Career Choice Planning

Now that year 12 has actually started, and you’re hopefully physically in school now’s a good chance to think through where you want your studies to lead to. Hopefully this blog will give you some pointers on how to plan, regardless of whether you’ve got a definite career aim or not.

The starting point is to ponder your current situation. Are you doing the right subjects? You probably applied for these subjects last January, are they still what you want to do? That might sound like an obvious question! If you have any questions or concerns, now is the time to ask as there will be a limited amount of time to change – this will depend on class sizes and the timetable.

A large percentage of students in year 12 have either a very specific career they are aiming for, e.g. medicine, or a reasonable idea – e.g. something to do with engineering or finance. If you don’t know what you want to do yet – this isn’t a problem either, we will take a look at both!

If you’ve got definite ideas

Research is key! There is plenty of great information around about different careers (try www.prospects.ac.uk). Its important to check out what a career actually is rather than rely on stereotypes! For instance not all nurses are female!

Work experience or shadowing is really useful. We know that time is precious, and after the last 18 months you’ll want to spend as much time as possible on your studies and actually having time in your friends company. But a few days to a couple of weeks experience will really help you get a better understanding about a career.

What routes are there into the career? Is it just university courses or are there degree apprenticeships too? Deciding how you’d like to qualify will be an important decision to make.

If you don’t have definite ideas

Research is key! Why not have use https://www.myfuturechoice.com/mycareerchoices/ to explore some ideas? This psychometric test will help you review what your aptitudes are and come up with some career ideas. You can also use https://www.myfuturechoice.com/myunichoices/ to research your uni choices too.

What motivates or interests you? How do you spend your free time? These interests may not have any obvious careers, but there will be some related careers. For instance, are you interested in chocolate? How about becoming a food scientist or chocolate taster?

How do your options sound? We know you’ve only just started your current qualifications but its worth finding out what you can do after this – whether this is choosing a uni course, an apprenticeship or gap year. What would be the pros and cons for you for each of these? By giving it some thought soon, you can start to frame how you would prefer to use your current courses in the future.

Whether you have ideas for your future career yet or not, there are other things you can do now that will really help. Getting involved in any extra curricular opportunities will really help as they will showcase lots of transferable skills. If you’ve got any hobbies or a part time job, these are definitely worth continuing, even if you don’t want to use them in a full time career. Lots of people will have side hustles to help earn money whilst at university. So for instance, keen on netball? Why not train as an umpire and earn some money alongside playing and your studies?

Hopefully this blog has given you some practical ideas on how to develop your future plans, regardless of how definite your ideas are so far. The main thing to do is talk your ideas through with someone, to help develop them further! And don’t worry if everyone else seems to have ‘nailed on’ ideas – from experience, these ideas will often change for various reasons!

Here at My Uni Choices we specialise in helping students, parents & educators make the best choices. Review all the Universities & Courses here or discover more About Us & the best uni courses for you, finally if you’re ready let’s take The Test to find out what course or degree you should do.