Student career advice that works in 2010
Posted on 12:23pm, 5th July 2010 • No Comments
Until very recently, the most commonly given student career advice was – go to university if you possibly can, you’ve better career prospects with a degree. That student career advice has been questionable for some time but at least it kept teenagers motivated and gave them a clear goal to aim at.
What’s happened over the last few weeks is an astonishingly sudden turnaround in student career advice and a collapse in belief about the public and employment value of a degree (just see the stream of media articles and government speeches). No hope of a university place or of a decent job – why shouldn’t teenagers despair?
As parent, career advisor or tutor, what student career advice can you give right now that’s useful, encouraging and honest?
Students’ career advice should remind them, I think, that just because a goal’s got more difficult for most people, if it’s the right goal for them it’s probably still within reach. They’ll need to work in a different way to reach that goal, though. Students’ career advice should explain they’ll need to put much more effort into finding more about themselves and the “goodie” they’ve targeted, thinking “out of the box” and planning like project managers. They’ll also need to be politely pushy – student career advice is one of the state’s “Cinderella services”.
Career advice for students panicking they may not get a university place? Advise them to first think long and hard about the value of a degree to them (is it more than £20K?) and how likely it is that they’ll get a 2.1 in their chosen subject.
Students should push their tutors and specialist career advisors as hard as they possibly can for one to one assessments of their developing academic potential (ideally based on both their course results and good psychometric information), personal strengths and career interests. Armed with this student career advice, teenagers can then investigate the many ways of achieving their goals (eg a rewarding adult life, a professional job, etc) beyond those which require study at a conventional university. Students can get ideas and help from their colleges’ careers advisors and local Connexions service, from www.notgoingtouni.co.uk – or from us!
What about the students who despair of getting a decent job in a time of rocketing youth unemployment? Students’ career advice should encourage them to get as good qualifications as they can at “A” Level (NVQ3) or equivalent, to make themselves competitive candidates for most of the good jobs that are around. Although students will of course use the services of state-funded agencies like Connexions to help them job hunt, they and their parents should also put a lot of effort into networking to identify hidden job opportunities. Mums chatting at the supermarket can sometimes unearth very useful students’ career advice and information about jobs not yet advertised.
Students’ career advice should never forget the importance of personal development and having fun at this stage in life, even when the outlook’s as dreary as it now is. One way of keeping yourself motivated throughout the job hunt and also of improving career prospects over your lifetime is to enjoy yourself learning about a different country’s culture and / or improving your languages through an exchange programme. See student career advice sites such as www.ukcisa.org.uk and www.britishcouncil.org/connectyouth for details about some of these programmes. Any town with a twinning arrangement could set up its own schemes.