Any careers advisers in Scotland?

[ScottishMouse]

I’m pretty new here and looking for any careers advisers or similar in Scotland that might be able to give me some info/advice.

I am interested in the possibility of retraining as a careers adviser. I’d particularly like to work in schools. I’m finding it a little tricky to find out what the route(s) into this are, how the role slots into schools, and what the role looks like.

Is the only route in to do a postgraduate course in career guidance & development? I am in Edinburgh and it looks like Napier offer this.
What are the job prospects coming out of these courses?
Are careers advisers who work in schools employed by the school or by SDS? If SDS, can you choose just to work in schools or would this just be a part of your role? And how does placement in schools work?
If you are a careers adviser, can you tell me a little about how you find the role, what you enjoy about it, and what you maybe don’t enjoy so much about it, and anything else that you wish you knew about it in advance?

Thanks in advance!

definitely look at universities and colleges if you want flexibility as you wont get it from SDS, one of the (many) reasons I don't actually work for them anymore.

However, it can also depend on the university!

Yes, I figured that would probably be the case with SDS @sassanach. Flexibility isn’t crucial, more of a nice to have.
Intrigued by your “many” reasons for no longer working for SDS, but I won’t pry.

No worries at all!

The biggest attractions for university work for me were the variety, flexibility and pay.

The job seems more varied than in schools as you do some 1:1 interviews but also group work, teaching, curriculum development, project work ....every day is different!

Depends on the university obviously but I've found it to be a really flexible job - you can take annual leave whenever you like ( and we get Christmas off as standard!) and we can build up flexi time. We can also work from home 2 days a week.

Pay is much better than schools and there is more opportunity for career development but this depends on the size of the service. One place I did my placement had a tiny service with little opportunity for progression, whereas another was huge and there were loads of ways in which you could develop your career.

In lots of universities (not all though!) careers gets a decent amount of investment and there is less stress/pressure than being an academic at the moment I think.

Thanks @GCSister, the variety does sound interesting. Could you elaborate a bit on curriculum development and teaching - I’m not sure what that might involve within your role?

I'm a careers consultant so my job involves working with academics in developing employability sessions linked to specific subjects - some of these I deliver and others are delivered by academics.
I also teach on an employability module which is an optional module for second year students in the faculty I'm attached to.
You don't need to be a subject expert as that's the academics job, our specialism is careers, employability and labour market information.

I also work with academics during programme validations as they need to demonstrate how their courses integrate employability.

The job is a mix of working with students and academics.

Ah, I see, thanks for clarifying @GCSister. I really appreciate folks taking the time to answer my questions.

@sassanach (excellent name btw, should have said that earlier), is your university role similar to what @GCSister describes?

My role is in widening participation, so basically I am responsible for promoting the university to applicants (not just school pupils) from under represented groups. However, I've also had some involvement with graduates from under represented groups moving into the world of work.

Depending on the university, widening participation can be easier to move into. Some universities want applicants to have qualifications, registration with AGCAS and several yeares experience, but where do you get the experience?

So you might have to start off in schools first, or try another role in a university to get your foot in the door. AGCAS also do some CPD courses to help careers advisers move into HE careers guidance.

I used to work in WP! Another excellent job.