Choosing GCSE Option Subjects
Advice for Parents and Young People
Introduction
A career is an individual’s “journey” through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways. The term career can apply at different stages of our lives.
We have our Education Career. Your son or daughter is currently at this stage.
This has different parts such as Statutory Education including primary, junior and secondary education. Since the 1980’s this has frequently been followed by Further Education between the ages of 16-18.
In England you can leave school on the last Friday in June if you’ll be 16 by the end of the summer holidays.
You must then do one of the following until you’re 18:
- stay in full-time education, for example at a sixth form or college
- start an apprenticeship or traineeship
- spend 20 hours or more a week working or volunteering, while in part-time education or training
Since the year 2000 more young people are entering Higher Education than ever before. It is important that those young people choosing this route have the ability and this is the right choice for them.
Following the Education Career Phase then comes the Job Career. This is where we work and put into practice what we learned through education. Of course, we never stop learning and an important part of most jobs is keeping up to date with all the latest developments.
Increasingly, a number of adults retrain for new jobs during their working life.
The GCSE Phase
During year 8 students will choose the GSCE subjects they will study in year 9-11.
With careful planning in many schools there is very little that can go wrong at this important stage of life.
Some subjects are compulsory at GCSE and have been decided by national government. A school may decide some other subjects are essential to enable a student to have the best options and opportunities in the future. These are Mathematics, English, Science and Religious Studies and a choice of humanity subjects.
The remaining subjects are put into blocks and students choose a subject from each block. Each year the school will provide students and parents an up to date list of the choices.
The impact of career ideas on GCSE choices.
Fortunately, due to good planning by school the main career considerations are:
Is your son or daughter very good at Art and may want a career involving Art? If so, they need to choose Art as one of their options.
The same can be said about GCSE Music. However, if the student is taking formal music lessons and examinations (music grade) this is less of an issue.
How to decide on which option subjects to study.
The young person should choose:
- What they enjoy
- What they have shown they are good at doing
- If they have a job idea, then choose something that will be useful in the job.
Examples can include
Engineer, dentist, surgeon, motor mechanic = Resistant Materials.
Nurse, social worker, doctor, lawyer = psychology, Health & Care, sociology.
The above are not essential subjects for the jobs listed, just useful subjects.
Over the next few years you will hear about T Levels. These are a new qualification equal to A Levels. These combine academic and vocational study to provide students with the skills for the 21st century. These qualifications are currently in the piloting stage. You will be kept informed as more information becomes available.
Very Important Message for Young People
As a Careers Adviser I often meet year 11 students who regret choosing a subject to study for the last 3 years. It is important to remember why they chose the subject.
At the time they probably like it and wanted to study it. Now they realise they do not like it or are not very good at it. This is the purpose of education- to give them an opportunity to try a subject for a few years in a safe environment. As all students study Maths, Science and English it is unlikely that there will be any career limitations.
Providing they have done their best and achieved the highest grade they can the student should be proud of themselves. It also means that they will not make the mistake of taking this subject at Further Education.
The following video has some excellent advice about choosing GCSE subjects. Please ignore the last few minutes when it talks about how to make a careers appointment. This video was produced for schools in Northern Ireland. Please see your teachers for “How to makes a career appointment”.