​SOURCES OF INFORMATION AND HELP​

The world of work is changing all the time. To help your teenager plan their career, you’ll need to ensure that they know what help is available, where to look for careers information, and how to evaluate and interpret what they find.

If you would like to make sure that you and your teenager have the very best chance of identifying the most effective career direction for them, then we offer the unique and proven

Designed by Carolyn Parry, our Lead Coach and the CDI’s UK Careers Adviser of the Year, it is specifically for parents, teachers and carers to work through with teenagers and provides a proven way of ensuring that your teen can always make effective career choices, no matter what the world throws  at them so they can create happy, successful and fulfilling working lives.

Because this online video course with accompanying ebooks and parent guide is a coaching and guidance programme, you will need to pay for this, but the price has been deliberately chosen to be extremely affordable and the proceeds go towards the costs of running the rest of the free site, which we hope you think is fair.
Alternatively, there is free provision across the UK, but this is a bit complicated and largely depends on where you live. 

Provision in England

The former careers service for pupils attending state schools, Connexions, has been abolished. Instead, the Government has handed responsibility for careers advice to secondary schools and funding has been badly hit in recent years.

If you are lucky enough to have a head teacher who takes the responsibility seriously your child will have access to a decent careers education programme and potentially even backed up with individual guidance from a qualified careers adviser. In practice, however, many young people do not get this level of support!

To supplement the support offered by schools the government has created an organisation called the National Careers Service which offers online support for young people aged 11-19 via text/email, a free phone telephone advice line, web chat and on their website.

If you are not going to university then you can get help from the Not Going to Uni website (though think about this carefully give that Government expects 40% of all jobs to need a university education in the next ten years or so.

Provision elsewhere in the UK
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In the other countries and dependencies of the UK, similar services are offered with the addition of some face to face guidance from trained careers advisers although this is limited, again due to the tightness of funding and much of the emphasis is on the online provision of information rather than supporting teenagers in making their choices.

Here are the links to the various devolved nations and crown dependencies.
Scotland – www.myworldofwork.co.uk
Wales – www.careerswales.com
Northern Ireland – www.careersserviceni.com
Isle of Man – www.gov.im/categories/education,-training-and-careers/careers-guidance/
Channel Islands – www.careers.gg (Guernsey) www.gov.je/careers (Jersey)
You and your teen may also find it helpful to have a look at our Useful Sites page.

What if my child has a learning and/or physical disability?If your teen has a disability, you’ll find lots of information to help you in our Special Educational Needs section which also contains links to other organisations who can provide specialist help.

Finally, encourage and support – but don’t dictate!Support from parents is very important when key decisions such as subject choices are being made. While it may not always feel that way, young people do take notice of advice offered to them by their parents or carers. Just keep in mind that your child’s decisions should be based on their personal interests, aspirations and abilities. It should not be about you running their life for them.