Giving careers advice to children

[teacherrk]

Hi guys,

I'm a newbie to this forum, I hope you're all well. I'd just like to pick other parents brains about advising your children about their future career options. I've looked online and found a few resources but nothing that really makes things easier for a parent of secondary school aged children who are both nearly 14. Does anyone know of any more interactive resources on the subject of careers aimed at children that we could look at together? What's everyones thoughts on current careers guidance provision in schools? My children dont seem to be too bothered about future career options as of yet and claim that their school hasn't mentioned much in the way of careers yet.
teacherrk

At school there should be careers advice (far superior to the advice I got at school) its often rolled into PSHE. They should also be able to make an appointment to see the connexions adviser.

Why don't you contact their head of year for more advice? What help did you/they get with their options?

I work in secondary on career education. It is a topic that is very low on the agenda for most schools and we have to battle for timetable time and money for resources to even give students a bear minimum of careers education. It is such a shame because kids need to know how what they are doing in different lessons relates to the real world and that if they give up on some subjects it will restrict the choices that they have in the future.
Schools have a legal requirement to provide careers advice at Key Stage 3 and 4 so you should ask your school about what they do. You can also go to Connexions who have centres open to the public in most towns (although they might not be around for much longer with the budget cuts!)
There are quite a few interactive tools. My personal preference is a Cascaid program called Kudos which gives kids ideas about what the could do based on what they like and dislike. Alot of schools have access to this and other programmes like it. But please do not use these programmes of the only source of advice for your child, they also need to talk through different options.

I used to work in careers and agree totally with JulieAnne that provision in schools is pitiful. The cuts are going to completely ruin what is left of the 'Careers Service/Connexions' and they are going to be massively overstretched and underfunded for some time to come

I would also suggest the online Connexions resources - you can also visit your local centre to use resources like Kudos for free. However, there is no substitute for professional impartial guidance so do ask in your children's school about when they can see an adviser!

Agree with all of the above.
I ended up doing most of it myself with all my kids.
They are all now in careers that they love.
Agree that the advice at scool is pitiful,and advice and information at Conncexions not a whole lot better.Much too restricted.

Ended up getting careers books out of the library for them,and getting them to pick up leaflets wherever they went,when they did actuallyhave any visits to colleges,Unis etc.
Discussed with them every holiday such as would you want to work outdoors,abroad,sit down job etc as they did not have much of a clue at about 14.

DS1 knew what area he wanted to work in,but not which bit of it.
He also knew he wanted to go to Uni,So he sat in front of the computer and went through Uni coures in that particular field.Took him 6 months of occasional looking to find the course he liked.Nwever looked back.
Hope all this helps.