Have a broader outlook on after school studies

There is massive pressure to decide what you must study when you finish school and it is such a big decision which feels very premature as you haven’t yet even figured out who you are as a person, let alone know what you want to do for the rest of your life.  The career space is changing, and it is no longer frowned upon to change c jobs or career paths and in fact, it is expected that you will have at least 3 career path changes in your lifetime.  In days gone by it used to be that you were expected to leave school, study and get a job in what you’ve chosen to study and stick to your job until you retire, receiving accolades for every passing of a decade.  Not the workplace is for more transient, momentary and adaptive.  These are some studies that you can consider as the first step out into the big world after leaving school.

Community outreach

After school, you may want to spend some time doing community outreach and giving back.  It may be that you would rather spend a few years earning less money, but you still want to walk away with experiences that you can add to your curriculum vitae and even a few certificates or qualifications.  A Cert 3 community services Sydney has several places where you can read for this, is one of the courses you can do.  Doing work that helps other people is incredibly rewarding and it builds a great sense of meaning and purpose.

Travel abroad

Going overseas allows you to be independent and means you have to go out of your comfort zones, and you get to meet new people and new cultures.  It also means seeing and exploring new places.  This in itself becomes part of your learning journey which isn’t seen as formal learning but will mean that you learn to interact and engage with new people and build connections and networks.  Some travel-related studies could be getting a driving instructor’s certificate or a snowboarding instructor.  You could even go into the health and beauty field by working on superyachts or cruise liners and study massage, hairdressing, and beauty therapy.  While this might not be what you want to do for the rest of your life, the greater skills around your job are actually what you are gaining in the process and by having a certificate to back it up shows that you are committed enough to pursue the knowledge good enough to qualify.

Computer skills

Most of what we do these days is built around the computer or digital world.  Going into some or other IT related jobs or learning a skill that lands in this space are without a doubt valuable to your future.  It will very likely be that those specific job specs will change as the world changes, but if you are already in that space you will be able to move with it and by continuing to educate yourself you can even start to get ahead of your game and that is where the real value sits.

Jennifer Eonflux