Daughter in limbo - careers advice help

celiam_2

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

Not at all.

The course is open to anyone aged 16-25 who is not currently in education, employment or training regardless of their education standard. At the moment there are 2 uni graduates on my current team. On my last team I had a young lad who had 4 'A' grade A levels who was taking a gap year but could not get employment due to lack of work experience. During the course he had a 3 week work placement at M&S and was subsequently offered a 30 hour permanent contract with them.

Surely it's better to do something to gain skills rather than nothing at all? Yes, there are lots of educational underachievers on the course but surely someone with A Levels will be a good role model for these?

x

I was under the same impression as FlutterB but that could be good. Where can I find further info - does the scheme have a name. Does it run across the country - we are in Somerset.

Oldernotwiser

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

Not at all.

The course is open to anyone aged 16-25 who is not currently in education, employment or training regardless of their education standard. At the moment there are 2 uni graduates on my current team. On my last team I had a young lad who had 4 'A' grade A levels who was taking a gap year but could not get employment due to lack of work experience. During the course he had a 3 week work placement at M&S and was subsequently offered a 30 hour permanent contract with them.

Surely it's better to do something to gain skills rather than nothing at all? Yes, there are lots of educational underachievers on the course but surely someone with A Levels will be a good role model for these?

x

I didn't mean to give offence. The Prince's Trust courses I'm familiar with have only been for low achievers and anybody not in that category would have been both bored and frustrated. Yours are obviously different.

Another problem with the OP's daughter doing this would be that she would miss her last year for free, non advanced education, which would be a pity if she decides not to go to university.

flutterbyuk25

celiam wrote: »

I was under the same impression as FlutterB but that could be good. Where can I find further info - does the scheme have a name. Does it run across the country - we are in Somerset.

For info see http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/need_help/courses/team.aspx

Course dates near you are shown on right hand side of page if you click on the relevant area.

HTH

x

Kate78

Someone mentioned careers advice videos, I think you meant these:

careers4u.tv

Hope they prove useful

purplerose

I would advise getting an appointment with a career advisor as they will be able to help narrow down the types of jobs that your daughter may be interested in. I realise that at school the career advisor may only have seemed interested in low achievers but if your daughter was to make an appointment to see one they will be able to see her.

Work placements can be useful but they will not serve to give her well rounded idea of the entire range of jobs available to her and in some cases I've seen people who allow the work placement to put a set of blinkers on them, for example someone given work placement in a nursery decides to become a nursery nurse without considering much else as that is what they know.

If she doesn't want to see a career advisor then she should take time to research jobs. Prospects is a site aimed at graduates but it's a very good resource for looking up types of jobs and seeing what they are all about plus what kind of degrees would be needed to get into that type of work. PlanITPlus is also another good resource for looking at jobs.

When you look at these sites it's a case of taking the time to research properly, reading the full descriptions and saying "is this for me?".

Perhaps the first place to start could be asking what kind of realistic ideal lifestyle would she like to have in 5 - 10 years time? Would she like to travel? What kind of house would she live in? Would she own a car? What sort of salary would she need? Gonna have kids? How would that affect her career? I realise asking those questions of someone who has just completed their A-levels might be a bit daunting but they can give a good idea of the kind of life to which they aspire. Talking about possible futures can help you work out some kind of plan as to how to get there.

Aside from that your daughter should consider things like her interests both in and out of school and how they might relate to possible job routes. What would be important to her in a job? - Does she like the idea of sitting in an office or being out and about? - Would she prefer a loud or quiet environment? - Is money really important? - Is a rewarding job important? - Would she want to live nearby or would she be prepared to move miles away? Does she want to study? How long for? - Does she like working with others/in a team? Or is she better on her own? - Does she like the idea of dealing with the public? The careerometer on the PlanITPlus website and on other sites are good at asking a lot of these kind of questions and suggesting possible job matches.

There are lots more questions that can be asked but as you answer them you build up an image of the type of person your daughter is and possibly a better picture of the types of jobs she would be suited for will start popping into mind.

