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Help find a career for a fussy 17 year old!
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I posted a thread a few days asking for tips on becoming a Learning Support Teacher/Assistant, but for the 50th time this year i've again changed my mind. 
I'm in my last year of high school and am beginning to panic that I can't decide on what I want to do in life! :eek:
I've thought of becoming a primary school teacher (which still appeals strongly to me, but I don't have Int1 Maths thus can't take the required Int2 course for uni), a counsellor (was going to take a Child and Adolescent home learning course which would earn me a Diploma but i've no idea what to do after that and if the course is even genuine!
), a youth worker and a learning support teacher. As you can tell i'm interested in working with kids/youths and although I don't have the best qualifications (I should have a Higher English, Youth Issues and RMPS plus several Intermediates below my belt by the end of August) i'm very determined to get somewhere in life! I've not taken education seriously until a few months ago, which is far too late, I know. I was an idiot for 16 years and only recently did I discover how much education i've wasted.
Is anyone willing to help me make up my mind and give me advice on what to do? I have a careers advisor at school but he's only in twice a week and he doesn't make any sense at all, plus the meetings are rushed due to our prelims coming up and teachers not allowing us to take too long at meetings. I'm so frustrated I can't make my mind up and don't have a clue how to get into anything!
I'm in my last year of high school and am beginning to panic that I can't decide on what I want to do in life! :eek:I've thought of becoming a primary school teacher (which still appeals strongly to me, but I don't have Int1 Maths thus can't take the required Int2 course for uni), a counsellor (was going to take a Child and Adolescent home learning course which would earn me a Diploma but i've no idea what to do after that and if the course is even genuine!
), a youth worker and a learning support teacher. As you can tell i'm interested in working with kids/youths and although I don't have the best qualifications (I should have a Higher English, Youth Issues and RMPS plus several Intermediates below my belt by the end of August) i'm very determined to get somewhere in life! I've not taken education seriously until a few months ago, which is far too late, I know. I was an idiot for 16 years and only recently did I discover how much education i've wasted.Is anyone willing to help me make up my mind and give me advice on what to do? I have a careers advisor at school but he's only in twice a week and he doesn't make any sense at all, plus the meetings are rushed due to our prelims coming up and teachers not allowing us to take too long at meetings. I'm so frustrated I can't make my mind up and don't have a clue how to get into anything!
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I know this isn't exactly helpful but at 17 you have a lot of time to find out what you want to do.
OP doesn't have the grades to get onto a medical degree!
Seriously, chill out. You have time to try different careers. You don't have to map your whole life out now.
Try something - see if you like it.
Life's supposed to be an adventure.
With regards to careers, well if you did a HNC in Social Sciences you could then apply for a Psychology degree in university, perhaps leading onto becoming a Child Psychologist if you still wish to work with children? Other career paths you could possibly take in life, working with youths/children, could be a Social Worker, Youth Mentor (where you help children who are underachieving in education)... Gosh, there are SO many things that you could do! I honestly would advise doing a HNC, it will open many more doors for you.
Don't give up; google 'working with children' etc to gather a fuller list of possible career paths, take a look at the relevant qualifications/degrees needed to achieve this, contact universities and ask them what qualification HNC you would need to access their course (as many just state the relevant highers/A levels on the website, but accept students with many different types of qualifications).
Good luck!
Don't stress Shadow
Take it easy. Take your time in choosing what is right for you. Too many people panic into a career they don't find interesting or fulfilling.
The problem is, there are many careers where you do have to do a bit of forward planning at 16/17. At the very least, you need to rule those out at that age, otherwise you'll have spent years trying things out then realise you want to do something that would involve going back to do do the A-levels necessary to get onto the approporate degree course. If you want to do law or medicine, then you need to make that decision early. If you want to be a pilot, for example, you can't really leave it much later than about 22. Sometimes. doing courses when you are more mature can be an advantage, though - you tend to want to learn more when you are older.
Agreed.
E.g. A Partner in an accountancy firm. 3 years doing a degree, up to 5/6 years studying for your professional exams, and then 20 years before becoming a partner?
