Prospective students: It is expected from you as a grade 11 / 12 learner
to make a career decision, while technically,
you can’t even go to the bathroom without consent from your teacher.
Considering that the world is changing so fast, the latter might be very anxiety provoking for you…
I am Mari O’Reilly, a Counselling Psychologist at the Stellenbosch University
I am part of a team of 6 psychologists who assist learners in making informed career decisions.
Not too long ago, I was confronted with a similar question of whát I want to study,
whére I’d like to study while thinking “and what if I make a mistake…”
Today I am going to discuss WHAT you should keep in mind when making a career decision,
especially while the world is changing at a fast pace.
No.1 Your degree is only a starting block.
No 2 You will need to be a continuous learner anyway and
No 3 Career counselling is a process – be patient.
(The program that you are going to study, will only serve as a starting block)
It will equip you with a few skills and tools
ánd it will probably help you with primary career opportunities as a young employee.
Research suggest that our generation might have up to 8 different jobs in our lifetime.
Luckily, you don’t have to study 8 different courses!
If you are still uncertain, choose a program which will give you more than one
post graduate study options, for example:
If you are unsure whether you want to be a lawyer, psychologist or a teacher,
but you know you want to work with people, choose the BA Law program with Psychology as a major.
You will only have to decide after 3 years whether you:
want to do an LLB degree to become a lawyer, an honours and master in Psychology to become
a psychologist or a post graduate certificate in education to become a teacher.
Remember that the advisors of the Centre of Student Recruitment can help you
to identify such programs if you book a free advisory session with them.
This links well with my second point.
The world is changing at a fast pace and therefore we need to be continuous learners.
While working, it will be great to do short courses
and engage in research to gain additional skills in the workplace.
Nothing stops you to further your studies later in life as well: You can for example
study Occupational Therapy and later in life do your master’s degree
to become a lecturer at a university or you can study engineering and do an MBA later in life and
become a CEO of a company. Bottom line, you don’t need do tick all the boxes before 25.
Career counselling is a process. Your process already
starts in Grade 9 when you choose your subjects.
Very few learners realise how important this step is in your career choice.
Some learners also cling to subjects such as Mathematics and Physical Science
However, if you don’t have more than 60% for those subjects, it doesn’t really open doors anymore.
If your academic average is too low, you won’t get selected for programs,
even if the requirements are not necessarily maths or physical sciences.
It is therefore important to keep a fine balance between the right subjects and a competitive academic average.
In Grade 11 or 12, a career counselling assessment ook helps you to look more specifically at different study programs.
We look at your academic aptitude, interests, your personality, and your latest school report.
Although we do give program recommendations, we throw the ball back in your court and advise
that you engage in some job shadowing and do research about the suggested programs.
The process does not finish at our offices and the final decision stays your privilege.
Research and job shadowing is really valuable. Trust the process and be patient.
If you are uncertain you are welcome to book a career-counselling session at our centre.
Or a subject choice assessment if you are in grade 9.
You can do the assessment at our offices at the Stellenbosch University or online
at home via Microsoft Teams. The assessments are exactly the same.
After the assessment we discuss the results with you during a feedback session
and we also make program recommendations at your preferred tertiary institution.
We are open on Saturdays – please see our prices on the screen
and send an email to csr@sun.ac.za to make your booking.
Thank you so much, we are excited to see you at the Center for Student Recruitment.