It is true that the subjects you choose now, and how well you do in them over the next few years, will affect what and where you can study - as well as the future careers you’ll be able to go into or make for yourself in life.
So instead of blindly choosing subjects, let’s try and make sense of career guidance by giving you some information on how to choose your Grade 10 to 12 subjects. Read on to find some helpful pointers.
Your subject choices matter
First things first, you will need to take and pass seven subjects from Grade 10 in order to matriculate at the end of Grade 12. Four of these subjects are compulsory, which means you HAVE TO take them. The compulsory subjects are:
The other three subjects are up to you, and can include options like:
The exact subject options open to you depends on the Crawford International College campus that you attend.
It’s very tempting to choose subjects that you think you could do well easily or that feel like they’ll require less work from your side. But remember, whatever subjects you choose now, will need to align to the field of study and career that you ultimately want to pursue after Grade 12. Here’s a breakdown of the kinds of options open to you in tertiary education and their subject requirements.
How to choose a career
It’s always a good idea to chat to your LO teacher about your subject choices and aspirations, and to give you some career guidance that takes both your academic strengths and desires for your future into account.
Your parents are also great sources of information and support when it comes to career guidance. They have been at this crossroads in life before, and probably have some useful insights into how they made their subject choices, how they affected their study options and career choices, and what they would have done differently if they could go back and do it again. So, talk to your parents and ask for their input here too.
You could also seek career guidance from an educational psychologist, who would conduct an aptitude test and/or other techniques to help define what you could thrive in as a career. You could also use
Career Help, which is a portal set up by Department of Education to help learners make this choice, or take the Fundi Connect
Career Quiz. There are also tons of handy resources on the Fundi Connect
website to help you.