Blog: Choose Your Future

For over a year, we’ve been used to hearing about how we can’t do this or that – we’ve changed our behaviours and restricted what we do, where and with who. Our focus has been on caring for each other and hoping for a brighter future. And for many of us, that future is no longer over the horizon. It’s approaching quickly, and we’re fortunate enough to have an ever-growing list of options for how we spend our time.

You may be reading this and thinking how brilliant this all is – and it is – but a sudden abundance of choice can sometimes stop us in our tracks.

So how do we decide what we want our futures to be? And how do we plan which steps to take to get there?

Pinpoint your Passions

If you did well at let’s say science at school, then it goes to reason you should do science at College or A-level, right? Wrong! That’s the easy option. So many of us do something simply because we think we’re good at it, but do we stop to ask what excites us?

If you’re asked what you want to do in life, your mind instantly goes to jobs. But it shouldn’t! We should first think about what excites us. What kind of stuff can we talk to our family and friends about for ages on end? Something that we’re interested in and enjoy sharing? Maybe it’s the latest in car technology, film and theatre, climate change or social care. It doesn’t matter. What matters is understanding what our passions are. Knowing this is essential to knowing what sort of jobs are out there where we can put our passions into practice.

The Missing Middle

Once we know what our passions are and what jobs there are that match these then we’re already ahead of most people! But this isn’t the complete picture – it’s just the beginning and end. What do we need to do so we can get into those sorts of jobs? Let’s introduce the middle.

The middle is skills, knowledge and behaviours. If we can show our dream workplace that we’ve managed to combine a real passion with these three key ingredients, then we’ll be in with a good chance of securing that job we want. But how do we get these things? The answer: qualifications.

Skills, knowledge and behaviours aren’t a light switch that we can flick on. We’ll need to put time into developing them. That’s where qualifications come in. With the right kind of qualification, we can open the door to our bright futures.

This is where research comes in. Research, research, and research! Research what kinds of qualifications are needed for those jobs where we can use our passions. Research where they are, how long they take to complete, what styles of learning are involved, and what doors are opened by completing them. Being prepared helps us make the best-informed decisions, and when deciding how to choose our future we should give ourselves the time and research we deserve.

And Remember…

This is your future. Not your friend’s, or your parent’s. Yours. Take the time needed to think about what you want to do with it. Pinpoint your passions, fill in the missing middle and you’ll have a good ingredients list to whip up a recipe for success.

Want to discuss your options? Call us on 01709 362111, learn more about our courses or read our course guide.