Can anyone recommend a good guide/website for careers
Discussion
My son is at GCSE's age and really doesn't have a clue what he wants to do as a career, only that he wants to earn good money so he can buy a “sports car and a big house” 
I don't want to pressurise him down any particular path, but I do want him to have a good understanding of what careers are open to him. I also want him to understand what it will take to get into the profession he chooses, what he can expect to earn, and where that will take him in life.
What I really want him to understand is that at his age anything is possible so don’t discount anything as unachievable. It doesn’t bother me what he ends up doing, only that he had enough information to make his choices.
I'd known what I do now, my career path would have been very different!
I don't want to pressurise him down any particular path, but I do want him to have a good understanding of what careers are open to him. I also want him to understand what it will take to get into the profession he chooses, what he can expect to earn, and where that will take him in life.
What I really want him to understand is that at his age anything is possible so don’t discount anything as unachievable. It doesn’t bother me what he ends up doing, only that he had enough information to make his choices.
I'd known what I do now, my career path would have been very different!
When our daughter was in Year 10 & 11 the school provided quite a lot of information regarding careers, this included websites about career paths and matching skills with different types of jobs. So you may have that yet to come. It's all fairly useful, but it's also pretty much "mainstream" type stuff.
In both years the school also had 1 week "Work Experience" when the students found 1 week work placements and had to do reports/analysis/reviews about the jobs which they did. A lot of the students did "jobbing" type work, but the resource which the school provided to help find placements was an absolute gem. Our daughter took a placement at an organ repair/refurbishment company (as in church organ). Completely left field. Company been going almost 200 years!! Staffed by a bunch of old boys (most over 60) who took her under their collective wing and helped her tremendously - opening her eyes to various aspects which might be of interest to her later on (she leans heavily to art, design, creative, music). She decided that it wasn't really a future for her but nevertheless she thoroughly enjoyed what she did there - and in comparison to what others did it seemed a far more valuable and interesting experience. And, more importantly, it helped to open her mind to looking for possibilities outside any prescribed path.
She's just started college and although a very driven individual, she isn't clear about exactly what she wants to do - but we can definitely sense that she is gradually circling in on what she wants, which of her skills and abilities she enjoys the most, wants to use and the kind of environment she wants to be in. Evaluating things herself and either discarding them or setting them aside for consideration later.
Sorry for the bit of a ramble but make sure you take advantage of all of the facilities and resources which are available from the school, do whatever you can to keep their minds open and show them opportunities away from the mainstream (to spark imagination and interest) and trust in your child's ability to find their own way, at their own speed.
In both years the school also had 1 week "Work Experience" when the students found 1 week work placements and had to do reports/analysis/reviews about the jobs which they did. A lot of the students did "jobbing" type work, but the resource which the school provided to help find placements was an absolute gem. Our daughter took a placement at an organ repair/refurbishment company (as in church organ). Completely left field. Company been going almost 200 years!! Staffed by a bunch of old boys (most over 60) who took her under their collective wing and helped her tremendously - opening her eyes to various aspects which might be of interest to her later on (she leans heavily to art, design, creative, music). She decided that it wasn't really a future for her but nevertheless she thoroughly enjoyed what she did there - and in comparison to what others did it seemed a far more valuable and interesting experience. And, more importantly, it helped to open her mind to looking for possibilities outside any prescribed path.
She's just started college and although a very driven individual, she isn't clear about exactly what she wants to do - but we can definitely sense that she is gradually circling in on what she wants, which of her skills and abilities she enjoys the most, wants to use and the kind of environment she wants to be in. Evaluating things herself and either discarding them or setting them aside for consideration later.
Sorry for the bit of a ramble but make sure you take advantage of all of the facilities and resources which are available from the school, do whatever you can to keep their minds open and show them opportunities away from the mainstream (to spark imagination and interest) and trust in your child's ability to find their own way, at their own speed.
Worry less about what he learns at this stage, but rather that he keeps learning until the moment arrives when he does decide what path to follow. Following that path when it comes will be much, much easier with a formal education behind him. Without that education, his options are likely to be more limited.
72EuropaTC said:
When our daughter was in Year 10 & 11 the school provided quite a lot of information regarding careers, this included websites about career paths and matching skills with different types of jobs. So you may have that yet to come. It's all fairly useful, but it's also pretty much "mainstream" type stuff.
In both years the school also had 1 week "Work Experience" when the students found 1 week work placements and had to do reports/analysis/reviews about the jobs which they did. A lot of the students did "jobbing" type work, but the resource which the school provided to help find placements was an absolute gem. Our daughter took a placement at an organ repair/refurbishment company (as in church organ). Completely left field. Company been going almost 200 years!! Staffed by a bunch of old boys (most over 60) who took her under their collective wing and helped her tremendously - opening her eyes to various aspects which might be of interest to her later on (she leans heavily to art, design, creative, music). She decided that it wasn't really a future for her but nevertheless she thoroughly enjoyed what she did there - and in comparison to what others did it seemed a far more valuable and interesting experience. And, more importantly, it helped to open her mind to looking for possibilities outside any prescribed path.
