Scottish Careers Week: Leah Shapes Her Future in Drama

“Shape the Future” is the theme of this year’s Scottish Careers Week. Hosted by Skills Development Scotland, the week is designed to help educators, employers, career practitioners and communities inspire young people across the country to explore their future pathways.

To mark the start of the campaign, an MCR Pathways mentee has shared her exciting plans for a career in drama.

When Leah, an S6 pupil, started her mentoring journey, she was always interested in building a career in the arts. Guidance from her MCR Pathways volunteer trusted adult mentor has given her the confidence to shape her own future.

Before meeting her MCR Pathways mentor, Leah said she found the prospect of talking in front of others challenging; now, with the support of a volunteer mentor, she has built her confidence and is set on pursuing a fulfilling career in drama:

“I've gotten better with talking to people that I don't know, because I used to be pure terrified of talking in front of people, and now I've done a whole load of stuff where there's other people that I don't know that I need to talk to, and I'm fine with it.”

When Leah thinks of the word “career”, the first thing that pops into her head is “a job … what you’re going to do with the rest of your life.”

She said she’d previously considered other pathways after finishing school, but acting is what her heart is really set on:

“I was looking into journalism, but I was always going back to acting because that's just always been what I've loved doing.

“I've always been in the mindset of, ‘do the job that you love, and not just something that's going to make money’.”

Support and guidance from her mentor has given Leah the chance to reframe her thoughts and worries about the future:

“Before, I would always focus on the negative side of things, but I’ve been focusing on the positive side now and knowing what I can actually do and am capable of,” she explained.

While college applications don’t open until January, she has already begun the process of applying to one of the UK’s most prestigious arts universities: the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Her MCR Pathways mentor gave her practical tips about the application process, such as finding an audition piece she relates to rather than picking a monologue without knowing the full context of a play.

As well as audition tips, Leah’s mentor helped her feel more prepared for leaving school:

“Before, because I was still trying to figure out what I was wanting to do, I wasn't really focusing on leaving school. It was more like, ‘what do I do when I finish?’

“That was what I was figuring out. But now that I know what I want to do, I know what I need to do to get into the [colleges and universities] that I want to get into.”

When asked what advice she would give to mentors helping other young people take their first steps towards a fulfilling career, she said: “[Mentoring] helps a lot with figuring out details and clearing your head with this sort of stuff – that’s what it did for me.

“I was all over the place before, then I had a clear track of what I wanted to do and could start figuring out things in depth.”

Just one hour per week from a trusted adult volunteer mentor can help ignite the spark of potential in other young people like Leah. Become a mentor with MCR Pathways today: