But other than RG/elite there is a whole world.
Universities like Portsmouth and Staffordshire are quite good. For Computing the latter in particular has an excellent reputation.
I have been told by graduates at the university of Chester that they post about careers etc on their website but it's not very good in reality.
Won't mention which uni me and DP went to ;)

Also (sorry I have a lot of thoughts) OP the unis should give you a list of employers that appear at their career fair if you ask.
Employers pay to appear, it's not free (not to mention the staff time to have a booth) so them being there is a sign that they really want to hire the grads.

Now as an employer I do a lot of graduate outreach and recruitment and sadly nothing has changed.

Yes it has. Particularly in the last 10 years.

Both me and DH work in this sector and my role means I know the ins and outs of most UK university careers services. I can list on one hand the universities that do not prioritise employability as the vast, vast majority of universities invest a significant amount of money and resources in supporting their students with their employability.

Some of the bigger institutions have literally 100's of staff supporting students with events, workshops etc happening weekly if not daily. Not to mention the work that is embedded into the curriculum.

Many graduate employers know the sector has changed. You only have to look at the recent graduate recruiter awards which saw universities like Manchester Met win awards for their employability strategy.

Also (sorry I have a lot of thoughts) OP the unis should give you a list of employers that appear at their career fair if you ask.

This can usually be found online.

Employers pay to appear, it's not free (not to mention the staff time to have a booth) so them being there is a sign that they really want to hire the grads.

Not true. Many universities don't charge anymore because it discriminates against smaller employers that don't have a huge budget for recruitment and ultimately disadvantages the students.

I really like this site for suggesting degree subjects based on your A Level choices (just put his 3 HLs, or add an SL if there's one he loves). Be sure to click on the 'unexpected matches' tab.

History and global sustainable development - Warwick
Art history joint honours - St Andrews
Ocean sciences "Our research delves into the Earth’s history. We have developed techniques to quantify past climates on the planet and use complex numerical models to look at the key processes driving those past climates."
Renewable energy engineering - Exeter no physics req.

@Justcannot which site?

Oh sorry. Link fail! https://www.theuniguide.co.uk/a-level-explorer/chemistry/history/mathematics?o=120

Big need currently for data scientists particularly bioinformatics in the field of ancient DNA research - aDNA is some lab work but the next generation sequencers that produce full genome data produce a LOT of data and most of the time analysing it is once you have the data.

Also, skills with data analysis using R is an exploding field just now in archaeology, ecology, envi science etc. Digital visualisation skills too are in big demand.

I'm an archaeological scientist - lots more to archaeology and lots more jobs both in research and commercial developer funded archaeology than people seem to realise!

With hard sciences and a love of history, consider looking at Heritage Science as a field. It's niche but could tick all his boxes...

Bear in mind jobs thst we don’t yet know about will exist by the time our DC graduate. All adds to the challenge!

Haven't heard of some of these subjects!

Thanks for the link @Justcannot . I did use this before and will give it another go

Your best bet is getting proper paid careers advice and undertaking online tests to work out other strengths.

I would also suggest going to some university open days and going round various departments of interest (most open days have a central 'fair') and just talking to staff and postdocs about what they do. And listening to the career presentations , i.e. ' what can I do with this degree' it can sometimes spark ideas and interest.

And to be honest, these people will probably be more up to date about current jobs/skills gaps in their field than career advisors particularly in schools.

I would agree with this but make sure they're qualified (to postgrad level) and have experience supporting students with university applications.

Alternatively, when you attend open days speak to the university careers and employability service as they can offer some support and are likely to be more impartial than people recruiting to their own course.

And to be honest, these people will probably be more up to date about current jobs/skills gaps in their field than career advisors particularly in schools.

Yes they are more likely to be more up to date than school based careers advisers but not those working at a university.
University careers advisers will have a much better understanding of the graduate labour market than your average academic..... believe me!!

He has had careers advise at school as a result of doing a "careers test". But they just basically said anything related to Maths, Chemistry or History will be suitable for him. He showed me the report and I remember thinking it didn't really give him any further ideas but I will have another look.

Unfortunately careers guidance in school is woefully underfunded and there's a huge skills shortage of qualified careers advisers. So there's a limit as to what they can do.

However, those are are good, general starting points and if you were to search for those general subjects on ucas or individual university websites then you'd also be directed to similar, related subjects which might give him some ideas.

OP, your DS might find the Prospects 'What do graduates do' report helpful (link below). This shows, by broad degree category, destinations by employment sector and, very helpfully, by initial job title for main destinations. This might help them visualise what the post-uni stage could look like. If they are not sure what a job title really means in terms of role, the Prospects website also provides some helpful summaries.

luminate.prospects.ac.uk/what-do-graduates-do

@chopc
Whatever he does at university, keep
it fairly broad. History and Economics would be great. Management at Bath is a broad degree too.

He really is not going to get a competitive course for most competitive MEng engineering without physics. However if he’s more interested in History, go with combos with that.

Another consideration @chopc Does he like people? Is he confident? That attribute, if he has it, tends to push young people into certain careers. Just sitting in a lab would kill some people!

He really is not going to get a competitive course for most competitive MEng engineering without physics.

Yes you really can for quite a few branches of engineering - e.g. MEng for Civils or Mech Eng or Chem Eng often requires Maths and another science. Aeronautics will probably need physics and Nuclear pretty much will.

Don’t let lack of physics put you off looking at engineering.

PPE- Politics, Philosophy and Economics is a great degree for anyone who wants to go into journalism or be an MP or civil service. Follow it up with a Masters in Asian International Relations and you add on Foreign Office jobs (embassy, ambassador), or project management/government relations jobs for multi-national corporations.

There is also a lot of history studied in PPE as well as International Relations.