She's just started college and although a very driven individual, she isn't clear about exactly what she wants to do - but we can definitely sense that she is gradually circling in on what she wants, which of her skills and abilities she enjoys the most, wants to use and the kind of environment she wants to be in. Evaluating things herself and either discarding them or setting them aside for consideration later.
Sorry for the bit of a ramble but make sure you take advantage of all of the facilities and resources which are available from the school, do whatever you can to keep their minds open and show them opportunities away from the mainstream (to spark imagination and interest) and trust in your child's ability to find their own way, at their own speed.
Your comment about careers advice being mainstream is my fear. My dream as a kid was to be a pilot, but the sort of careers advice never included anything like that. I simply assumed that kids like me didn't end up in jobs like that.In both years the school also had 1 week "Work Experience" when the students found 1 week work placements and had to do reports/analysis/reviews about the jobs which they did. A lot of the students did "jobbing" type work, but the resource which the school provided to help find placements was an absolute gem. Our daughter took a placement at an organ repair/refurbishment company (as in church organ). Completely left field. Company been going almost 200 years!! Staffed by a bunch of old boys (most over 60) who took her under their collective wing and helped her tremendously - opening her eyes to various aspects which might be of interest to her later on (she leans heavily to art, design, creative, music). She decided that it wasn't really a future for her but nevertheless she thoroughly enjoyed what she did there - and in comparison to what others did it seemed a far more valuable and interesting experience. And, more importantly, it helped to open her mind to looking for possibilities outside any prescribed path.
She's just started college and although a very driven individual, she isn't clear about exactly what she wants to do - but we can definitely sense that she is gradually circling in on what she wants, which of her skills and abilities she enjoys the most, wants to use and the kind of environment she wants to be in. Evaluating things herself and either discarding them or setting them aside for consideration later.
Sorry for the bit of a ramble but make sure you take advantage of all of the facilities and resources which are available from the school, do whatever you can to keep their minds open and show them opportunities away from the mainstream (to spark imagination and interest) and trust in your child's ability to find their own way, at their own speed.
It was only later after I joined the forces that I realised it was a path I could have easily followed
I also had no clue about the sort of pay different careers paid. I went into Engineering, and the pay vs training is a joke. I later moved into IT, and with little actual formal training was soon earning 20-30% more (now and even greater %).
rog007 said:
Worry less about what he learns at this stage, but rather that he keeps learning until the moment arrives when he does decide what path to follow. Following that path when it comes will be much, much easier with a formal education behind him. Without that education, his options are likely to be more limited.
Again a fear is he will just learn with no direction. My half brother and sister have both ended up doing degrees without knowing what field they want to work in. My sister has now chosen a career that doesn't need a degree (and she got a masters), and my brother has chosen a career that needs a different degree, so has gone back to uni.I want to make sure he doesn't have any regrets about his choices, or feels that he was poorly advised. Thats how I feel about my formative years.
If he has all the information he needs, but still doesn't have a clue, then its fine by me.
I had a root around for the stuff we had from our daughter's school. Check if your school uses them, if they do then at some stage your son might get login details. All but the last one appear to be licensed on a school-only basis.
http://www.cascaid.co.uk (the school may refer to it as Kudos) is one of the career portals which they provided and it was pretty good.
http://www.careeradviceonline.co.uk/job-profiles
http://www.careersoft.co.uk/ their job explorer database has quiz elements to work out likes/dislikes and use those as a search
(with ref. to my previous post, these are the resources which were somewhat more outside the box)
In practice we used these as a means of helping our daughter keep her mind open about how to look at things and emphasise that following the things which she enjoys the most and which she is good at will find her a career.
Whilst she has had the school drum into her the need for good exams, college and then university, we have talked about apprenticeships, gap years (to find an apprenticeship or pause before uni) and various other alternatives. IMO the work and employment landscape is going to change quite a bit over the next 3-5 years, so researching and developing strategies to cope with that are going to be key.
HTH
http://www.cascaid.co.uk (the school may refer to it as Kudos) is one of the career portals which they provided and it was pretty good.
http://www.careeradviceonline.co.uk/job-profiles
http://www.careersoft.co.uk/ their job explorer database has quiz elements to work out likes/dislikes and use those as a search
(with ref. to my previous post, these are the resources which were somewhat more outside the box)
In practice we used these as a means of helping our daughter keep her mind open about how to look at things and emphasise that following the things which she enjoys the most and which she is good at will find her a career.
Whilst she has had the school drum into her the need for good exams, college and then university, we have talked about apprenticeships, gap years (to find an apprenticeship or pause before uni) and various other alternatives. IMO the work and employment landscape is going to change quite a bit over the next 3-5 years, so researching and developing strategies to cope with that are going to be key.
HTH
Edited by 72EuropaTC on Saturday 15th September 17:57
In the spring & summer terms look at http://www.hotrecruit.com Lots of graduate summer vacancy jobs get advertised here - can give you some ideas for subsequent research.
One of our daughter's teachers did suggest that she look at the not-for-profit sector - not neccessarily for jobs with charities, but to research which sectors those charities were involved with. Simple idea to open the mind.
One of our daughter's teachers did suggest that she look at the not-for-profit sector - not neccessarily for jobs with charities, but to research which sectors those charities were involved with. Simple idea to open the mind.
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