CHOICES
Choosing your pathway
Making decisions about your future can be daunting.
Looking to parents, guardians, teachers, friends can help guide
you in your thinking. It is good to also be involved and make
sure you have input so life doesn’t simply happen to you.
Career Management
You probably started to manage your own career
when you chose your GCSE options. Our career
is our lifelong journey of learning, work and life,
from study choices to hobbies and interests, from
part-time jobs to career aspirations. Teachers and
parents will be asking you to consider the choices
you make for GCSEs, then for post-16 study and
then for post-18 progression.
When you’ve finished your GCSEs will you
choose college, sixth form or an apprenticeship?
When you’ve finished your level 3 studies would you
like to go to university, do a higher apprenticeship or
go straight into work with no further study?
Two things to consider are:
1. What do you like?
2. What are you good at?
You can talk to your family and friends about this,
exploring your interests and skills with the people
you trust and who know you.
Next, think about where your interests and skills could
lead you. Use the internet to research career ideas
that match your interests and skills. Don’t be limited
by people’s suggestions but use them as a starting
point to find out more. Be creative with your searches.
Just as you may find new music and game content
by being curious, allow yourself to follow a thread,
even if it’s leading to a career you’ve never heard of
before. This may take you to your dream job!
Remember your support network. Talk with family,
friends and teachers about the new career ideas
you may have discovered. Let them ask questions,
if you can’t answer them, this is a sign that you
need to do further research.
Then think about what decisions you need to
make to help you get to that dream job.
Decision Making
What snack would you choose to eat? How would you make that decision?
Where would you like to go for a day out with your friends? How would you make
that decision?
You probably wouldn’t like to be told what snack to eat. It should be the same with
your career decisions. If you need help with how to make study route decisions,
book an appointment with the careers adviser at school (or use the National Careers
Service). These trained professionals will help you to understand how to make
decisions to choose study and career routes, based on your interests and skills, that
you will enjoy.
Be ready for the future
No one knows what is around the corner, and the recent world-wide events with the
Covid-19 crisis have brought this home to a lot of people.
You can plan for a perfect career, but life will occasionally get in the way. So,
make sure you develop behaviours that will help you through future uncertain
times, whenever they occur. Be curious, resilient, flexible and optimistic. With these
attributes, you’ll be better prepared to cope when things don’t quite go as you expect.
Sound advice from Liz Painter who is a former
teacher, a qualified careers practitioner and
works for the Cheshire and Warrington LEP.
Her job involves helping schools to work with
employers to prepare young people for the
world of work.
www.careermap.co.uk
Careermag for School Leavers Issue 15 | 7