I have no one to ask about how any of this works

The last bus is at six and everything is twenty minutes away

Nobody explained what to wear or when to arrive

The placement was photocopying and I learned nothing

Nobody told me what any of these jobs pay

The people deciding this have never had to choose between a course and a wage

I got one week's placement in a place nobody chose for me

The jobs here are shifts, not careers

I was the only one in my family not working at sixteen

Young people leave and do not come back

The careers website is a list of jobs, not of how to get one

I would have stayed for a job that went somewhere

I was interviewed by a person who had already decided

College meant four pounds a day I did not have

The only people who told me to stay had already left and come back

I did not know that job existed until I met someone doing it

Careers advice is one afternoon in the final year

You cannot save on this wage even living at home

Staying feels like giving up on something

I dropped the course because of the travel, not the work

I was caring for my grandmother and nobody at school knew

Without a car you cannot take most of these jobs

Nobody in a position to hire ever visits a classroom

I did not apply because I assumed I would not get it

Nobody asked me what I wanted until I had already chosen

My parents cannot help because it was different for them

A licence and insurance cost more than a month's wages

Everyone I know who did well left

The application asked for experience I could not have had

There is nothing to do here after eighteen

The jobs here do not need what school taught

The rent here is cheaper and the wage is much lower

I found out about the apprenticeship from a friend, too late

My teachers were proud of me for going and sad for the town

Taking a low-paid apprenticeship felt like a luxury I could not afford