My job is to work with pupils at Hazlehead Academy to help them plan for the future – either the next year at school, or what they want to do when they leave.
If you’re at school you’ve probably seen your careers adviser, either in PSE or in an appointment. We help pupils to develop their Career Management Skills by focusing on what you enjoy, what you are good at, who can help you, and making sure that you know all of your options. If your careers adviser gets in touch to offer you an appointment don’t panic! We’ll never tell you what to do and we don’t expect you to have everything sorted out after one meeting. Planning for your future is a process and it takes everybody a different amount of time. We’ll never judge your ideas or make you feel silly – we are here to help you figure out what you want, and feel confident enough to take those next steps. We even have advisers who keep working with you after school if you don’t have a plan in place when you leave, so there is lots of support available no matter what stage you are at.
I love working in a school as I get to speak to lots of different people with different ideas – whether they are aiming for college or university, or want to speak about apprenticeships, jobs – or their ideas for starting a business! I also plan lessons for PSE so I can speak to whole classes at once about different things such as Career Management Skills, options for after school, or how to learn more about themselves.
During this term we will be meeting S3 and S4 pupils in PSE to talk about their options for the next year or school, or what they could do when they leave school. We will also be meeting with S2 or S3 pupils one to one to talk about their pathway planning for their time at school.
Skills Development Scotland has been supporting the new ABZ Works website, which has lots of career pathway information.
We also have our own website, My World of Work. This might be familiar to a lot of you as you will have used it in school in PSE or with your careers adviser. My World of Work has lots of information and advice from job profiles to a CV builder. There are tools you can use to explore your strengths and skills, and information about different industries. We are launching the new Green Industry page on My World of Work this month, with lots of information about green careers and the varied skills that are needed right now, and in the future.
If you are unsure about your plans for the next year of school, or your next steps after school get in touch with your careers adviser, or talk to your guidance teacher.
ABZWorks route to a new job