You cant waltz into a career and make good money immediately.
True enough but 22 is still another five years for the OP.
The important thing is to have sufficient A Levels so that whatever you decide to do you can get into studying it at a higher level as quickly as possible without having to get up to scratch with your basic qualifications.
To Shadow from the other Shadow
So I think that if you know you want to do, go and talk to people. See if your careers advisor can put you in touch with websites, people or service who can advise you. Your county council will have a children and young people department and it might be worth seeing if you can volunteer with a play group, scouts or guides group to see if working with children is your thing or not. Volunteeing is a great way to explore opportunities without commiting to a career. You can find out here www.do-it.org.uk
Also the National Trust do education events for children too so that's worth looking at as they recruit volunteers to partake in living history.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chl/w-learning_discovery.htm
As far as education goes then perhaps concentrate on A levels and building up your basic qualifications so you have a platform on which to adapt to any career with training. The OU do a proper, accredited course - you mentioned you were concerned the home learning diploma was not recognised - well the OU most definitely are.
http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/childhood-and-youth/index.htm
http://www.workingwithkids.co.uk/
But I agree with what has been said, you have a lifetime ahead of you and it's so sad that at your age you are so worried about this, It's so unfair that you have this pressure to choose at such a young age. Enjoy exploring if you can and try not to worry.
At the moment, i'm still considering primary teaching. As I said, the only thing holding me back from that is I don't have the necessary qualifications.
Can I just say that primary teaching is incredibly competitive at the moment. To get into it you will need heaps of experience with children and very good grades. I have very good grades from school and college and a 2:1 from a good red brick uni as well as years of experience with kids e.g. brownie leader, running kids clubs, Camp America etc and am still struggling to get on a PGCE simply coz there's s many people who want to do it, Hence why I am working as a teaching assistant until I finally get on a course.
I'm not saying don't try and do it, I believe everyone should go for their dreams, I'm just saying have realistic expectations. If you're not 100% sure then maybe get some voluntary experience with kids, starting now, and then try and become a teaching assistant first and see how much you enjoy it. You could always try and rectify the maths situation whilst doing that. Have a good think about what you want to do BEFORE going to uni as it's a hell of a lot of money now and you don't want it to be wasted on the wrong thing. Experience counts for a lot these days so try and get as much as you can in the fields that you're interested in. It sounds like volunteering for something like Brownies or Guides could help you a lot and is dead easy to get into, I started the week after I applied and they tend to CRB check you while you do it so you don't have to wait around for months before you start.
I agree with this! I have no idea what I want to be, and I'm 38. Well, I have ideas of things I might like to do, but they change regularly. I've done lots of different things over the years.
It's never impossible to change careers, so if you pick something and do it for a bit and then decide it's not what you want, it's not the end of the world, far from it. I think it makes you a more rounded person, and hardly anyone goes into a career at 17 now and stays in it for ever.
When I finished my A levels I had no idea at all what I wanted to do, so I buggered off to France and then Switzerland and worked in various hotels and restaurants and then as an au pair, did some travelling, lots of skiing, lots of partying and having fun. I supported myself, had fun, and had time to think about and experience some of the kinds of things I liked and didn't like about working. After that I went to uni, changed uni course half way through, then trained as something else, and then changed career twice since then. No need to decide now!
Agreed. I'm 25 and while I know that's not old, I did think I'd be well into my career by now following on from my degree and making loads of money... it hasn't quite happened like that! But I do have a lot of interesting experiences that I'm very thankful for
Threads are made to be bumped!
I would take a chill pill though, you're only 17!!! It's good to think about these things, to plan and so forth but I think your really getting too het up about all this.. I think there is a lot of unnecessary pressure and expectation to go to uni these days and secure a degree and 'career' early on.
Things always work out in the end
Yeah, at school we keep being told that uni courses are very difficult to get into and we'd be lucky to get in unless we got perfect grades and that we should be planning our careers out now and that a decision has to be made as early as possible to what career you want and how to get into it.
And the main reason why I prefer PM's is so the full forum isn't laughing at me if I ask a daft question or something.