Careers Website

Legacy_user

My youngest daughter and I found a website a few months ago which when you input your "A" level subject choice and details of your hobbies and/or interests it came up with a list of university courses which you might like to study.

Can't find it now, does anyone have any idea what it is or anything similar. Daughter is looking for some inspiration to help her choose a course which will give her a good career.

melancholly

I don't know of any site like that - but I'm sure there are plenty of people here to give suggestions if you tell us her A level subjects!! And I would encourage her to pick a subject she enjoys, rather than aiming a degree at a career - I left university with a very different idea of what I wanted to do than when I started. The best thing you can get to start a good career is a 'good' degree - and enjoying what you're doing will make that easier!

Also - this website could be useful to a lot of people:
http://www.target-10000.org/

It should help encourage wider access to top level universities.

System

At the moment she is studying Biology, Chemistry, English and IT for AS levels but she will probably drop one of them for A levels. Her best subjects and the ones she enjoys the most are Chemistry and IT. She has expressed an interest in Speech Therapy and Radiotherapy but is looking to see what other options are available before next year when she has to pick her university course.

greyster

Radiotherapy would be a good choice as it uses chemistry, biology and IT (not the IT taught in schools though :P). Lots of jobs opportunity there.

I never seen a site which does that, I remember some school thing which asked a million questions and came up with a few job ideas, mine was TV Aerial Erector ....

If she isn't 100% behind a certain field when it comes to deciding perhaps a "well used" gap year may be in order. Drop out rates in the first year of uni are high because students realise they don't want to do the selected course. It is expensive entering uni twice.

At school my main fields were biology and computing. From about 11-16 i wan't to be a paramedic but after A Levels (I did D&T, Computing & biology) i decided to concentrate on computing courses. All my work is IT related now.

Helix

Theres a system called centigrade but you have to pay for it. My Head of Sixth says its really good and I'm going to sign up to it when my school start offering it next month. You can sign up online as well at

http://www.coa2.co.uk/centigrade/?pagename=index

It costs £10.00 by email or £15.00 by post.

cmallaby

I totally agree with what greyster says. I find it a little annoying to be honest when you have all that work behind you.

I mean i did my GCSEs last year, to figure out A) they only last 5 years and They are completely useless, you would have thought with GCSE English, Maths and Science that you shouldn't need to do Key Skills in college but that just shows you. I'm doing Music at college and we do theory lessons anyway on the board it mentions Candidates with GCSE in Music qualify as they equivalent of Grade 5 theory. But as the standards are much different then it's terrible.

The point is be absolutely certain you know what you want to do before you just go and do it. I chose one subject in college, to give me one clear career path.
Look around there's plenty people can help you ask around, go to a careers advisor. Thats what the worlds there for !

melancholly

cmallaby wrote:

The point is be absolutely certain you know what you want to do before you just go and do it. I chose one subject in college, to give me one clear career path.

If you know what you want to do at 16, and don't change your mind before leaving university then you're lucky! If you know, then great - but a lot of people aren't so sure. I did a degree that led on from my a level subjects because I didn't really know what I planned to do for the rest of my life, and a wrong decision to specialise too early would have been very bad for me. Any degree subject will be accepted for teaching, civil service, banking, law (with conversion course), most 'management' jobs or graduate intake jobs, NGOs and charity sector... the list is very very long - it does end up being about the quality of your degree, not really the subject. I'd say don't pick a restrictive degree unless you're sure, really sure!
And most people do find that their outlook on life does change significantly at university, so be prepared for opinions and ideas for the future to change.

melancholly

and just had an afterthought - pam 17: if there's any way your daughter could get some work experience in speech therapy and/or radiotherapy over the summer, it would help her make a much more informed decision and look fantastic on a personal statement or in an interview.

System

Thanks for all your input and suggestions.
She is currently on a weeks work experience at our local hospital where, with the permission of the patients, she is being allowed to attend various clinics including obstetrics and gynaecology, radiography, diabetics and outpatients. She is also being allowed to sit in with a GP.
So far it has been a really rewarding experience with her viewing CT scans and one very kind pregnant patient allowed her to palpate her stomach and feel her babies head.
I don't think studying medicine is an option but certainly something within the medical environment appeals to her.

tr3mor

Helix wrote:

Theres a system called centigrade but you have to pay for it. My Head of Sixth says its really good and I'm going to sign up to it when my school start offering it next month. You can sign up online as well at

http://www.coa2.co.uk/centigrade/?pagename=index

It costs £10.00 by email or £15.00 by post.

it's a waste of time - I did it and you got a big sheet to mark with pencil to be read by a computer and there are hundreds of inane questions and at the end they don't tell you anything useful at all.

melancholly

If you go the UCAS website , they have something called the 'Stamford Test' which may be the test you were asking about? There isn't much info on it on the UCAS page that is immediately obvious but a quick google suggests it matches your skills to possible degree courses. HTH