Once you've thought all that through, also consider things like - what support and barriers she has when going for a particular career route. For example, if she wants to go to university - is the funding available? if she wants to live nearby, does the university offer the courses she wants? If she won't move is she restricted to what the local university offers? Are her friends/family supportive of her decisions? Are there any health issues that may cause problems?

Other things to consider are - is this job idea feasible? - when you read job profiles on PlanITPlus or Prospects they often state whether the job is a competitive area to get into. If this is the case for the jobs your daughter fancies then start asking: how competitive is it? What do you have to do to get in? For an example - many media jobs are competitive, a lot of it is about doing a lot of your own work, creating portfolios, being prepared to start at the bottom, making contacts and being somewhat pushy. It's all very well for someone to say they are good at photography but so are lots of other people and it takes a lot of work to get to the top - do they have the determination? Can they be bothered to work that hard? Another feasibility thing to consider is - are the jobs available and will they continue to be available? This means looking into labour market information, have a look at the Sector Skills Councils as most of them have information on the labour market for their particular sector.

Also, once you have a few job ideas in mind, it's also good to have a plan B.
What if she doesn't like university and wants to leave, what next?
Ok, she decided to go for a degree in theatre arts, she's qualified, no work coming in - what other kinds of jobs would she do to support herself during dry periods? Admin? Bar work? Retrain?
How else could the knowledge/skills be used? e.g. go into teaching or drama therapy.

I realise that's a lot to take in. Basically what I'm saying is that instead of watching job videos and saying "yeah that doesn't look too bad", your daughter taking the time to know herself, know her supports/barriers and knowing what is available to her will enable her to make a much more well informed decision about her future career. A lot of this is what a career advisor will take her through during an interview so that she can go away and do the research.

Not that I'm saying don't watch the videos or do work experience, it's all really useful stuff. If it is university she wants to do, a lot of them do course tasters where you can go try out a few types of courses before settling on one so it may be worth looking into that. Also bear in mind that once someone gets a degree from university, many don't pursue their degree choice as a future career, there are loads of options available to graduates often regardless of their course choice.

Anyway I hope that helps and isn't too much of an information overload. Good luck to your daughter

celiam_2

teacherrk wrote: »

Hi celiam,

I to am in the same predicament as yourself and I posted on a similar subject a while back. My school have a DVD collection called Careers4utv, which are a fantastic resource featuring young people talking about their different jobs in a variety of careers. Ask your school if they have them, if not I believe Careers4utv are soon launching an online careers library for everyone to access very soon according to their website. They have a few example videos on their youtube site if you want to take a look and see what you think. Just search for careers4utv on youtube to find them

Thanks Ricky, the full length clips on youtube are helpful but they aren't many of them. I will find out if the school can help with DVDs next term. she has left school but my son is still there - though he hasn't heard of them.

celiam_2

Thanks Kate - that could be really good once the site is launched - but its still under construction. I looked around the bits which were accessible and, if the thumbnails are anything to go by, they have masses of videos and some good ways of searching - . I'll take another look later. Meanwhile the pressure is off a little as she (daughter) is planning to work her way through a ski season - if she gets the job.

Oldernotwiser

celiam wrote: »

Thanks Ricky, the full length clips on youtube are helpful but they aren't many of them. I will find out if the school can help with DVDs next term. she has left school but my son is still there - though he hasn't heard of them.

I really do think that your daughter needs proper careers guidance. If you ask at the Connexions Centre you should be able to make an appointment with one of the older, professionally qualified staff who used to be Careers Advisers rather than one of the newer people who have come in as Connexions Personal Advisers.

Looking at videos and reading reference materials are useful ways to find out about various jobs/careers but it shouldn't take the place of proper guidance from someone who is trained in the field.

celiam_2

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

For info see xxxxx
Course dates near you are shown on right hand side of page if you click on the relevant area.

HTH

x

Thanks for this pointer. I think she has other plans but it's good to know about the different types of help The Princes Trust offers. I thought it was only relevant to city areas.

altyfc

Forget profiling, but what does she want to do?

I'm sure it's come a long way since my day, but I was supposedly destined to be either a sculptor or a librarian.

I opted for a job in IT in the end.