Careers advice based on A Level subjects

[mindgone]

Does anyone know where you can find careers and uni course advice based on which A levels your DC is doing? My DS is in year 12 and not sure what he would like to do. I think there are probably so many careers and subjects that he's never even heard of, but only know how to look up what we have heard of ! IYSWIM! He is doing maths, biology, chemistry and economics,is currently leaning towards the sciences, and definitely wants to go to uni. Anyone know where to look?

Have a look in the Russell Group informed choices booklet here. Unless her wants to do something specific like medicine I would encourage him to just do a degree he is really going to enjoy and then think about careers afterwards - there's no point spending 9 grand a year on something you're going to be miserable doing!

Also the like is relevant to every university, even if you aren't looking at Russell Group.

I saw a chart once which basically matched which A-levels usually required for which Uni courses, is that what you want?

DS was given access to careerscape and kudos through school

It is important to do something at uni you enjoy. Unless he has a specific vocation in mind, such as engineering, he could do a degree in a subject he likes, e.g biology or chemistry, and take it from there.

You could try looking on the UCAS website as that will give you an idea of all the weird and wonderful courses out there. I didn't want to give you rubbish advice so I just had a quick look myself - if you go into 'Course Search' there is an alphabet and if you click on any letter of that alphabet it gives you a list of all the subjects offered in the UK starting with that letter. For example, I clicked on B for biology and a bunch of subjects like 'biochemistry', 'bioengineering' and 'biophysics' came up. I clicked on biochemistry and it gave me a list of unis that offer biochemistry courses, for example you can do Biological Chemistry at Aston University Birmingham and Biomedical Science at De Montfort University. You could then go on the websites of unis that offer courses that look interesting and check them out in more detail.

I did A levels in Biology, Chemistry and Psychology but then struck out and did something quite different at degree level - Politics. I didn't really enjoy it and regretted not sticking with what I knew (and what I was good at!). That said, I had a friend who chose to do a joint Honours in English Literature and Archeology in spite of having done no formal study of history, not even a GCSE in it (all she'd done was read a couple of books about it) and she loved it, and got a 2:1.

My chemistry teacher always told us there are lots of opportunities open to somebody with a chemistry degree. Your son's teachers should be able to advise him similarly.

I agree with the advise above, especially what's said about it being really useful that he's done chemistry as that will leave a lot of science courses open to him. A lot of people doing biology underestimate the amount of chemistry behind it so he should be in a good position.

sorry, not finding it easily, but it was a chart which literally cross referenced which A-level subjects went to which 50 or so Uni subjects, very simple to see at a glance what your DS would be well prepared to apply for. Will keep looking.

I did Maths (Pure & Applied), Chemistry and Biology and it opened the door to pretty much anything bar the arts of course, which obviously wasn't where my interest lay!

I used Kudos at school but found it not very useful - it recommended that I, a complete tomboy with no interest in fashion, become a make-up artist! I used a similar but much better programme, the name of which I now forget, at the careers service at uni, which recommended working in public sector admin, which having tried a couple of other fields is something I'm now actually looking to do.

The careerscape seems quite good from what the connexions and school were telling ds. You can put a starting point of what you want to study and would lead to the careers with those qualifications or you can put in a career and it will tell you what qualifications you need to take to get there

Does your son's school still have a careers service? If so then I would recommend that he tries to arrange a meeting with the school's careers advisors or, if not, the ucas website is very useful.

Interesting thread, especially about the careers/connexions service and asking them for advice. Depending on where you live, you may find no such service exists any more, as the service nationally has been savaged by cuts. Some areas now only provide help and advice to 'vulnerable' young people, which I'm afraid would not usually include high achieving A level students studying facilitating subjects.
Most schools do not have their own careers advisers as this is something local authorities have, until now, provided for schools. Head teachers are now being asked to pay for these services (from April 2012), but have not been given the money with which to do so i.e. a sneaky cut to the education budget that has gone largely unnoticed.
For teenagers with supportive, well informed and proactive parents, this is not a problem. Sadly, many many teenagers are not that lucky.

lastone, I was a careers advisor until the provision was cut in the local authority where I worked and I was made redundant. However, a colleague of mine works in north yorkshire where the provision is still avaliable until august when it will be cut. Where she works they have also been running a hotline in the evening which can be rung by anyone needing assistance or advise. Sadly this too is being scrapped at the end of december.
It's a shame as so many areas are dependant on the service as so many people are unsure about the different options for post 16 education.

Can I also add that there is nothing wrong in not applying to uni if you are unsure what to do. It is better to finish school and then go when you have a better idea.

I work at an RG and deal with significant numbers of drop outs or transfers and the reasons given in most cases is that they felt under pressure to apply to uni before they really knew what they wanted to do.

I just went on the ucas website to have a look for the stamford test for you but they've taken it down. The advise it gives is to talk to an advisor if that service is still avaliable to you.

Thanks everyone, really good advice. He already took the Stamford test, but found the results quite vague! I guess he just really needs to do his homework and look around. It would be good if there was some better help out there, would be willing to pay privately for a good service and help for him, if anyone knows of such a service?

You could probably do most subjects with that combo including law. If he wants to study sciences seriously think whether he wants vocational or pure. The former does make you much more employable.

I think the best advice you have been given is that he chooses to study something he is really interested in. Lots of students do not know when they go to University what they want to do afterwards. And lots of careers do not require a specific subject.

Also most people do not have just one career in their lifetime.

Sixteentwentyfour, would love to know what you had to say! But it has disappeared! Is there any way you could repeat it within the guidelines please?

Is there a Careers Adviser in his school/ college? There is usually someone with a good working knowledge of UcAS at the very least.

mindgone - I'mm assuming it was advertising - there have been lots of old (careers type) threads revived by said poster, and then deleted. Don't think it would have been particularly pertinent to this thread.

Zombie thread lurches into the light again.