Make sure you spend some time at the beginning of the first session getting to know your pupil!

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Activity 1: What do you want to achieve?

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• By getting pupils to think about what they want to achieve, you can make the most out of the time you have together. This can also help focus your pupil and help you when thinking about what is best to cover in each session.

 

• Feel free to keep returning to this and make sure the programme is still feeling relevant and useful for your pupil.

 

• Is there anything that is not on the list they would like to get out of this programme? What parts of the programme can you focus on to ensure they go away having achieved their goals?

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Activity 2: What have you already thought about?

 

• If your pupil has some career or pathways ideas already, this is your opportunity to break down what they already know and start to think about how you can fill in any gaps in their knowledge.

 

• Ask questions to help your pupil identify why they are interested in those particular jobs or post-16 routes, and try to understand their influences.

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e.g. ask them if they have spoken to someone who does that job and what they know about what that job involves.

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Activity 3: What motivates you?

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• You should find yourself referring back to this activity throughout the programme, as you help your pupil evaluate different careers against what is important to them.

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• Probe students to explain how they are rating certain statements and explain meanings to them if they don't know certain ones.

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Activity 4: Strengths and skills

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• Most students find it easier to think about their interests and responsibilities first. If your pupil is finding it difficult to think of additional points, help them to reflect further on their daily lives; such as do they speak another language, help out at home or independently travel to school.

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• Encourage your pupils to think of at least two skills to fill in the last column. 

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• Try to get students thinking about these traits in relation to their employability, as students may not realise that their qualities would be valuable in the workplace.

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e.g. if your pupil has written "co-operative", you could encourage them to think about teamwork as a strength they could bring to the workplace and later ensure they consider roles that involve working with others.

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Activity 5: What else should I consider when thinking about careers? Availability and Earning Potential

 

• The first page of this activity just involves reading through the factors that pupils should be considering when thinking about careers. Hopefully this puts the first session and the programme as a whole into context.  You can read through and ask your pupil if they understand each point and which one they think might be the hardest for them to consider.

• The second page of this activity focuses specifically on availability and earning potential. The aim of the activity is to introduce your pupil to these ideas as they are important when making the right choices for their future. You don't need to go into loads of detail, but you can read through the descriptions ask the questions and the copy and paste the links to find the answers. 

• We would advise you to stay on the links for a couple of minutes and explore a few different careers, so pupils really understand the principles.

• Feel free to also use your own expertise or knowledge to provide context to this. Or explain a bit more about the correct answers/examples you know. e.g. the demand for paramedics is likely to increase because it's a job that will still need physical staff and the health care sector has lots of unfilled roles. Potentially the demand for IT consultants is likely to shrink because lots of these tasks are automated / outsourced now. 

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Debrief

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• Go through the checklist noting what you have achieved that session. Give your pupil lots of positive reinforcement and encouragement for what you have successfully completed.

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• Remember the debrief framework in training:

  • Ask what you have done in that session

  • Ask what they have enjoyed

  • Ask what the implications of this are

  • Ask what they can think about before the next session

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