Wadmore Pathways · Careers guidance for Years 8 to 10
Helping students choose subjects and explore careers with confidence.
Wadmore Pathways is a careers report and guidance program for schools. It brings together how each student performed on the Wadmore Cognitive Profile and what they tell us about their interests and hopes. From these it suggests career areas worth exploring, the subjects that keep their options open, and practical next steps for the student, their family and the school.
Your school releases each report when it suits, in time for subject choices, and the program continues every year from Year 8 to Year 10.
- Years 8 to 10
- Trade, vocational and university routes
- No scores or labels
- Written for families
From the assessment
Abstract Reasoning
Above the typical range for age 14In Sam's words
"I'd like to design places people actually want to spend time in."
What the report suggests
Design and Creation · Test the fit
How Pathways compares
A careers program, not a one-off test.
Many schools rely on a single careers test: students sit it once, receive a report, and perhaps have one conversation about it. Pathways works differently. It supports students through the whole year, and from Year 8 to Year 10, so that what they learn about themselves leads to well-informed decisions.
A one-off careers test
Wadmore Pathways
01 · Who it is built for
A one-off test: Often designed for students aged 15 and over.
Pathways: Students in Years 8 to 10. Each result is compared with what is typical for the student's age.
02 · Time needed
A one-off test: About two hours of timed tests, with the same questions for every student.
Pathways: 60 to 90 minutes. The questions adjust to each student's level, and the session can be split across two lessons.
03 · What students receive
A one-off test: Percentile scores, a personality type and a list of careers ranked by percentage match.
Pathways: A clear picture of the student's strengths across eight areas, alongside their own interests. No scores, personality types or match percentages.
04 · Careers
A one-off test: A ranked list of job titles.
Pathways: Eight broad career areas, three explored in depth, and twelve example jobs across trade, vocational and university routes.
05 · After the report
A one-off test: One conversation, if one can be scheduled.
Pathways: Practical activities to try in each career area, a conversation guide for families and staff, and a plan the student helps write.
06 · Subject choices
A one-off test: Results arrive whenever the test happens to be taken.
Pathways: The school releases the report in time for subject choices, and it names the subjects that keep the student's options open.
07 · The following year
A one-off test: The student starts again, or relies on last year's report.
Pathways: The student completes the profile again, and the new report shows what has changed since last year.
Comparisons from one year to the next begin with a student's second year in the program.
How the year works
Seven steps across the school year, with everyone involved.
Pathways is designed around the school calendar. The student completes the assessment, the family and the school receive results in a sensible order, and each step prepares for the next.
- 1
Complete the assessment
60 to 90 minutes at school, in one or two lessons.
StudentSchool - 2
Answer questions about themselves
Their interests, the jobs they have thought about and what matters to them, before they see any results.
Student - 3
Receive the Cognitive Profile
The family and the school see the student's results across eight areas.
FamilySchool - 4
Talk about the results
A first conversation at home or with careers staff, before careers are discussed.
StudentFamilySchool - 5
Receive the Pathways report
Career areas to explore, subjects that keep options open and activities to try, in time for subject choices.
StudentFamilySchool - 6
Try things out
Short, practical activities in each career area. The student notes how each one went.
StudentFamily - 7
Agree a plan
Subject choices and next steps agreed together, and carried into next year's report.
StudentFamilySchool
Clear about the evidence
Families can always see where each statement comes from.
Every page separates three kinds of information: the student's assessment results, what the student told us in their own words, and the report's suggestions. Each looks different on the page, so a family can see why a career area is suggested and weigh it up for themselves.
From the assessment
The student's results from the Cognitive Profile, shown the same way as in the profile and with the page they come from.
In the student's words
What the student told us, quoted directly and shown with a dashed outline so it is never mistaken for a result.
Sam named "architect" as a job they have thought about.
What the report suggests
Career areas, example jobs, ways in and activities to try, each with the reason it is suggested.
