Exploring careers together with Beeline
Beeline is a free digital careers tool for young people in Greater Manchester. It shows what different jobs involve, the needed, how many roles are available locally, and what they pay. Beeline is part of the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc) and helps create a clear line of sight from learning to real jobs in the city region.
This page gives you a step-by-step guide on how to use Beeline with the young person in your life, including conversation starters and top tips for talking about careers.
Using Beeline together is a great way to talk about careers and a young person’s education choices, especially at key moments, such as the options process or choosing what to do after school. It can help young people link subjects and qualifications to real opportunities, while also exploring different ways of learning that suit them best.
This guide is designed to be used with Beeline – click the button below to explore it before you get started.
Hear from Electina, a student at Rayner Stevens High School, on how Beeline helped her choose her next steps!
Step 1: Exploring gateways
We’ve grouped together key areas of work across Greater Manchester with strong academic, technical and vocational routes that lead to good, local jobs, we call these “gateways”. Picking a gateway helps you look at a group of similar jobs and see what skills and qualifications you might need for them.
To get started, ask the young person which area interests them most like Health & Social Care, Digital and Technology, or Creative, Culture and Sport. Or pick one of the gateways at random and explore it together! There might be something that inspires them to think about a career or subject they haven’t thought about before.
Look at a gateway together and ask the young person to tell you three jobs they find interesting.
You might want to ask:
- What made you choose this gateway?
- Are any of these jobs new to you?
- What would interest you in a job?
- Are you surprised by how many different jobs are available in this gateway?
- What job sounds most exciting right now?
- Do you recognise any of the organisations in Greater Manchester that offer jobs in this gateway?
Step 2: Exploring jobs
Every gateway includes real jobs you can find in Greater Manchester. Looking at these jobs helps you see what kinds of jobs are out there, how much they pay and how many different roles there are.
Scrolling to the bottom of a gateway page, you’ll see some example jobs in this gateway. Click one of these to explore it on the Adzuna website or search for one of the jobs you wrote down earlier.
Together, check things like the average pay, what skills might be need and whether there are lots of jobs like this or just a few.
You can repeat this with as many jobs as you like to explore different opportunities and get a clearer picture of what each job involves.
Consider picking two jobs and compare, if they have a favourite why not ask – why do you like that one more?
Conversation prompts:
- How many of these jobs are available in Greater Manchester?
- Is the salary higher or lower than the average salary?
- What else is interesting about this job? Is it full time or part time?
- Does the job advert say what skills you might need to apply?
- What type of work environment might this job involve? Do you think you’d enjoy that every day?
Step 3: Exploring subjects and qualifications
Understanding what qualifications and skills are needed helps connect school subjects to future careers. Beeline shows the training and education pathways that lead to each job.
Now go back to the gateway page and talk about which subjects, courses or training options stand out to them at each stage.
Conversation prompts:
- Which of the subjects do you enjoy most now, and why?
- Would you prefer learning with more coursework, more practical work or more exams?
- What activities at school, or outside of school, do you enjoy or feel good doing?
- What do you think is your biggest strength? It could be, leading a group, helping people, solving problems or speaking in front of the class. Are there any subjects or situations you use this skill most?
