Year 12 Subject/Career choices

vivaladiva

Hi
DD is currently looking at options for Year 12. She knows what subjects she is good at, but has no idea what she wants to do as a career. All the careers advice seems to be geared the opposite way around - ie what do you want to do- this is what you need to study. Does anyone know of a website that can provide career options from a list of A level qualifications?
TIA

Mrs7ones

Hi,
DS1 is in the same situation.
He knows he wants to go to Uni eventually, but has no idea what he wants to study when he gets there.
I think the problem is that at 15/16 kids often don't know what they want to do and end up getting pushed into making possibly not the right choices..
We went to our local collage last week for on open evening and were given what I consider to be the best advice yet:-
He was advised to do A Levels in 4 subjects that he likes and feels he will stick at and hopefully get good grades at.
That way, he has the best chance of getting the points he will need for the Uni course of his choosing.
We were told that many Uni's aren't bothered about what subjects the A Levels are in, it's the grades that count (obviously I'm not talking about Oxford & Cambridge here..:rolleyes:)

Hope that helps!!

floss2

I would second that, better to study something you enjoy than something you hate just because you're good at it.

Another thing that counts is something to put on their personal statement.... whether it is weekend job, charity work, Duke of Edinburgh, amatuer dramatics / dancing / sport etc as it shows they have a life outside of their studies.

Good luck - been through it twice and they're both at Uni now!

joeblack066

Having worked in Youth Training for years, and also for Connexions, I would agree with the above posters. AS/A Levels are tough, and the best advice is to encourage your DD to take the subjects that she enjoys, as these will lead naturally to a degree that again she enjoys. I now work in Adult Training, and am always saying "A happy student is a good student". Oh so true!

vixarooni

When i chose my a levels i choose english because i got a B for my GCSE. I wasnt all that keen on english but i knew it came natural to me so it might be a good one to choose. I then choose biology because i liked the subject, trouble is i failed biology in a level, i liked the subject alot but it was poorly taught and i wasnt as great at it as i thought it was.

My advice (from a student perspective): pick things you enjoy, but what you are also best at too. I didnt try for my a levels sadly, i came away with a C in English, D in general studys and cant even remember the third. I then went on to do a HND because you only need one a level to get onto a HND course, and now i have finished that i am topping it up to a degree.

So for me, coming away with not so great a levels has now meant (when i finish) a degree in business!

I think you also find your own path - i got a new job while i was studying my HND, i now want that job to be apart of my career for my future, so you never know when one day what you wanna do will just hit you! Perhaps i have been lucky, i dont know, but really what im trying to say is that it doesnt really matter what you pick, there are so many paths to go down you will find the right one in the end!

good luck

Savvy_Sue

There are a few careers and university degrees for which it actually matters what A levels you take, but even for them, you can go back and do a 'missing' subject as an evening class, so I would say go for what she wants to do now and worry about careers a bit later. As long as she's reasonably sure she doesn't want to be a medic or a vet!

DS3 has just made his choices: he's very good at Maths but refuses to consider it, so he has the fairly odd combination of Philosophy, Chemistry, Physics and Sociology on his 6th form application!