End of an Era

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Well my daughter has finally decided not to continue with highschool. The school system served it's purpose. Goodbye.

She's 17 and wants to attend vocational college. Since she;s skipping her final highschool year we will enrol into a transition program

We are now entering into the unknown

Scary and exciting. Has she decided what course she wants to do? I enjoyed college so much more than school. On a college course you've all chosen to be there and people are so much more engaged with the subject.

Update: the school has approached us and want to help cybergirl to transition to college. She spends a 1-2 days at school and 1-2 days per week attending transition classes at college. They have agreed to put her in another classroom for the 1-2 days as she now hates school.

Don't know how this hybrid thing works? Will found out I guess.

At least she's got some ideas. I straight up left school at 16 because I was legally allowed to without a plan.

My Dad worked near a college, so got me a prospectus from there to select a course from.

I found it easier to make decisions based on physical things I could read.

I know that was the 90s and things are online now.
But maybe getting her some prospectuses to look through might help her decide.

I work for a College and attended a staff thing recently about how we promote our courses and research found that students favour watching videos of current and past students explaining their experiences rather than anything we provide, so YouTube might be a good resource too.

All the best to cybergirl with this transition! Hope all goes as smoothly as possible. Here in the UK it sounds similar, in that they do all they can to accomodate anyone with an IEP. Universities are very welcoming too, with or without the initial grades in certain subjects, as these can be caught up on, while the chosen course/s are studied.

My daughter was able to test out of high school. With a passing score she could either stay at the high school or move onto college (community college, anyway). She left school immediately, took time off, then get a job, and started at the local community college about 9 months or so later. She will graduate from a high ranked university in June. Universities are a whole other ball game from high school, so make sure your daughter understands that just because high school wasn't her thing, doesn't mean college can't be. Her choice, of course.

Whatever path works for your daughter is the right one.

Just some background info on some of the fields you mentioned she might have interest in, although it could be different there than it is here:

Here either computing or accounting now generally require 4 year degrees. There may be low levels jobs in those fields that still don't where you are, but there is likely to be a definite ceiling. My older sister went into programming with a 2 year community college degree back in the day when one could, but it definitely limits her now. Still, she has a job she likes and is good at, currently; its when she faces layoffs that she panics, because her options for new positions are limited.

Even with a four year degree in computer science, finding the first job can be difficult. It's been the hot major for so long there is suddenly an excess of graduates.

Accounting includes a variety of levels. The overall field for non-degreed and non-certified professionals includes accounts receivable, accounts payable, or full charge bookkeeping for smaller businesses. The problem is that as the job market gets competitive, employers are more likely to want someone with an advanced degree, whether or not the job itself would require it. That is what we see here; it can be impossible to get hired without a University education. In my firm, everyone has an advanced degree of some sort, from the receptionist to the owner. Still, there are opportunities to have one's own bookkeeping business working with a variety of small businesses, and no one will ever ask if you have a degree, as long as you do a good job. It's establishing that credibility that will be difficult; you need clients to do so, but the potential clients will want to know you can do the job.

What we have in the US is a huge shortage of certified accounting professionals with experience. Youth wanting to do something practical have been going into computer science instead of majoring in business and accounting for enough years that the profession is really feeling it.

Anyway. I wish your daughter lots of success finding her own best path. It may take a while, but so be it. Let her explore and figure it out on her own time, in her own way. She'll appreciate it.

Hugs to you because I know the uncertainty associated with having a child veer off the conventional path can leave a parent feeling a little unsettled. It was hard for me to let go of all that momentum we'd been following to get her to that theoretical bright future doing everything the "right" way would lead to. I no longer knew what I was supposed to be doing to help her. Well, it turned out that I didn't need to do anything. That definitely took some getting used to. Your daughter isn't mine, of course, but allow her to lead with what she needs, and trust she can figure it out if she wants to.