There are an umpteeth number of decisions made daily, some more important than others. For young people, it ranges from “what should I wear today” and “what you should have for lunch” to “where should I go for six form or university” and “what do I want to be when I grow up?” People often underestimate the impact and consequently the importance of decisions made by young people, which often single-handedly affect the rest of their lives. It could be argued that many of these decisions are more crucial than those made as an adult. However, youths are also less experienced. 

Should young people be subjected to such significant decisions or does making decisions teach them about the implications and consequences of their decisions?

Young people may be ready for decisions: if one’s desire for a potential career is already lit, there would be no point forcing them to continue with subjects and situations they don’t like and won’t help with their career path. These people have a good idea of who they are, their interests clearly outlined and consequently they know what they want to do as a career. Decisions regarding their education would be simple in comparison to those unsure: anything that is needed for the goal.

However, how informed are these people? All children are influenced by their environment, such as their friends and family. It is said that “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” There is a reason why the voting age is 16 or 18- because you have your own thoughts in some shape or form. By this time, you will have an opinion created independently, but it is still heavily influenced by your surroundings or not. Before such age, decision making is even more unreliable, as your thoughts are the byproducts of your surroundings: you believe everything you hear and see because you are learning. Children will just be acting mostly on the opinions of their parents, their friends, and not much of their own. Even in young adults the thoughts are biased, meaning that they don’t have a fair and clear perspective of the situation, leading to a rather uninformed decision.

But even adults can’t always make informed decisions as they don’t know everything- everything doesn’t magically settle into place when you turn 18.The truth is that nobody is ready. There is no right or wrong, just more or less informed decisions. Consequently, one could argue that we need to practice making decisions from a young age, so that we learn and see the consequences and implications- it is all part of life.

Nevertheless, people are better at decision making when informed and well- guided. Children may not have enough guidance and support for this, whereas adults already have some life experience to guide them, or have the ability to search for guidance. Therefore, they make forced, uninformed and hurried career choices, which could be detrimental to both them, and the future generation. Even though people are all different, and some young people may be ready to make decisions, we can’t ignore the rest. It is simply not okay for them to make such a decision from such a young age, with such inexperience?

For example, year 5s and 6s have to choose secondary schools, although these are more solely based on the parents’ views. In year 8 or year 9, students have to choose their GCSEs options, narrowing down their curriculum already.  Year 11s have to balance exams and choose a further education pathway such as six form and A level options. Year 12s and 13s have to worry about university courses and choices. It just seems like we are constantly on a cross road, with pressure ‘to do the right thing’. These are all significant decisions, as the butterfly effect highlights that one wrong missteps could mean the next decision will be affected: if you didn’t choose a GCSE needed for A levels, you can no longer do it, even if you realise then you want a career in it. These decisions will affect the rest of their life, and so many people cannot even find who they are their whole lives, yet children are supposed to within less than 18 years.The problem is that students are meant to know what to do, and specialise early, so that they can spend the rest of their lives in the chosen path, and inevitably master it. It is a supposedly efficient system, resulting in as much contribution possible to the economy.

This isn’t just an one time issue as plenty of people have raised the issue:

The Guardian article by a 17 year old studying AS levels summarises the issue spot on.

A study by Warwick University shows that:the large majority of people (more than 80%) believe they made their career decision too early.

Even in 2008, this issue was highlighted in the Irish Times.

Another study from Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

Career Decisions – a Test of Courage, Responsibility and SelfConfidence in Teenagers 

Opinions of my Peers:

“A lot of emphasis is placed on your career when choosing colleges- a lot of pressure to choose the right thing.”

“A lot of people might find this scary and feel as if their decisions define them, which places a huge amount of pressure on young people. However, studying A-levels at the age of 16 does seem like a mature enough age to make such a decision, but I still think that a lot of pressure is placed on young people to at least have some sort of idea of their interests and talents. Not everyone has this thought-out as clearly as others, maybe making them feel at a disadvantage which can be stressful.”

“One of my friends at school had to move schools at the start of year 11 because her school got shut down, so she had to do some new GCSE courses from scratch as our school did not offer the subjects.”

These all follow the general consensus: decisions like these are unnecessarily stressful. We young people need more time and guidance to make career decisions as well as a more flexible education system to make it easier to upskill later on in life. This will not just affect the people involved, but also the future- future employers have to deal with dissatisfied employees, the economy suffers due to the uncertainty of the workers etc. Things needs to change. Decisions, decisions decisions.