Exploring Careers Together: A Parent & Carer’s Guide to Beeline
BEELINE
Helping a young person figure out ‘what they want to do’ doesn’t have to be stressful. Your support in helping them explore their options makes a massive difference. We’ve created Beeline, a free digital tool that helps young people discover their strengths and links their school subjects to real, local jobs across Greater Manchester…
The 3-Step Beeline Journey
What it is: A short, engaging quiz that helps young people identify their interests, skills, and ambitions. There are no wrong answers!
How it works: The quiz guides them through a few simple prompts:
- The Basics: Selecting their age and which borough they live in.
- Interests: Choosing what they enjoy most, like being hands-on or helping others.
- Strengths: Picking what they feel confident doing, such as fixing things or coming up with ideas.
- Ambitions: Thinking about what is important for their future work environment.
The outcome: It doesn't box them in! Instead, it suggests personalised starting points across Greater Manchester's growing sectors (we call these MBacc Gateways).
What it is: A deep dive into the seven key employment sectors in our region.
The outcome: You and your young person can see exactly what different jobs involve, the qualifications needed, how many roles are available locally, and what they pay.
What it is: A personalised, downloadable PDF generated instantly after they finish the quiz. It lists their top gateways to explore.
The outcome: It includes a brilliant CV Vocabulary Builder. This tool translates their natural interests, like helping friends or fixing things, into the professional skills employers are looking for, such as "empathy" or "technical capability". It helps them practice their pitch for college, work experience, or apprenticeship interviews.
Play the Discovery Quiz together
How you can help them
You don't need to be a careers expert to help
The Next Steps Guide is yours to keep and is a fantastic tool to kickstart useful conversations. Sit down together and use this visual loop to guide your process:
- Explore wide: Head over to Beeline on the GMACS website together and click into their top matched gateways to find real, live job pathways.
- Talk it through: Bring this into the real world. Look at their CV Vocabulary Builder and ask them to share a story where they used one of their natural skills (like taking charge of a group project or figuring out how a physical object works).
- Practice your pitch: Help them own their story. Ask them to explain a tricky challenge they faced and how they broke the problem down to solve it. They can use these examples in future interviews!
- Try it again: Remind them they can take the quiz multiple times to unlock new results, so they should save the version that speaks to them the most.
Quick Conversation Starters
You don't need to have all the answers to help them plan ahead. The best thing you can do is keep the conversation going. Try using these prompts when you are exploring Beeline together: :
When talking about their strengths and subjects:
- 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 where you use this skill the most?
- Which of your current subjects do you enjoy most right now, and why?
- Would you prefer learning with more coursework, more practical work, or more exams?
When exploring a gateway together:
- Are any of these jobs new to you?
- Which job sounds the most exciting right now?
- Are you surprised by how many different jobs are available in this gateway?
- Do you recognise any of the organisations in Greater Manchester that offer jobs in this area?
When looking at specific job listings:
- How many of these jobs are available in Greater Manchester?
- Which job sounds the most exciting right now?
- What type of work environment might this job involve? Do you think you’d enjoy that every day?
- Compare two jobs: if you have a favourite, why do you like that one more?
