Students need to get the right guidance, to make the right decisions about what to do after school, experts say.

High school students could be limiting their career opportunities because they aren't getting enough advice about which subjects they need to take, experts are warning.

Soon year 12 students will decide what subjects they will study next year, while year 13 classes will be considering what to do when high school is over.

Former Wellington College careers advisor Ernie Rosenthal said career education varied widely across schools, and in some the role of career advisors was undervalued.

They might only work four to five hours a week which was "terribly ineffective" because there could be so many students.

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However, it was also up to students and their parents to seek advice early on.

"If they leave it to the end sometimes they haven't made good choices and have narrowed themselves down.

"It's not telling a student what they should do, but what opportunities are out there."

Rosenthal said he had worked with a student who hadn't sought careers advice because he thought he had a clear path.

He came to Rosenthal when he decided half way through year 13 he wanted to do medicine, instead of commerce.

The young man had to go back to school for year 14 and pick up biology, physics and chemistry.

He would also need to do a foundation year at Otago University.

"He's trying to remedy the fact he didn't see a careers advisor during five years at school."

Funding for careers advisors had been like a "top hat" on funding for existing teachers, careers consultant Catherine Shaw said.

To improve services in secondary schools, there needed to be a pool of money to pay for careers councillors to go into schools and work one on one with students.

"People have been going to tertiary courses uncertain about what they want to do ... if they'd had a more structured and in-depth career advice session, perhaps they might not have taken that place."

"I think there is a lack of people in the market who can assist people with that kind of information, because there hasn't been a lot of specific training."

Giving good careers advice was something Hutt Valley High School prided itself on.

Principal Ross Sinclair said students were given one-on-one contact time every year from year 9 on.

"It's certainly true careers advice is a specialist zone ... really because of the shear number of courses and institutions and next pathways for students."

The Ministry of Education required all schools give career advice from year 7 upwards. Secondary schools received a Career Information Grant, which was based on the decile rating of the school and the number of its students.

The money did not have to be spent on career education.

Deans and subject teachers were also available to offer advice, and the Government had schemes to help students transition from high school to tertiary education.

Students turn to technology for help

Jeff King, a teacher at Rangitikei College in Marton, first developed the mobile application MyBlueprint with a former student to help students keep track of their NCEA credits.

Last month they added another feature, so senior students could look up potential career paths, and find out what tertiary providers could offer.

Since then 2000 courses had been listed from more than 50 providers and 100,000 courses had been saved by students in four weeks.

King said it helped bridge the gap between what was offered in schools, and what students needed to know to make good decisions.