What we do

Careers Advisers at Harrow Youth Stop are qualified to give Information, Advice and Guidance. At the first meeting, we will usually ask you a few questions so that we are able to offer you the most appropriate support.

 Below is a brief, non-exhaustive list of some of the things we can help you with:

 We can:

·       Offer careers advice and guidance to help you with your next steps (Post 16, Post 18)

·       Help you look for and apply for training, apprenticeship or job vacancies

·       Offer practical help such as CV writing, completing application forms or even interview practice

·       Help you consider other useful options such as volunteering or gaining work experience

·       Signpost you to other services that can help you i.e., health and wellbeing services, youthwork services, mentoring services

·       Help you understand the local and national job market

·       Make you aware of local and national careers events that you can attend (to include virtual events and podcasts)

·       Give you printed information about a specific subject or signpost you to other useful careers resources, many would be online

·       Provide specialist support to you if you are unemployed (NEET) or have a learning difficulty or disability, for example.

·       Provide information to your parents/carers or support network

Before you come in, there are some helpful websites that can get you thinking, it may be that they create more questions than they answer, but staff at HYS will be able to help you makes sense of what you’ve read and put a plan in place so you can take the next step and progress forward.

Take the Buzz Quiz to develop self-awareness and start thinking about careers. This fun, quick quiz helps you explore your strengths and preferences, and explore links between your personality, working styles and job types. It also helps generate career ideas.

Set up a Start profile which can help you organise and formulate your career journey over a long-term period, it is a free online careers platform, designed to connect 11-18 year olds with their future career potential.

It may be that you just need some INFORMATION. Information can be given to you by an adviser through them speaking to you or by you picking up some written information such as a leaflet or prospectus. For example, Scott visited to pick up an application form for his local school sixth form

Many young people need a little bit more help and may need ADVICE. For example, Neena knows that she wants to do an Apprenticeship but is confused about the different levels and isn’t sure which one she needs to apply for and how these link to her GCSE grades.

Quite often, we see young people in the centre that need quite a lot of support and are really quite confused about their next steps. This is when they need an in-depth GUIDANCE session with an Adviser. 

Some recent case studies to help illustrate how we can help:

Omar Age 16

Omar left school with no GCSE passes and had been doing very little with his time because he thought no one would be interested in employing him or giving him a place at College. We were able to spend time finding out what Omar wanted was to work so we looked at a range of vacancies, helped him write his CV and apply for jobs. In time Omar decided he wanted to gain his English and Maths Functional Skills and we were able to help him find the right training provider for him. Omar now feels he can drop in to see one of the Adviser’s when he needs too.

Ade, Age 18

Ade who came in to the Youth Stop having just successfully completed a BTEC in IT but with no idea what to do next, he had lots of ideas including taking a gap year and travelling and going to university but needed help putting a plan together. We actually ended up seeing Ade three times before he felt he no longer needed our support!

 Denise, Age 17

Denise came in quite upset as she had been asked to leave her college course for poor attendance. Denise is the main carer for her younger sister, and this meant that she was unable to make all her lessons and very quickly she felt she was getting left behind and was feeling stressed with the pressure of work building up. Advisers were able to share Denise’s concerns and be a listening ear, they were able to contact the college on her behalf to explain the situation and agree a way forward so she could continue on her course. Linked to this they also referred her to an organisation that could support her with her caring duties and also ensure she had the support in place to be able to both look after her sister and continue with her studies and have adequate time to do both things.

A guidance session usually lasts between 45 minutes to an hour. It is a two-way conversation that covers an agreed agenda, in other words you decide what you want to talk about (although the adviser may suggest some things too). The adviser may want to know quite a lot about you and so ask you quite a few questions to start with. These may be around what you enjoy, both in and out of school and what qualifications you have if any, (it’s fine if you don’t have any) they may also want to know of any ideas or plans that you currently have. The adviser will use specific skills such as questioning, listening, probing, reflecting, challenging, exploring and summarising to lead you through the interview. Often, the adviser will use resources such as leaflets, books, Apps or websites to help explain things to you.

After the discussion you will be given an Action Plan which not only is a useful reminder of what you covered in the session, but it will also have some actions that you (or the adviser) have agreed to do in order to move your plans and situation forward.