«I have no idea what to do after school»

«Why don't you ask Sarah?»

I'm getting desperate! I'm now in year 9 and all my classmates know where they want to apply for an apprenticeship or have already signed an apprenticeship contract. Only I have no idea what I should do after school. I once had a taster at a bakery and once in a retirement home. But I didn't like either of them at all. My hobbies are figure skating (in a club) and drawing.
Ann-Lou, 15 years old

Dear Ann-Lou
Choosing a career is indeed an important matter. I can well understand that this is a burden for you if you still have no idea what you want to do professionally. Your everyday life has been school and your free time for years. It's hard to imagine what your new everyday life will look like from next summer: In an apprenticeship, among (adult) people, with a completely different job than before.

The good news is that choosing a career today is not a lifelong decision. Your grandparents had to work the same job for 45 years until they retired. However, your parents are likely to have already changed careers once or twice or changed direction completely. Why don't you ask them what it was like for them when they had to decide on a career after leaving school? It might be interesting to hear what they tell you.

Nevertheless, you are of course in a different situation because we are living in a different time. There are many new professions that didn't exist in the past.

Take all these skills - which you already have within you - and apply them to your career choice.

Have you already been to a careers counselling service ? Perhaps it would make sense to go again. Take someone you trust with you, like your mum, dad or a good friend. Tell them about your worries and say that you've already had a taster but nothing appealed to you.

These professionals are specially trained to help young people with this challenging task. Let them show you professions and sectors that you are not familiar with. Be open to new things - you may come across something you never expected.

Career choice requires discipline and perseverance

You write that your hobbies are figure skating and drawing. I think that's great! I don't know exactly, but I think you need a lot of discipline and stamina for ice skating. Because when I imagine how much it takes for someone to do a pirouette on the ice or manage a jump, that's a lot of training, motivation and determination.

Take all these skills - which you already have within you - and apply them to your career choice now. Because if you are absolutely determined to find a suitable apprenticeship for yourself next summer, then it will work out.

However, if you are not (yet) ready to do so, there are probably good reasons for this. Then I think it would be better if you thought about it. Is it perhaps the entry into the adult world that is giving you a stomach ache? Or is your innermost career aspiration perhaps a completely different one than is currently open to you? Maybe you need to take a different path than the one being suggested to you now.

There are various solutions

Some young people need a little longer to make up their minds about their future. A gap year could be the right solution:

• The 10th school year is available to all those who have not yet found a follow-up solution. The focus there is on career choices.
• An internship of 6 to 12 months: this is offered in many places, for example in daycare centres, animal shelters or on a farm. Have a look on the internet.
• A language study trip to French-speaking Switzerland or to an English-speaking country would not only improve your language skills, but also promote your personal development. After all, living in a different place for a year as a teenager teaches you much more than just the language.

And then there are vocational training programmes that are neither a traditional apprenticeship nor a school (FMS, grammar school, etc.). There are not too many of them, but if you do your research, you will find them. One example is training to become a dressmaker or graphic designer. You can also learn these professions at a school and stay in a class with others who are learning the same thing for the entire three or four years.

As you can see, there are still a few options waiting for you that you could look into. I wish you the necessary drive!