Design and Creation · three things to try
The student's own voice
Students tell us about themselves before they see any results.
In about fifteen minutes, students answer questions about the real-world challenges that interest them, the activities they enjoy, the jobs they have thought about and what matters to them in a job. Asking before results are released means their answers are their own. The report quotes them back, and uses them to decide which career areas to explore first. They never change an assessment result.
Any question can be skipped. Nothing is scored, and no grades, family details or wellbeing questions are asked.
A real-world challenge, as a student sees it
From the challenge setDesigning parks and spaces people love to spend time in
A dusty lot turned into shade, seats and a playground, planted so it still looks good in summer.
People who work on this
Design and Creation
Landscape architect
Cultivation and Stewardship
Landscape gardener
Arborist
Coordination and Operations
Project manager
Challenges across fourteen areas, including
Caring about a challenge doesn't mean you have to work on it. Lots of people help with things they care about in their spare time. And the work you end up enjoying might be on a challenge you haven't met yet.
Real-world challenges
Short descriptions of work on challenges such as housing, health and small business. Students pick the ones that interest them, and can ask to meet someone who does that work.
Activities and topics
The activities they love, sometimes enjoy or would rather skip, and the topics they like reading about.
Jobs they have thought about
Up to three jobs, in their own words and with their reasons, what a good day at work might look like, and someone they admire.
What matters in a job
The three things that matter most to them, chosen from a list of ten, and one thing they would not want.
How the report weighs it up
Results and interests, side by side.
The report sets each career area against two things: the student's assessment results, and anything they told us that relates to it. Areas where both line up are explored first. Areas where the results fit but the student said nothing are still shown, because they may be options the student has not yet come across.
There are no scores or match percentages. All eight career areas are shown, and three are explored in depth.
Sam · Where it comes together
Illustrative exampleDesign and Creation
Explored in detail
ARCDPicked a parks and public spaces challengeNamed "architect"Analysis and Inquiry
Explored in detail
ARLSMRLove it: figuring things outEnterprise and Influence
Explored in detail
ARPicked a small business challengeSystems and Engineering
AREFNothing said yet
Eight career areas
Eight career areas, each with many jobs and many ways in.
Rather than pointing a 14-year-old at a single job title, the report looks at broad areas of work. For each one it sets the skills the work uses beside the student's results: where they are already strong, where they can grow, and something practical to help.
- AI
Analysis and Inquiry
Working out what is really going on
- DC
Design and Creation
Making an idea real, then making it work
- SE
Systems and Engineering
Making things work, and fixing them
- GD
Guidance and Development
Helping people learn and grow
- CO
Coordination and Operations
Keeping things running on time
- EI
Enterprise and Influence
Setting direction, bringing people along
- PP
Protection and Precision
Keeping people safe and things exact
- CS
Cultivation and Stewardship
Caring for living things and places
Careers worth exploring
Twelve example jobs from the areas explored in depth, each with what the work involves and the usual way in through
Test the fit
Practical ways to find out what the work is really like.
For each career area explored in depth, the report suggests three activities: something to try, something to look at, and someone to talk to. Each comes with a note on what to pay attention to. The student records how it went, and that feeds into their plan and next year's report.
Design and Creation
Illustrative example01Do a small version
Redesign one corner of a room at home. Measure it, sketch two options, and ask the people who use it which works better.
What to notice. Whether the measuring and checking held your interest as much as the sketching.
02Look closer
Find the plans for a building going up near you. Councils publish them when a development is lodged.
What to notice. Which decisions the plans show, and which ones you would have made differently.
03Ask someone who does it
Ask a building designer or draftsperson what a usual week involves, and how they got started.
What to notice. How much of the week is drawing, and how much is talking with clients and builders.
For students, families and schools
Students, families and schools work from the same report.
Careers conversations work best when everyone involved is looking at the same evidence. Pathways gives the student, their family and the school what each of them needs from it.
For the student
A clear picture of their strengths, and practical things to do next.
