Supporting Your Child’s Future

Talk to your child about their interests, strengths, and ambitions. Ask open-ended questions like:

• “What kind of work do you think you’d enjoy?”
• “Have you thought about what you’d like to do after college?”
• “What subjects or activities do you enjoy most?”

Support them in researching different career paths, apprenticeships, and university options. Encourage them to use tools like:

• National Careers Service
• UCAS

Help them find opportunities to gain experience - whether it’s a formal placement, volunteering, or part-time work. These experiences build confidence and look great on CVs and applications.

Encourage them to take ownership of their future - from writing their CV to attending careers events and speaking with employers. Offer support, but let them lead.

Keep up to date with college events, careers fairs, and employer visits. We’ll share opportunities through our website, newsletters, and social media.

On this page, you can find information on all the options your child has after year 11 or after their College course. On their website you can search for jobs and apprenticeships and explore different industries to find out more about possible future jobs or progression routes. 

If you would like to find out specific information about apprenticeships, including case studies, information about different types of apprenticeships and to search for vacancies both nationally and locally, from intermediate to degree level apprenticeships, this website will be extremely useful. 

The UCAS page has useful information on the main page about the choices after school or college and explains things clearly. Through other links on their website you can also search for apprenticeship vacancies and find out how to apply for University. 

The PG website is a great starting point to find out about lots of basic information about your child’s progression options, from explaining the different levels of apprenticeships to being able to get advice and tips about interviews. 

The Push website has lots of useful information about your future options, it is particularly useful if you would like alternatives to University.

It can be difficult to strike up a conversation with your child about their career ideas when they keep saying ‘’I don’t know what I want to do.’’ In this situation it can be useful to look at all options and attend as many open evenings or taster sessions as possible or arrange some work experience so that your child can experience a particular job first-hand.

The UCAS page on the Push website will give you a good overview of the process, but it also has lots of good tips and advice about student finance, picking accommodation and budgeting. 

On the Launch Your Career webpage there is a very useful and fun quiz that your child could take. After the quiz it will help you to identify your skills and interests and match them to a range of jobs or careers. 

To help you explore future progression routes, Career Box will allow you to access lots of videos and case studies about a range of jobs and training routes.  

Careers Conversations

National Careers Service

Career Pilot

UCAS, the organisation your child will apply through, put together a free to download guide for parents and guardians. It can be accessed here 

This is an excellent website for general information in all areas of the University application process. You can find out about open days, search for courses and find out about fee or careers. 

This an excellent starting point to search for courses across the UK. It will allow you to search for courses you might be aware of and courses you didn’t know you existed. It will allow you to research entry requirements and universities who offer the course you are interested in. 

The WhatUni website contains lots of useful information for all aspects of the University application process. On their main page you will find a course search tool which will show you all the courses in the country who offer your course. It will also show you employment rates, drop out rates and entry requirements for each course.

UCAS have some excellent writing frames, advice and videos which should take the uncertainty and ‘scary’ side of writing your personal statement. 

UCAS - Personal Statement

The Complete University Guide’s Person Statement page gives some great top tips about writing a great personal statement. After visiting the UCAS page, this would be a useful page to read over.

The Complete University Guide

Unitasterdays.com is a great site to search for taster days and open days. You can book through the website and search for upcoming events.

Opendays.com is a excellent site to search for all upcoming open days so you can plan your trips in advance see what’s happening soon.

Future Finance

This website gives excellent information about the main loan students receive – the Maintenance Loan. It explains how to apply, how much you might be entitled to and how it is repaid. 

UCAS Student Finance

For a general overview of the Student Finance System, UCAS have some really information videos and information.

We now have access to what is called Labour Market Information (LMI). LMI can be national or local, but will show you trends in terms of job growth or decline in certain industries or areas of the country.

This information can be useful when discussing future careers or jobs with your child. The links below can be used to find both national and local information and can be used to find job specific data.

It can sometimes be difficult to find job specific data for Cumbria, so please read the information carefully. 

Using StartProfile, on their webpage in the search box at the top of the page type in the job you would like information on. You can then search for LMI by clicking on ‘Availability’ on the left-hand side. This information is more national than local.

On the ‘Jobs’ tab on the Careers pilot Page, you will be able to find specific job LMI by searching for the job you are interested in. Similar to the StartProfile page – this is job specific and not regional data.

Once you have completed the quiz on the main page of Launch Your Career, you can search for specific jobs which will then show you if that job is going to grow and decline in the coming years. Again, the information is based on national figures, but it is still a good start point. 

Nomis   collects employment data in each area of the country. If you would an overview of employment rates and county specific sectors, this is a useful website. 

For a general overview of the job market and growth sectors in Cumbria, the UKCES report is very useful.

For LMI specific to Cumbria and all the regions within Cumbria, head to Cumbria Intelligence Observatory, then click on Current Cumbria Observatory Briefings, Summaries & Resources then Labour Market Briefing you will find information regarding the biggest employers in the area, skills employers are looking for and growth sectors in the local area.

The Careers Connect outline their research on which sectors might grow in the future. A useful starting point when exploring future jobs or career paths. 

Monster have completed research into what they think will be the biggest 10 jobs growing or will be in demand within the next 10 years.