Careers

School's Out!

Making the decision to leave school shouldn't be taken lightly but for many, finding a job as soon as possible has obvious appeal. It's important to know what options are available now so that you can make decisions that are right for you.

Your training and education doesn't have to stop when you get a job, and you might even be able to get training whilst still working. This will stand you in good stead later in life and work qualifications will help you earn more as you progress through your chosen career.

The Jobs4u part of the site contains a massive database with tons of information on nearly every job imaginable Even if you don't have a clue what you want to do, the database allows you to search for careers based on what you enjoy doing and what you're good at.

Looking to learn but don't know where?

Of course, not everyone leaving school is planning on going straight into a job. A lot of young people want to experience the greater freedom offered by a sixth form or further education college, whilst still continuing in formal education.

If you're staying on in education, you'll need to think about how your choices now will affect your career choices later in life. We've got advice about studying after sixteen and a course search to help you take the first steps on your chosen career path.

We can take you through the pros and cons of different places to study including options you may not have considered like The Prince's Trust and the Duke of Edinburgh award.

There are quizzes about qualifications and learning and a video quiz about getting the job you want. Watch a video where young people talk about the importance of qualifications versus experience to prospective employers or simply explore a wide range of study options. You might be surprised by how flexible the system is and there's bound to be an option that suits your needs.

If you're a disabled young person there are lots of options available to you and we investigate these as well as focusing specifically on specialist colleges.

Finally, we can help you find out about money in a group of articles that cover everything from education maintenance allowances to financial support for disabled students.

Looking for work after Year 11?

If you're leaving school at the end of year 11, you face different decisions to those leaving later. We've written some articles specifically for you covering qualifications and skills and learning and earning which can help you to decide what you want to do next.

We can also help you get clued up about work based learning which will allow you to learn how to do a job, gain the skills an employer needs, gain nationally recognised qualifications and get paid!

You can watch videos to see what other young people did when they were faced with the same choices as you by visiting CXDi. There are videos of young people talking about landing that dream job, support to get back into learning and working and learning.

There is even a funny short film about preparing for an interview which can give you some useful hints and tips.

Finally we've got a quick quiz for you so that you and your friends can test your knowledge on what's available to you at 16.

Lifelong Learning

We can't talk about leaving school without mentioning one really important thing - don't think that just because you're leaving school now, you can never go back into education. Education and training takes on many different forms these days with something designed to suit everyone!

There are loads of ways to get qualifications and skills at any time in your life and we cover these in our article about lifelong learning.