For most of us, the end of secondary school marks a turning point in our lives where we start making life-changing decisions that will affect our future and career. It involves attending numerous open days, visiting campuses, long discussions with academic advisors and parents, collecting mountainous stacks of college brochures and head scratching. Here are some of your options after SPM…

Discovering your interests

Don’t worry about getting into college straightaway. Give yourself a break – you have after all just completed your SPM exams. Sign up to adventure camps, volunteer at NGOs, follow a religious society on missions… your options are endless. All these will help discover your interests; maybe you’re interested in social work or you find that teaching is your calling. Activities like these also help build your character.

Form 6… it’s not as bad as you think

You’re bound to have loads of friends who will be lucky enough to pursue their studies overseas and if your parents can’t afford it, fret not. Going to Form 6 isn’t that bad. If you still can’t decide if you’d like to go to a college, you can still go to Form 6 and leave half way through. Don’t give up on your place in school if you’re still not too sure of your plans – you don’t want to be left with nothing.

Matriculation

This is a popular option for students who wish to go on a one or two year programme with a science or accounting stream. Many colleges offer such programmes; from A Levels and IBDP to SAM.

Twinning programmes

Studying abroad now is more affordable as students can choose to do a year or two locally before finishing the rest of their studies overseas. Twinning allows you to prepare yourself mentally that you’ll be leaving home soon and it gives you time to brush up on your skills, not just in terms of studies but also to grow and become independent before you embark on your journey. It’s also a good time to improve on your English language proficiency.

Work

Some of you may feel that you’ve had enough of studying and would like to start earning money and get a sense of financial independence. Working is an education in itself as no textbooks can teach you how to function in a real life working environment. Of course, if you feel that a paper qualification from a university will increase your chances of a promotion, going back to studies after working as a mature student is very common and possible these days.

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