Career advice for a 16yr old outdoor enthusiast

ezzy6.5

Well-Known Member
My Nephew has just turned 16 and is in the process of getting careers advice from his school. He is a bright lad but all he wants to do is fish (and shoot when he gets a chance) He will walk for miles and miles along our local rivers in pursuit of a few little brown trout. His Dad has lined him up with a mate laying block driveways (my brother has no ambition at all) but I hope he doesnt take this route. We are fairly local to Reesheath and Walford College so he could go to either. He isn't a farmer so farming style courses are out. Anyone got a suggestion for a course he can take that is fairly generic so he can edge his bets or any other advice to help him find an apprenticeship. School careers people dont know what to say to him as working outside is either building or farming. What about forestry?

Ezzy
 
Forestry is great, but it's pore pay for a young starter with no experience! Hard work! He could possibly consider tree surgery but again poor starter wages and the industry is saturated with micro start up companies! Maybe he could get an apprenticeship with a large company. At least he will be earning a small amount whilst he gets hands on experience!

unfortunately the outdoor lifestyle of shooting and fishing will always be very poor pay as it seems there are dozens and dozens of people willing to fill the gap to again the glamour lifestyle that soon wears of as it becomes a job with the pressure that all jobs can have!
 
I have to ask..if he is a bright lad why is he leaving school at 16?
careers advice at school level is woeful in my opinion, they are only interested in stats that affect them.

well paying jobs in a country environment for unskilled and school educated starters are few and far between

I can't comment in too much detail without knowing what he likes and has aptitude for but my advice would be choose a trade and get some further education.
if he wants to work outside then look at outdoor trades (block paving is not a "Trade" but could pay well if he wasn't working for someone else running a business and paying him minimum wage)

better yet...get someone else to pay for it!
https://ig24.i-grasp.com/fe/tpl_ea0...9&c=135415560256&pagestamp=secwxbsnrcytgocfbh
 
I would agree careers advice in schools is rubbish. In the state sector, it is staffed by teachers who think the height of human achievement is to be a bloody teacher.

There is little or no money in rural trades if there is no family farm to inherit.

If the lad is bright enough, he needs to stay in school , get to a decent university, and get into a profession which pays sufficiently well that he can afford to indulge his tastes.

If he is of a practical bent then an engineering apprenticeship might be the best option. The ambition should be to learn a craft that allows the lad to set up a little business of his own.

This is is the advice I am giving my lads.

A large proportion of the building trade are physically scrap by 50 years old.
 
Hi. I am not from farming background but went to agricultural college to do a HND.
I was a farm foreman then ran an Agricultural merchants depot for 12 years with knowledge gained form farming.
there are other jobs like land management courses or combined agri-environmental courses that he may like- see what Walford. Harper adams is a very good university and does several courses, so you could speak to them, as somebody said forestry is poorly paid, as is agriculture, but agriculture may give more opportunities. hope that helps.[
atb GarethQUOTE=ezzy6.5;657119]My Nephew has just turned 16 and is in the process of getting careers advice from his school. He is a bright lad but all he wants to do is fish (and shoot when he gets a chance) He will walk for miles and miles along our local rivers in pursuit of a few little brown trout. His Dad has lined him up with a mate laying block driveways (my brother has no ambition at all) but I hope he doesnt take this route. We are fairly local to Reesheath and Walford College so he could go to either. He isn't a farmer so farming style courses are out. Anyone got a suggestion for a course he can take that is fairly generic so he can edge his bets or any other advice to help him find an apprenticeship. School careers people dont know what to say to him as working outside is either building or farming. What about forestry?

Ezzy[/QUOTE]
 
Do A Levels, Study Estate Management and join the University Officer Training Corps, do 3-5 Years as an Army Officer, leave and go into estate management.
 
Nowadays everyone wants qualies, so best to stay at school and college.Another big thing out there is for them to do some voluntary work. Companies who look at someone who has the same qualifications as the next person veer to the one who uses his or her spare time helping others.
 
I left school at 16, went to agricultural college, studied countryside management at national diploma level, then went to uni to do hnd in countryside management, it's a broad base to start from, covers most things, and you can always incorporate modules in game management etc as you go along. Nothing wrong with leaving school at 16 and heading for college to do something more vocational, we aren't all destined to be academics and book worms. some prefer to get out there doing it.
good luck to him, whatever he ends up doing.
 
Must admit I have never seen a poor farmer, and I used to have to take out a second mortgage every time the farrier had to come out.
 
Tell him to work on chatting up girls and then go and find a rich farmers daughter :norty: ........that's what I would do if I was younger!:rofl:
Failing that, I found Environmental Science A-level interesting....
 
Yeah ad go with the chatting up rich girls...

If not get into steel erecting put his head to it and in a year he will be making the same money as the bolt monkeys that's been doing it 10-15 year then go self employed with his own squad. It's gets repetitive after a while but it certainly pays ok.

David
 
Advise him to get to Nth Western Aus..huge money and huge fish... Spanish mackerel longer than Usain etc!

That is working for the open cut iron ore miners or working in the support trades...really big bucks for young blokes...
 
You may want to point out that the the govt has raised the participation age "The government has increased the age to which all young people in England must continue in education or training, requiring them to continue until the end of the academic year in which they turn 17 from 2013 and until their 18th birthday from 2015." So he will have to stay in some form of education post 16. So the block paving job may be off the cards unless it is a formal apprentiship with a significant training element. If he is a bright lad and is set to do well at his GCSE's (Grade A and B's really) then I would encourage him to do A levels and maybe university - if fishing is his thing Aquaculture could be a good route to look at. If his GCSE's are not quite up there a level 3 BTEC course in something like Countryside and Environment could float his boat and get him on the right track.
And yes I am a teacher - Cheers claret dabber:tiphat:
 
If he loves fishing tell him to follow his heart, too many people say" I wish I had did this or that" spent yrs hating there jobs, chasing the £ .
 
not much money in forestry or tree surgery, lots of hard work, and it can be hard to gain experance to.
home lacey used to do a 2 yr aprentiship where they put you through a lot of the chainsaw and climbing courses, may be worth a look
atb
simon
 
Its so difficult i was a country boy spent my holidays hunting fishing and helping the local game keeper i too wanted nothing but to work outside but for some reason reality dawned when i realised how difficult it would be to survive on the wages these jobs afford. I'm no brain surgeon but have a good mind for business so did my a levels and then a hnd worked my way up and now fortunate to at 37 be in senior management in a global organisation. So if i can do it any one can. I can now afford to fund my hobbie and look after a young family which is all i could have ever wished for. So if hes bright tell him to knuckle down and go for the long game.
 
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