Choosing A Career

Grade 11's and 12’s often express fears about “choosing the wrong career”. This is greatly lessened if you understand you are not choosing a career for life in matric. If you do have a specific career in mind, research it well, as many people have inaccurate and romanticised ideas about what certain jobs entail. But if you haven’t a clue what you’re going to be, don’t stress. Choose a study area that you are interested in and good at. Whether you are sure about what you want to do career-wise or not, it is essential to research the content of a course you are considering.

If researching your study choices seems too overwhelming for you in matric, don’t panic. This is normal, even healthy. This is not the time to narrow your horizons. If in doubt, specialise later rather than sooner. Remember, career development is a life- long process – give yours the time and attention you deserve.

To help learners from Grade 11 onwards make better informed study choices, we provide paid one-to-one career consultations.

The careers advisors at the UCT Careers Service are mandated to assist all registered UCT students and graduates three years after graduation. Therefore, our capacity to help school learners, post-matric candidates and mid-career clients is limited.

At present we see only matrics, grade 11s after September of their grade 11 year and those three years post -matric. Of this group, we will assist those considering their study choices for university. Please note: we can only offer consultations if the demand for UCT student consultations is low. This is a paid service.

In our consultations with both our students and those not at the university, we follow a coaching methodology which does not involve psychometric tests or any form of assessments. All consultations are currently conducted virtually, on most virtual platforms.

If you are interested in these consultations email: careers.service@uct.ac.za