Exploring ideas for your future career

Did you know that you don’t need clear career ideas or goals just yet?  

After year 11 you will need to make important decisions about what you do and where you go to continue your qualifications, but it’s ok to be unsure about what you’d like to do as a career!

There are lots of resources you can use to help you explore your interests, learn how to develop your skills, and discover what careers you might like to do one day.

Start by looking forwards:

• Be aware of your personal qualities and skills – think about how those skills are transferrable
• Take time to develop these skills through schoolwork, extra-curricular activities, responsibilities at school and home, and even part-time work.
• Think about your strengths and weaknesses, and consider what you like and why
• Research your career ideas and how your interests could relate to certain careers

Consider what you like and why:

As you work your way through your GCSE courses you will start to develop preferences for certain topics and tasks. Different ways of learning and particular talents will start to emerge.

Topics:

• What are your favourite subjects and why?
• What topics interest you and make you want to find out more?
• Are there any topics that make you think you may want to study this subject or topic in the future?

Tasks:

• When you think about your favourite subjects, what do you enjoy doing the most?
• Class discussion, project work, independent research, practical, or hands-on activities?

Ways of learning:

• Do you enjoy class-room learning and theory?
• Do you prefer project work and coursework?
• Do you do well working to deadlines?
• Would you prefer to learn in an actual real-life workplace?

Talents:

• Is there something you are really good at? It could be a subject or an activity like a hobby.
• Maybe you create your computer games or YouTube videos in your spare time
• Maybe you write a blog or create content for social media platforms
• Maybe you’re great at cooking or baking

It’s good to remember that if you cannot identify your preferences and talents, then you could try some reverse thinking, which will help you to identify things you definitely would not enjoy in terms of tasks, activities, and learning.