engage, enterprise, innovate.

Where do you start?

I often sit in my drop in sessions confronted by a year 11 who is, frankly, overwhelmed.

They are finally facing the first point of real decision about their life after years and years of education, assessments, careers advice, open days, workshops and assemblies.

They’ve been told about A Levels, Btecs, OCR national diplomas, NVQs, Traineeships and Apprenticeships. They’ve been told about Level 2s and Level 3s, UCAS points, HNDs, BAs and BSc, Masters degrees, graduate schemes, internships and access courses.

They’ve been told they HAVE to stay in education or training, by law, until they are 18.

They’ve often been sent to me by a teacher, or a parent, who have very well meaning and slightly panicked worries about them. They have no plan. What are they going to do after school/college/uni. Where will they go? Who will they be?

They’ve been told, ‘I’ve made an appointment for you to go and meet Amy. She’ll sort you out’.

And so they sit, in front of me, waiting to be told what to do next.

And I can’t do that.

But I ask, what do you want to do?

At this stage I often get an ‘I don’t know’. Asking anyone, at any stage of their life what they want to do for the rest of it is hard. But at 16, it’s almost impossible.

So then, I ask some different questions.

‘What have you ever done or made that you are most proud of?’

‘When do you feel happiest?’

‘What would your friends say you’re good at?’

The key to being happy in your future is self awareness. If you are a naturally introverted person, whose job requires you to be an extrovert, you will never be truly happy in your job, because it goes against your personality. Change your career to fit your personality, not your personality to fit your job.

Unfortunately, self awareness is often something that comes with age, experience, and hindsight. It comes from doing lots of different jobs and roles and realising that you don’t want to do some things, and do want to do others. It comes from discovering strengths you didn’t know you had, and learning to say no to the things you know are weaknesses.

This is not something many 16 year olds have done.

So, I give them some exercises. The national careers service website is fantastic. there are personality tests which can give some suggestions of what to focus on.

but mostly, I tell them:

1. Don’t do nothing. Volunteer, help out at your little sister’s football team, give out water bottles at a half marathon, help a friend build a website. The more you do the more you learn what you like and what you don’t like.

2. It might be a sensible choice to learn a trade, but if its something you don’t care about or aren’t strong at you might find yourself in the same position in two years time looking for another course. Choose your qualification based on something you love. (True story – just last week I met a 16 year old who thought he should be an electrician, but after further chatting he revealed he really liked working with young people, and would like to be in an environment where he could help families and kids who are in need. He didn’t think you could have a career in that. He left having applied for five apprenticeships, including ones with the YMCA and the local Surestart centres. But I digress…)

BUT!

3. Do not rely on just the hours that you spend in the class room to guarantee your future. This is the very minimum of your journey. Every college and sixth form now knows the importance of employability and transferable skills and will give you so much opportunity to do work experience, enterprise and development. Take every one! The future jobs market is such that you cannot guarantee a job for life any more, and it is those skills you learn as a by-product of your qualification – presentation, communication, teamwork, enterprise, that will sell you to a future employer. You have to be your own entrepreneur. 

So… use this amazing social media and technology that anyone under 20 is hardwired into and write a blog, review music/films/games/sportswear/chocolate on a youtube channel, tell jokes on twitter, start a small business, invent something ridiculous, engage, enterprise, innovate.

The beauty of having NO CLUE what they want to do is that they at the beginning of a journey. They haven’t yet woken up in their late twenties in a job they don’t really care about that they can’t leave because it’s paying their mortgage (another too true story…) They have an opportunity to really embrace whatever makes them happy, makes them special, makes them unique, and make it their specialism.

But until they find out what that is, engage, enterprise, innovate. If nothing else, it will be fun.