So what can you do if you or your child is unsure of what to do next? There is help out there if you

Our most vulnerable students need more help making their choices at the end of Year 11. Too many are reaching the end of their school days with no idea what they want to do or what direction to go in.
Others follow the family pattern taking on apprenticeships or courses in the same field as their Dad. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this unless it is no knowledge of other options that makes them take this path. It means students are sealed cheap tickets flight hotel rental car into the work patterns of their parents.
Others with a lack of certainty opt for vocational level two and three courses within school giving themselves a chance to increase their skills while they consider their future beyond the school walls.
cheap tickets flight hotel rental car Where I teach the school has worked really cheap tickets flight hotel rental car hard to address this student uncertainty and have one staff member seemingly working 24/7 to fix this but even with her gargantuan efforts and able support there is work still to do.
Students need to be clear about what to do next at the beginning of Year 10 at the very latest. They need to be considering what they might like to study next and what career path they would wish to follow.  Wrong choices could mean they are removing opportunities they may wish to have taken.
Research by the University of Southampton (2004) recommends that schools offer careers advice even as early as Year 7. They also suggested implanting careers advice into the subject teaching so that careers become cheap tickets flight hotel rental car embedded with the subject. This would really help students to understand the options each subject gives them.
Teachers agree wholeheartedly. One said: “Careers planning needs to come early in such a competitive cheap tickets flight hotel rental car environment as the job market is today. My Year 8s have just starting putting a basic CV together of skills and things they’re doing outside of lessons and school. Ambushing them in year 10 might just be too late for some.”
One student cheap tickets flight hotel rental car at a nearby school said: “It would be great to get some careers advice from your teachers about what career opportunities qualifications in their subjects can give you. I don’t really know what I want to do.
I’m thinking about sciences because there are so many jobs in that area, but I’ve not had any advice or anything so I don’t really know. I think there is a careers adviser at school, but I’ve no idea who they are!”
This seemed a regular complaint. Another adult friend looked cheap tickets flight hotel rental car back and said: “I was told to pick A levels that were my best subjects at GCSE and I don’t remember being given any advice about where it might lead me apart from to university. With hindsight that was the wrong decision for me. I ended up studying one of the subjects at university and I didn’t cheap tickets flight hotel rental car even like it very much.
I wish I’d gone with my gut feeling at the time and not listened to advice but I wasn’t confident enough at that age. There was also way too much emphasis placed cheap tickets flight hotel rental car on going to university. I have now ended up doing a job that I enjoy that has no connection with any of my studies cheap tickets flight hotel rental car and that I ‘fell into ‘ after I left uni.”
Lacking a clear goal can lead to students becoming disengaged with education. It needs to be seen to serve a purpose. cheap tickets flight hotel rental car A study by Andy Ross (2009) found 19 per cent of young people were disengaged by Year 10 and as such had lower aspirations.
Many factors were at play ranging from the attitude of their parents to school and work, to opinions cheap tickets flight hotel rental car of peers and instances of being bullied. Over a third of this group left school cheap tickets flight hotel rental car with few or no qualifications and a great deal of them had no solid future plans.
A former colleague explained how she had no ‘clear passions or strengths’ as a student and as such found it hard to plan ahead. She sees this same problem when advising her own students now: “Guiding those with specific interests is easy; lots of different cheap tickets flight hotel rental car directions and routes to explore.
I always want to help those like me and the advice cheap tickets flight hotel rental car I give them is if you’re unsure then spread the net wide, go with some useful subjects and some you love. Use your heart and your head! A mixture is best at that point, keep your options open and enjoy studying. Variety is the spice of life!”
Some students however will have been clear of their goals from early on, no matter what their academic background. Chatting to a mixed group I found myself with future cheap tickets flight hotel rental car plumbers, electricians, farmers, carpenters, motor mechanics and animal managers. These are all excellent options with clear qualifications cheap tickets flight hotel rental car to be undertaken to reach their destinations.
cheap tickets flight hotel rental car These youngsters in Year 10 and 11 already knew what GCSEs grades they would need to qualify for the courses cheap tickets flight hotel rental car and this information empowered them to work towards this end. A sense of your future self is a great motivator.
So what can you do if you or your child is unsure of what to do next? There is help out there if you look for it. The -unfortunately now dated- document It’s Your Choice from the Department of Education (2010) still offers some handy advice about the many different options available.
Talk to your subject teachers and find out where your strengths lie. Think about which GCSE subjects you have enjoyed and which you would like to explore cheap tickets flight hotel rental car in more detail. I still recall the joy at dropping those that had caused me pain at GCSE and honing it down to a group of subjects that I truly loved.
If you are studying something completely new you need to check you know what is in store and if it is really up your street. Knowing the title is not enough. Speak to friends, your parents and those who are currently doing the course or qualification you are interested in.