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Just a quick comment on an interesting guidance interview that I saw on placement this week.   It was done in Telford College by a Careers Scotland career adviser who is based there full time.  She mainly advises current students but also anyone in the community who may be thinking of attending college.  In this case it was a boy who said he was interested in doing a course in civil engineering or in fact any kind of engineering as he thought it would be a nice, secure profession.  It didn’t take long before it emerged that it was actually his Dad who had suggested this.

With a little more investigation, it transpired that he was actually very interested in youth work, community work or social work and in fact had considerable experience in youth work and spoke eloquently and quite movingly about his own experiences in life which had made him both interested and motivated to work in this area.

In the end he was advised about a particular community education course that he could do and was very likely to get accepted on and he was absolutely delighted – he hadn’t even known that such a thing was available.  When the career adviser asked how he would feel if he got on the course he said he would feel “very privileged”.  It was very nice to see such a positive outcome from a guidance interview – probably the most positive that I’ve seen on any of my placements.  

I couldn’t help thinking, though, about how different his life would have been if he had done the engineering that his Dad had suggested.  He clearly had no real interest or enthusiasm for it once he had found out more about it.  His Dad was quite obviously trying to help him get into what he thought would be a relatively safe and secure area of work – well intentioned but not particularly helpful.

But as I said, it was the clearest example I have seen of a positive outcome and left me (and him, I suspect) with a nice, warm feeling!

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