Career Guidance For Teenagers In Today's World

As parent, career advisor or tutor, what career guidance for teenagers can you give that's useful, encouraging and honest? Today's teenagers will have to make their way in a very competitive world.

Sensible career guidance for teenagers will encourage them to work for the best "A" Level grades (or their equivalent - eg BTEC or NVQ3) they can. High grades at this stage keep their options open. This is important when you consider a quarter of the teenage job seekers can't now find any job, let alone a job with good prospects. If teenagers stay in full-time education, they still face a future where one in five graduates is unemployed.

Some of the better employers - eg accountancy firms - that previously recruited graduates now recruit "A" Level students instead. These employers put their new recruits through university, saving the students (and their parents!) up to £100K in tuition fees and living costs. They're offering students a very good deal and naturally they're only interested in employing the best and brightest of candidates.

Teenagers wanting an apprenticeship to kick-start their careers need to realise employers can afford to be very choosy (1,000 candidates applied for 100 apprenticeships recently). Employers want people who are bright and work hard so they'll be more impressed by good academic grades than mediocre ones.

Until very recently, the most commonly given career guidance for teenagers to all bright pupils was to study for a degree ("career prospects are better as a graduate"). Parents and students increasingly doubt this (there are too many unhappy graduates living on unemployment benefits) but places at conventional universities are still massively over-subscribed.

What's the right career guidance for teenagers wondering whether degree study is for them? Students and their parents should push tutors and specialist career advisors as hard as they possibly can for one to one assessments of the teenagers' developing academic potential (ideally based on both their course results and good psychometric information), their personal strengths and their career interests.

The best advice here is to put on the pressure early - career guidance for teenagers is a neglected, under-funded public service and it may be very difficult to get an appointment with a professionally trained careers advisor. You may wish to consider paying for career guidance from a private-sector provider - there are many good ones.

What about career guidance for teenagers 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 £100K?) and how likely it is that they'll get a 2.1 degree in their chosen subject. Persuading teenagers to focus in a cool, rational way on what's in their best interests should calm them and may even prompt a re-think.

Good quality career guidance for teenagers will also help teenagers investigate the many different ways of achieving their goals (eg a rewarding adult life, a professional job, etc) beyond those which require study at a conventional university. Options here include gaining a degree with the Open University; completing the relevant professional training programme organised by national bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development; and undertaking degree-equivalent work-based National Vocational Qualifications (at levels 4 and 5).

Finally, career guidance for teenagers mustn't forget the importance of personal development and having fun during this stage of life. Investigate student exchange programmes and local town twinning arrangements and encourage your teenagers to see something of the world and its peoples while they're still free to do so.

Linda Whittern is Director of Careers Partnership (UK). She has contributed to government policy consultations on national career guidance delivery. Careers Partnership (UK) provides friendly and thorough one to one career advice for teenagers to help them make good decisions about their future study and career choices. Contact us for advice on your teenager's range of options.

Career Planning For The Teenagers - A Small Guide For Your Betterment

Have you started to think about your career or about college? If so the correct advice for you to plan your career is to join a school and then proceed to college. All teens and young ones can follow this. Well, there is a rumor in rounds saying that choosing one career path is just as easy as you choose your major at college.

But in truth, it is not the case. Planning your career is instead a complex and a tough process and hence care should be taken in it. In other words, planning your career can be considered as a program to be executed which consists of various steps that are to be followed with great attention. Various programs have been developed by universities and companies to help the young job seeker to filter his choices and find a good career path that yields success. Guides on such programs are distributed the universities to the public members as well as the students. Descriptions about the different career paths are very well explained in the guides. They also aid assist the student and guide them to focus more on heir career. The job seeker can spread his career paths as well as filter them by following well developed programs. But the students are never sure where there choice would land them by following these guides.

The job seekers and college students are advised by the experts in the area of teenage counseling and career counseling to choose their career path soon based on their personal skills and interest. These advices to students who are shaping their career are sometimes being forced to change them from a good one. They lose a best career but it depends whether they are fit enough to proceed with it. The college students are offered various jobs that are too good and many of them come from industries who offer a good pay. Choosing a good job is never automatic and the students must understand this. So while choosing a career path it is best advised to for the teens to choice a good college program and a career path that best fits him.

There is a common conception on choosing a career path would leave the individual stick to the same for the rest of his life. But this is a rumor every individual comes through while crossing his phase of career planning. Changing careers are also witnessed among people. Some even change their careers on a regular basis. So it is a misconception that an individual is always stuck with a career that he chooses with his college major or the training course he followed as the base. Further, it is also reminded that the college major that you choose is always never a base for choosing a career path.

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