Careers advice in Y9?

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

DS1 has just started Y9 and there seems to be an initiative to give all the pupils careers advice in advance of deciding their GCSE options in the Spring. He has a one-to-one session with a careers advisor this week.

The problem is that he has absolutely no idea what he wants to do. Neither did I, at his age.

Does anyone know what the purpose of this appointment is supposed to be? Is he really supposed to know, aged 13, what he wants to do as a career?

At dd's high school in yr 9 they get told which pathway they are on, so basically are on the academic, mixed or vocational pathway

The academic and mixed groups are generally encouraged to make broad choices to keep their options open if they don't know which direction they are going in

My ds had this last year, to a large extent is too early to know what career they might want but it is possible to get a good idea or the kind of direction they want to go.

For my ds we were able to narrow it to something math/science and that he'd like to do a levels. That has been some help in deciding his GCSEs.

He already knows which subjects he wants to do at GCSE (he enjoys academic subjects but not practical ones).

He goes to an academically selective school, so there is only an academic track. The expectation is that they will go on to do A-levels.

He thinks he might like to be a secondary school teacher, but I can't help wondering if that's because it's the only career he has really seen in action.

There is a lot of pressure on UK students to choose careers early, because of our restrictive/options-based education system.

Bear in mind that most people change careers several times over their working lives, and furthermore a broad education is enriching.

ds1 is 16 and still doesn't know what subject he wants to study at uni, let alone what career he wants to do.

Much of the schools-based career support is envisaged for children with no/little support at home. So if a child does have dreams of being a vet or a doctor, someone will advise them what option routes they must take for GCSE and A level, that they will need relevant volunteering/work experience, etc, and also point out how exceptional they must be to take this path, and for some this might involve encouraging them to aim for nursing, midwifery or pharmacy instead...

it IS such a restrictive system, annoys me no end. One of my soapboxes, sigh.

I think that it would be good for DS (also y9) if Careers advice were offered, though. Just to get head around where he might like to go in next few yrs & how to to get there.

It does seem a bit early to be talking careers.
For those who know what they want, which usually means the ultra-academic ultra-competitive things like medicine and law, then it's a good idea to prompt them into work experience. Otherwise, I'd simply recommend keeping options open by doing a range of EBacc subjects.

He will have to do GCSEs in Maths, English language, English literature, German, Biology, Chemistry & Physics.

He's also planning to do History, either Latin or Classical Civilisation, and either Religious Studies or Economics.

I cannot really imagine what advice they could offer him at this stage. He may not decide what he wants to do for another seven years or more, and that's fine by me.