Career planning is definitely an important part of options choices as many subjects help students on their way to jobs.
Students don't need to have everything locked down in a 5 or 10 year plan, but a general idea helps students to see the point in school and aides in choosing subjects that are interesting to them.
Career options are overwhelming. Students in today's world can literally do anything and this can be overwhelming. Our advice to students stuck in this overwhelm is:
You will find your place. You don't have to have it all figured out for the next 50 years!
Look for the opportunities in front of you right now and choose one or two to try out. By saying YES! to an opportunity you will find yourself led to other, probably better, opportunities.
Your opportunity at school right now is to get all your NCEA Levels. These bits of paper aren't everything, but they represent keys to opportunities as well as showing an ability to stick to something to achieve it.
If you need some ideas, click on the Career Quest button to the right. It’s a 78 question quiz that throws ideas at you based on your interests. Just do the basic version without signing in - scroll down to find it.
Ask people you trust what they think you should do. Often, they have some great ideas that you could then try out through a STAR course or Gateway placement.
Careers.govt.nz is a great place to start if you have an idea of what you would like to do.
Career options are searchable and this site gives information on career prospects, pay, what the job actually entails as well as information on the education pathways to get there.
Just click on the bright pink button to the left.
