VOCATION, VOCATION, VOCATION

PROGRAMME 8: CHETAN

This programme follows Chetan, a 16-year-old student in post-16 education, as he tries to decide between two future career options: car design and medicine. Chetan is an intelligent and high-achieving young man who has a family connection to medicine (his father and sister are both doctors) and feels that this is of real interest to him. However, he also loves cars and has an interest in art and design despite following all science-based A-levels.

With support from a life coach and a careers specialist, Chetan is encouraged to think deeply about his interests and motivations in relation to work. He realises he needs to have work experience in both these areas if he is to understand what they are about and whether they really suit him. He is given three challenges within three different workplaces, and this contact with the real workplace is highly influential in his final decision.

We follow Chetan's progress as he considers his options and finds out more about himself and the day-to-day reality of his two main career ideas.

PROGRAMME AIMS

• To illustrate how to make a decision between two options
• To help students understand the difference between getting a job and having a real vocation they feel passionate about
• To highlight the importance of talking to people who are actually working in the job that the student is interested in
• To show students why it is vital to have an accurate view of their interests, strengths and weaknesses
• To show students why they need highly detailed careers information in order to make decisions
• To stress the role of individual careers guidance
• To broaden students' ideas about jobs by learning about 'job families'.