- Their own words, quoted back to them
- Career areas they may not have met yet
- Small activities with something to notice
- A real say in what happens next
For the family
A report written for parents, and an easy way into the conversation.
- Plain language, with no scores to interpret
- Where their child is already strong, and where they can grow
- Subjects that keep options open, before the choice
- A plan to complete together
For the school
A prepared starting point for every careers conversation.
- Each student's report as the basis for the conversation
- What the student tried, and anyone they asked to meet
- A whole-cohort view in numbers of students, never ranked lists
- Released to fit the school's subject selection timeline
Inside the report
A 22-page report, written for parents to read at home.
It is written the way an experienced careers counsellor would talk with a family: clearly, warmly and specifically. If you only have a few minutes, start with the Overview, Where it comes together and The jobs they named.
- 1Cover
- 2About this report
- 3Overview
- 4What they told us
- 5Challenges picked
- 6What they bring
- 7How they work
- 8Where it comes together
- 9Jobs they named
- 10Area 1
- 11Test the fit
- 12Area 2
- 13Test the fit
- 14Area 3
- 15Test the fit
- 16The other five
- 17Careers worth exploring
- 18Subjects
- 19The road from here
- 20Talking it through
- 21Find out more
- 22How it was built
Subject choices
Advice on subjects, in your school's own curriculum.
The report names the subjects that keep the student's options open for the career areas explored and the challenges they picked, using the subject names their school uses. The decision stays with the student and their family. Where the question is which level of a subject to take, the report suggests what to ask the school.
Your school chooses when students sit the assessment and when reports go home. We suggest releasing Pathways a few weeks before subject choices, so families have time to talk it through.
Curriculum versions
Career areas are the same everywhere. Subjects and entry routes differ, so each curriculum has its own version of the report: 17 senior certificates and qualifications so far.
Australia, every state and territory
International schools
National curricula in Asia
Year 8 to Year 10
A three-year program, from Year 8 to Year 10.
Each year the student completes the Cognitive Profile again and updates their answers. They answer afresh first, then see what they said the year before and note what has changed, so each report builds on the last.
Year 8
Discovery
An introduction to all eight career areas, the challenges the student picked, and the subjects that keep options open as electives come up.
Year 9
Exploration
Begins with what the student has tried since Year 8, how it went in their own words, and who they spoke with. The activities step up from the year before.
Year 10
Direction
Begins with what has changed since Year 8, in both results and the student's answers, and what that means for their career areas, ahead of senior subject choices.
Year levels follow each curriculum: Years 8 to 10 in Australian and most international schools, Classes 8 to 10 in CBSE schools, Secondary 2 to 3 in Hong Kong, Forms 1 to 3 in Malaysia, and Kelas 8 to 9 in Indonesia.
Availability
Where Pathways is up to.
The Cognitive Profile is available now. The Pathways report design is complete, and the sample reports we share are design previews built from demonstration data. The questions students answer about themselves are being built, ready for founding schools in 2027.
Ready now
- The Cognitive Profile, for every student
- The Pathways report design
- Subject maps for every Australian senior certificate, the IB, Cambridge, Pearson Edexcel and AP, and CBSE, HKDSE, SPM and Kurikulum Merdeka
- Design previews to walk through with your team
In build
- The student questions inside the assessment: challenges, About me and subjects
- Reports generated for each student from their own answers
2027
- Founding schools begin with Year 8
- Year 9 and Year 10 editions, and the cohort view for school leaders
Timing follows development milestones and psychometric review.
Included in Wadmore for Schools
$40 AUD + GST per student
The Cognitive Profile and Pathways together, with no cohort minimum. Schools that already hold Cognitive Profiles can add Pathways. Founding schools lock in this rate for three years.
See a Pathways report for your school.
We will walk you through a design preview of a Cognitive Profile and Pathways report for your curriculum, built from demonstration data, and show how the program fits your subject selection calendar.