Career advice at school - Is it useful?

Do schools give useful career advice, or are students just steered to go to university to study any degree course regardless of employability and future career paths? Have been made aware that some schools are steering students down paths that help boost the school's reputation and ignore career opportunities. Is there a split ie Russell Group (RG) university potential, non-RG university potential, Further Education potential (Accounting (AAT), Construction, Hairdressing, Plumbing, and other trades), and those classified no-hope / no career direction (sometimes steered to armed forces if gain GCSE Maths, English, Science, and 2 more subjects)?

Yes and No. Depends on the career advice itself and the student's concrete ideas for a possible profession in the future.

I for instance would like to be informed about the tasks in a precise branch. Just to see whether the jobs I imagined for myself matches with my interests and attitude for the work or not.

It may have changed since I was at school. But I do think that schools could do more in the way if careers advice.
In year 10/11 I think that schools should give people more guidance into different options e.g. college courses, apprenticeships, 6th form etc. My sister did an apprenticeship but they weren't really talked about much when she applied for hers (she got info about hers because my auntie worked there). Armed forces wasn't even mentioned when me or my sister were at school and I think people should be at least given some info on it for if people want to go in that direction.
In 6th form I think there should be less focus on uni and more focus on other options too. When I went to 6th form it was all uni this and uni that and nothing else.

I think that does actually happen now. At the school I used to teach in and the college I now work at, both have full time careers advisors who give 1-1 advice as well as arranging work experience and trips.

It would be nice to know which careers were more stable than others. For example I looked at marketing jobs on several online job boards and most seemed to be fixed term jobs that would last for up to 9 months. In contrast teaching roles are very rarely for 1 year, and most are permanent with a career pathway.

Interesting to learn that there is a shift away from everyone going to university to do any degree course. It's amazing to learn that some people go into debt and sacrifice their life-time earning potential to do courses that reduce their attractiveness for employers just so that they can go to a university, and that does include RG universities - the so-called elite ones in the UK.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/rishi-sunak-wants-to-phase-out-degrees-tha - interesting to learn that t-do-not-improve-earning-potential/

Look at apprenticeships in the following areas:

If you are interested in business - look at AAT, as it will give you a stable career, unlike marketing, which is increasingly a short-term project focused area of business.

If you want to work in Real Estate, Construction, and Architecture then look at Leeds College of Building and UCEM

Maritime careers - look at Warsash College

Fashion - do a tailoring apprenticeship at Jermyn Street in London, rather go into a high street store.

If you do a course at one of these and if you still feel the need

Journalism and media - look at Highbury College

Human Resources - CIPD run a range of courses. Focus on Employment Law and Selection - think about Recruitment too

Remember that there have been some very successful people who didn't go to university, but who kept learning their trade and crucially the key business skills (finance, statistics - inventory (product and services), marketing, PR, contract law, and IT driven business development - using CRM/spreadsheets, etc to segment and track customers). Being able to do these and continually engaging with customers and competitors to learn how to improve will make you a winner, as most people do the minimum. Build your reputation and keep a blog.

the Armed Services are not are not full of no hopes their many career paths some people entry the Armed Services with few or even no qualifications because of poor educational experience. The Armed Services look at what a recruit is able to because not how well they did at school many people fail the recruitment process.

From my personal experience, no.
The carer's advisor basically said i wouldn't be able to get into uni, yet here i am now with a degree and a PGCE.

Honestly don't think carer's advisors in sixth form/college have sufficient knowledge in all fields to fully support students.

Do schools give useful career advice, or are students just steered to go to university to study any degree course regardless of employability and future career paths? Have been made aware that some schools are steering students down paths that help boost the school's reputation and ignore career opportunities. Is there a split ie Russell Group (RG) university potential, non-RG university potential, Further Education potential (Accounting (AAT), Construction, Hairdressing, Plumbing, and other trades), and those with no career direction are steered to the armed forces, but only if they gain GCSE Maths, English, a Science, and 2 more subjects)?

Do schools give useful career advice, or are students just steered to go to university to study any degree course regardless of employability and future career paths? Have been made aware that some schools are steering students down paths that help boost the school's reputation and ignore career opportunities. Is there a split ie Russell Group (RG) university potential, non-RG university potential, Further Education potential (Accounting (AAT), Construction, Hairdressing, Plumbing, and other trades), and those with no career direction are steered to the armed forces, but only if they gain GCSE Maths, English, a Science, and 2 more subjects)?

When leaving year 11 (it may have changed now), I was told that A-levels were the best option as I did moderately well in GCSEs. The careers advisor also added it would be a waste of potential for me to do an apprenticeship or a B-tech. The advice felt cookie cutter if you are intelligent enough, you should do A-levels. I was burnt out and hated exams, so I did an apprenticeship and then did some work abroad. Eventually, I ended up doing access to HE course and got into UCL. So really, in the long run, the advice was not so great, and I always say to people to take career advice with a pinch of salt.

Mine just used google, and showed me everything I had already googled… no actual advice lol, just google and the .gov website. Take it with a grain of salt and ask people online directly about your career options (who are in industry)