Exploring your Options

Exploring your Options

Career Planning

When making decisions about your career and the kind of work that will be rewarding and satisfying for you, it is important to take the time to reflect on your skills alongside your personality, values, motivations and goals.

Being aware of these will help you better identify what criteria a future career path needs to fulfil.

Take a look at this four step guide to developing a career plan (Prospects) to get started.

• 16 Personalities – a personality test which matches you with one of 16 different personality types
• Career Planner – an interactive tool which matches your skills, motivations and desires to possible careers (Prospects)
• Job Match – answer questions about what you find interesting, rewarding and purposeful and you’ll be matched with different job profiles (Prospects)
• Guidance on Career and Personal Development Planning (Palgrave Study Skills)
• Use Labour Market Information (LMI) to research your future career using the current job market.

What can I do with my degree?

What can I do with my degree? from Prospects can help you to explore job options related to your degree, typical employers, and suggestions of skills which have been developed as part of your degree.

The resource also covers job options where your degree would be useful, as a result of the skills you will have developed. For many graduates, the skills developed and experience gained during their time at university can (and has!) opened doors to jobs and careers that they might not have previously considered.

• Your Foundation Degree…what next? (TARGETjobs) provides advice on the options open to you after a foundation degree
• I have a degree, now what? (TARGETjobs) provides advice on considering your options on completion of a full honours degree
• What do graduates do? 2020/21 (PDF) reports on the destinations of graduates. It offers an indication of some of the most popular jobs for different subject areas, alongside information on the graduate labour market.

How to research job sectors and occupations

Researching different sectors and job roles can you help you explore the options that are available to you, and what steps you might need to take to get there. The resources below provide detailed information on a wide range of job sectors and job profiles:

• Job sectors (Prospects)
• Job profiles (Prospects)

Postgraduate study

Undertaking postgraduate study can offer a number of benefits, including being an opportunity to build on your knowledge and specialise in an area of study.

• Find out more about the benefits of Masters study (Prospects)
• Search Masters and postgraduate qualifications (including part-time and distance learning routes)
• Many of our students and graduates look to stay local when choosing a postgraduate course; the University of Plymouth, University of Exeter and Plymouth Marjon University are all popular choices.
• Find out about postgraduate funding options (Prospects)
• Find out what you need to include in your personal statement (Prospects)

Teacher Training

Whether you are looking to teach in early years, primary, secondary or further education, there are a number of different routes into teaching.

• Prospects provides information on teacher training routes and funding options
• Get into Teaching provides support and advice from the Department for Education on postgraduate teacher training for early years, primary and secondary teaching
• Search and apply for postgraduate teacher training programmes in England and Wales via UCAS Teacher Training and GOV.UK.

You could also consider the Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training (DET) which qualifies you to teach students aged 14 and above, and is available to study at UCSD.

Entrepreneurship and Self-employment

Your studies may be a great foundation from which to work for yourself! Whether it is starting your own business or working for yourself, there are plenty of reasons to go self-employed.

• Check the Government guidance about working for yourself.
• Simply Business have great guides on how to become self-employed and a 9-step guide to starting your own business.
• The Ultimate Accountancy Glossary by Contractor Umbrella is also a really useful guide to all those jargon terms!