Keeping your options open
Make sure you keep your options open, even if you have a good idea about what you want to do. Remember you will be studying these subjects for up to 4 years and in some cases they will be necessary to get on to college and university courses or training courses after you leave school.
Make sure you choose the subjects that suit you, rather than what your friends are doing, as it will impact on what options are open to you after school. Remember there are no such thing as ‘girls’ subjects’ or ‘boys’ subjects’, so you shouldn’t choose subjects because you think it is mainly girls who take it or boys who take it.
Keeping your options open is good, but also try to find out more about what different jobs and careers certain subjects are needed for. For example, physics and maths are crucial for a career in many types of engineering jobs – and there are a lot of different types of engineering jobs!
If you have a clear idea of what you want to be then choosing subjects might seem easy at first, but make sure you have researched what types of courses are available, how long it takes to train and how much will you get paid. You might find a few surprises.
Your qualifications
National qualifications course and units are offered in different subjects in schools. It is important to check with your teachers what subjects are available and how many you need to take.
You are likely to work through National 4 and 5 before you have the option to continue to do Highers or Advanced Highers in S5 and S6.
You may also undertake modules towards other qualifications. The Scottish Qualifications Authority website has further information on National qualifications.
The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework can help you map out the best route to gaining the skills and qualifications you may need for a course or career. It will help you compare different types of qualifications.
Jobs and careers
The subjects you do at school don’t always directly match up with what job or career you end up pursuing.
- Find out what they do, how much it pays and how long you train for.
- Can you get work experience to try out different workplaces?
- What about volunteering? Can you become a volunteer to gain an insight into different types of work? It might even lead to a job.
- If you are thinking of a weekend job it might be worth thinking longer term and working out if they have a Graduate Training Programme or a Modern Apprenticeship Programme, which will mean that you can earn money while you learn.
There are a few areas of ‘transferable skills’ that is core skills that employers are often looking for. This includes areas such as communication skills – presenting and writing; team working; being able to work to deadline. What general skills do you have that employers can build on and develop?
Further advice and information
Start by exploring Choose your own path, where you will find out how subjects at school relate to courses and jobs , and check out our comic strips to find out how the characters decided what they want to be. There are some more useful links below:
Your school website
Project Scotland for volunteering opportunities
