Choosing a career

[MinniMouse]

Would she be interested in engineering. A lot of good opportunities - especially for females, in this field. My son works for a big oil company and they take on several apprentices every year. My SIL is an engineer. She has worked on the railways and the Edinburgh trams.

[novocastrian]

my daughter picks her options next year and hasnt got a clue what she wants to do career wise (neither did I at that age & sort of fell into my career as limited options in the 80's so went on YTS)

we have told her to pick what she enjoys doing not what she thinks she 'should' be doing, you wont put the required effort into something you dont want to do...

if she loves dance then there are plenty of avenues to explore and i disagree there isnt much chance of a career in it... ? yes getting into say Royal Ballet is not easy.. financially or ability wise but dance teacher/performer/school principal/choreographer are all viable options

never stopped billy elliot ;-)

[Minicooper]

We were in a similar situation, my daughter again had danced from the age of 5 and then discovered singing and acting as High School. So after GCSE's she has gone onto do a Extended BTEC in Musical Theatre which is equivalent to 3 A levels and she is just finishing her first year. We went through the same decisions after GCSE's and looked at A levels but this was the route she wanted to take so the BTEC seemed like the best decision.

So we are now looking at Universities/Performing Art Colleges. She understands she needs to do a degree course as we are unable to fund a Diploma Course which is what a lot of the performing arts colleges offer also she would like to eventually go onto teaching so would need the degree for that. They do offer Degrees as well but the competition is fierce and you need to check the fees as one we looked at in London fees for a year were over £14000 so several thousand pounds to find out of your own pocket after the £9250 you can borrow. However lots of Universities offer Performing Art Degrees if you go onto the UCAS website you can do a search. A couple of students from my daughters dance school have gone on recently to do degrees in dance one at LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) and one at Wolverhampton University.

I battled with should she be doing A levels so she had more choice afterwards for choice of degree/job. But this is what she wants to do and I now feel its the best decision as she is excelling in all areas and is predicted to get D*D*D* which is equivalent on UCAS points to 3 A* at A level.

[Whitequeen]

Our school offer Criminology and Social Anthropology in Sixth Form. My DD seems to enjoy them. I wish they'd offered these when I was at school.

Still doesn't know what she wants to do, though.

[wozza]

I’m a midwife. It’s the most wonderful rewarding and at the same time draining and disheartening job!

[Gingerlife]

I was the same as your daughter having started dancing at the age of 2. I did all of my teaching qualifications through my dance teacher and the I.D.T.A.
I am now a police officer 🤔
Complete change of career and I do miss the dancing but there just wasn't any money in it and my parents also couldn't afford to send me to dance school.

[Guest]

My DD has just done here Eng Lit GCSE ( a year early ) and is now finishing yr 10

The only thing she wants to do it play netball, she is good at it and plays for " team bath's " U16 and plays club netball for a Local adult team, so she plays 3 times a week and trains twice a week ( on the same night as it happens )

That is all she wants to do, yes some do make a career out of it, but very few do, she is doing well in all her subjects and will get decent enough GCSE grades, already passed her BTEC sports course, but has very little interest in a " normal " job

its tough and i feel for you

[macadoo]

My friends daughter is a dancer, she did a level 3 btec in dance at college and then went to the London school of dance to do her degree. She wants to teach dance. Fees were no more expensive, though accommodation was.

[Floridatilly]

Some great advice thank you.
It’s so hard at 15 to know your future 😳

[roxie2001]

We are visiting universities and they all say it doesn't matter what degree you take, you are still more employable with one so to choose one you enjoy.
For A levels, the college had a taster day where you could attend six classes to get a feel for them. Dd went for Psychology, which was always her first choice as its also her her degree choice. It is very popular, but she needs it for her career and some universities consider it a science A level. English Language which was also one of Dds first choices. I think Lit is considered harder, and Dd did well in GCSE but she hates books so no point in putting herself through 2 years of that. Her third choice was more tricky, she would have loved creative writing but the government stopped that the year before she went. She went from Photography to Fine Art but actually settled on Sociology, she did consider swapping at the beginning of her course, but has stuck with it and despite not really enjoying it she is achieving top grades.