Step One: Narrowing Your Options

The first step is about asking the right questions and giving an honest answer to help narrow your options. Your thoughts are likely to change as you move through school and beyond. You may have a definite idea of what you want to do. Or you may not have any idea! You might have an idea of what careers blind or partially sighted people can or can’t do, but anything is possible with the right support.

There are a whole range of jobs and career opportunities that may be open to you, that you may not have thought about at this stage. Work experience can be a good opportunity to ‘dip your toe’ into the world of work! It can be helpful to hear from other blind and partially sighted people about their work and how they got into their career.

Our employment team has a range of videos of blind and partially sighted people talking about their careers, including A career in the civil service – what’s involved and how to get into it and Using your skillset to successfully change careers with Charles Coyle. Check them out! We also have some great Student stories and Employment stories to read on our website.

Narrowing Your Options

Start by asking yourself some simple but important questions:

• What school subjects do I like?
• What am I good at and what do I find more difficult at school?
• What are my hobbies outside of school and could these lead towards a job and future career?
• What jobs do I know about or have I seen other people do that inspire or interest me?
• Who are my role models and what do they do?

Other Resources

The National Careers Service has a self-assessment tool that should take ten minutes to complete. It may help to further focus your thinking about work experience and a future career, take the assessment here.

Youth Employment UK has a video and downloadable workbook designed to help you find out about the wider world of work and careers, click here to check them out.