I didn’t get the exam results I expected – Dave Fishwick gives his advice

Last week, my son received his A Level exam results. He didn’t do as well as he expected, and it hit him hard, especially after he saw most of his friends jubilant. 

He now seems at a total loss of what to do next. He doesn’t know what career he wants. 

I’ll be honest, I never thought university was the right place for him – but I’m struggling to find the words to help. 

It’s all well and good pointing to a tweet from Jeremy Clarkson saying he did poorly in his exams and subsequently thrived, but I need something that can cut through to him now and help encourage him to find his path. 

Do you have any words of encouragement for him? And are there any tools that can help him discover from his skill set what career could potentially suit him best?

Dave Fishwick, This is Money business doctor, replies: It is challenging for a young person in this position to congratulate friends who have done well in the exams, while bearing the disappointment of not getting the results he had hoped for.

Unfortunately, I have not got a single qualification to my name. 

I left school at 16 on a Friday afternoon. The following Monday at 6.30am, I was sitting on the back of an old builders pick-up truck, with sand blowing in my face, wearing a donkey jacket, with a flask of milky tea in one pocket and some beef paste butties wrapped in tin foil, stuffed in the other. I was on my way to a building site. 

My family was poor, and they needed me to work. 

My father had got me a job working for Frank Byrne (builders, plasterers and slaters). 

I was on the youth training scheme (YTS) in the 1980s. I was up and down ladders all day, mixing cement, carrying bricks and roof slates; it was hard labour, and I was paid just £27.50p a week, which was the YTS wage. 

However, since those early days, I have gone on to build six multimillion pound companies, the biggest of which is my investment company in the US. 

The critical point I want to make here is: ‘it’s not where you start that matters, but where you finish that counts.’

A setback like exam results may, in time, be something you see as a necessary event to point your son in the right direction. Adversity can make you stronger if you can turn disappointment into determination.

Family and friends can help with support and advice. While they may not have all the technical answers, they have many years of life experience, as well as knowing us better than anyone. 

I suggest your son have lots of conversations with people he looks up to and respects; this may ignite a spark in him, or at the least, hearing those around him talk about his strengths, positive attributes, and abilities could give him the confidence he needs to take the following steps.

The first practical thing he should do is to speak to his college tutors. The clearing process might be open to him if his grades weren’t too far off. 

It might also be worth re-sitting the year if he is sure about the course he wants to do, or enquiring about the possibility of a foundation year, which some universities offer.

Make an appointment with a careers adviser and attend open days. 

Local employers may be willing to offer advice or even let him visit them.

Looking at workplaces of interest could help him see past education to the type of work he’s interested in. 

The clearer you are about where you want to be in life, the clearer you’ll be about how to get there.

If, after this process, your son has decided to change course, it’s worth considering a switch to a vocational system, perhaps part-time alongside a job. 

I think the best investment anyone can make, is the one in themselves. If you learn to communicate better, you can increase your value by at least 50 per cent.

I am also a big fan of apprenticeships, and I think they should be far more widely available and have equal status with university study.

The academic path is not suitable for everyone, and that’s fine. Higher education is costly now, and it is no longer a guarantee of a promising career, at least one which justifies the level of debt accrued and the lost years of earning. I am one of many employers who value work experience over a university degree.

Always remember the basics, especially when approaching potential employers. 

Strong communication skills, a smart appearance, punctuality and most importantly, a positive attitude can be as important as qualifications and make all the difference in interviews, where first impressions count.

While it might not seem very helpful or immediately relevant to hear about people who didn’t do well in their exams, a young person in his position must understand that it is not the end of their path of learning; it’s just the beginning, I am still learning every day, gaining wisdom through experience.

Jeremy Clarkson and I are not the only people who didn’t do well academically; there are many more. Richard Branson, Lord Alan Sugar, Simon Cowell, Robbie Williams and even Albert Einstein, to name a few and they haven’t done too bad.

Finally, tell your son not to worry that he didn’t get the A-level results he wanted. 

Remember, I received none, and things worked out okay for me: today, I have been building the first new British high street bank for more than 120 years . 

Self-belief, confidence, determination & common sense are just as important. If a lad from Burnley with no qualifications can make it happen, everyone else can too. Good Luck!