Career Planning is important if you are to find that perfect career and will help you increase your chance of entering your career of choice.

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There are 4 Stages in career planning

 

STAGE 1: KNOW YOURSELF 

 

The first stage in any career plan is to increase your self-awareness.  Identifying your strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes, will help you narrow down the type of work you might enjoy. Think about:

 

• What is important to you?

• What do you love to do?

• What are you good at?

• Where do you want to work? E.g. inside, outside, office, hospital, airport.

 

The “Buzz Quiz” on www.icould.com is a useful starting point for this.

 

 

STAGE 2: KNOW YOUR OPTIONS

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Once you have built up a more detailed picture of yourself, the next stage is to see how this relates to the career opportunities out there.  Read up and do your research into different careers and find ones that match your skills, interests and values.

 

The National Careers Service is a good place to start with over 800 job profiles in an easy to read format.

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Prospects, the graduate careers website has equally as many graduate careers for you to research and some real life case studies for you to read.

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The employer sponsored website Careersbox has some interesting video clips on different careers sectors.

 

The more visual Icould has career videos linked to school subjects and job types.

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STAGE 3: MAKE PLANS

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What do you need to do next? 

 

• A specific course at college/6th form

• University

• Apprenticeship or traineeship

• Further your skills and experience through work/volunteering
   

 

STAGE 4: TAKE ACTION and APPLY!