The UCAS Careers Quiz
By answering questions about their interests, personality and plans, students as young as 11 can now receive personalised career matches along with a list of courses that previous students studied to get there.
It’s important students consider their post-school plans early – but with so many options, where should they start?
A few light conversations over dinner or while watching TV – as opposed to an intimidating sit down talk about ‘the
future’ – is probably the best way to get them thinking about their next steps.
If that step is university, but they’re struggling to get inspired by a particular subject, try to get them thinking about
potential areas of study, in terms of:
By answering questions about their interests, personality and plans, students as young as 11 can now receive personalised career matches along with a list of courses that previous students studied to get there.
The decisions your child makes early on, even as far back as GCSE (or equivalent) options, can have an impact on what – and where – they end up studying for their degree. It all depends on what they want to do in the future, but some extra thought early on could pay off later down the line.
If your child has an idea of what they want to study, get them to check the entry requirements – these may mention particular subjects or qualifications they’ll need, as well as any grades they’ll need to get on to the course.
They might not be able to apply to certain courses without having taken specific qualifications – for example, GCSE chemistry may be a requirement for medicine courses.
It’s not unusual for young people to be unsure about their future at this stage, so try not to worry! Encourage them to keep their options open by selecting commonly asked for subjects in university entry requirements.
These are known as ‘facilitating’ subjects, and include:
Doing what they enjoy most and are good at is always a good idea too, as this is usually the subject(s) they’ll do best in and go on to study.