Getting advice about your learning and work options :Cross Stitch – Young people

When you reach 16, there are many education, training and work opportunities that you can explore. To help you choose what’s best for you, careers advisers are on hand to help you every step of the way.

It can be confusing when you’re deciding what career options to choose.

If your choices make the most of your skills and abilities, you can look forward to a happy future.

However, you might not even know what sort of career you want to follow yet. You may think that it’s still too soon to be thinking about what you’re going to be doing in five or ten years’ time.

As the world of work is changing so fast, how can you find the right path? To make the decisions that are right for you, you’ll need help.

When you’re planning your future, trained advisers will be able to give you:

  • reliable and up-to-date information about choices in your personal life and your learning and career options
  • advice on where to get help that’s relevant to you and how to apply it to your own life

Your adviser will also help you:

  • work out what you really want to do
  • understand what you can achieve
  • sort out any problems in your life
  • find your way to a bright future

There’s also lots of help online that you can read.

If you’re older than 11, a personal tutor will help you get specialist advice when you need it. Personal tutors work in schools, and their job is to make you aware of the full range of suitable education and training options. They will also sort out any problems that are getting in the way of your learning.

For example, your tutor will help you find:

  • high quality careers education to help you to plan and manage your career
  • impartial advice about your learning and work options, as well as the different types of qualifications that are available
  • opportunities to try out different qualifications to judge whether they’re suitable for you
  • information about the opportunities and benefits of higher education and what you need to do to get into university

In Years 10 and 11, you can take part in work-related learning. Your school will usually organise this, but it’s up to you to decide what sort of career path you want to find out more about.

This work-related learning could be:

  • work taster sessions
  • visits to your school by employers
  • experience of working in a real workplace

This will help you to understand the world of work to help you make your education and career choices.