Career websites

[Blubell46]

Hi all,

My dd is in Year 10 and has managed to cruise through life at ease but she now needs to put some effort in, since her GCSEs are next year. She goes to a selective school and has managed so far but has realised that most of her friends are doing better than her because they do the work and our driven.

We feel she needs a goal and all we want to do is make sure she can fulfil her potential.

Do you know of any good websites that she can decide on what career aspirations she might lean towards in reference to her interests.

I’d imagine, particularly for pupils at selective schools, the UCAS website should be the first port of call. (In fact I’d be surprised if it hadn’t been mentioned at her school this year.) It offers pointers towards apprenticeships as well as the traditional university route - and potential students really need to have an idea of where subjects might lead before they make any decisions.

Beyond that, the National Careers Service has almost unlimited information on jobs and careers - also quizzes, etc, to help pinpoint where your own skills and interests lie.

But really at this stage she doesn’t need to know what she might want to do as a career in the future. She just needs to be shown that putting in effort now and making informed choices will give her the widest range of options later.

@Edmontine thank you that is helpful.

I totally agree with you- I have ds in Year 12 and he was totally different. Hence trying a different approach for her

We have realised she needs a goal and lacks a bit of maturity...it doesn't help that girls around her have chosen their career..as much as we have explained to her she has plenty of time but by giving her options it might motivate her

Thank you

Placemarking

Is there a qualified careers adviser at her school (not a teacher)? I'm in Scotland, but here every school has a careers adviser who is not employed by the school and therefore is independent.
Again, with a Scottish slant but containing useful resources: www.myworldofwork.co.uk

If she has no idea what she might want to do in the future, might you be better just setting your sights on "the next thing"? What does she want to do next? I'm assuming that this may well be A Levels and, as this is a selective school, the entry criteria are probably quite high. She might well find that "what she wants to study in just over a year's time (bearing in mind applications will need to be made well before that) is something she can focus on a bit more.
It may also be that she doesn't want to achieve "as well as she can". She may be happy to set her sights on "well enough to do what I want next".

I’m not sure that’s the best advice, redskyatnight. Only concentrating on ‘what’s next’ leads to despairing sixth formers turning up to university open days to discover they’ve studied completely the wrong subjects for their lately chosen course.

The standard (correct) approach should be to work backwards. Pre-GCSE a pupil should familiarise themselves with as many degree course /other options as possible and ensure they are clear exactly which A’ Levels will facilitate getting onto various courses. That helps them narrow down their GCSE choices to ready them for A’Levels.

Only concentrating on ‘what’s next’ leads to despairing sixth formers turning up to university open days to discover they’ve studied completely the wrong subjects for their lately chosen course.

That's great advice if your child knows what they want to study at university. If they don't have a clue (as per OP's DD), then all you can do as a parent is encourage them to study subjects that don't close off too many options (not studying science is medicine might be a future choice).

My DD (who's currently Year 11) has no idea what she wants to do as a career or what she might want to study at university. Or even if she will go to university. The only things she could do was decide what A Levels she wanted to study. We did have a look at what her combination of subjects precluded and she was fine with that, but there's no saying she won't change her mind in the next couple of years.
And, of course the other thing we should be telling our young people is that nothing is barred to them at this stage. They just might need a different route to get there. Otherwise the choice might simply become too onerous.