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Chart your course

Plan your path after high school — apprenticeship, trade, college or still deciding

Wherever you’re starting from, and whatever comes next — including “still deciding” — Pathfinder builds you a plan for it. Every claim is labelled by how grounded it is, and it never invents a number it cannot source.

An AI counsellor for high-school students and the parents who support them: see every route first, then get a plan with a Plan B and one focus a week.

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  • Trades and apprenticeships, not just college
  • Never invents a deadline or a cost
  • Scholarship matching, free
  • Undecided? Start here

Not everyone is going to university. Everyone deserves a plan

An apprenticeship, a trade, a foundation year or college, the military, a gap year or a job at eighteen are destinations, not fallbacks. Every one of these gets the same planning, the same portfolio roadmap and the same scholarship matching as a degree — the guidance just fits the path you’re actually considering.

Trade & apprenticeship

Hands-on routes into skilled careers — often faster and more affordable than a traditional degree.

Guides: Apprenticeship vs college · Trade school vs. college · What is a registered apprenticeship?

Foundation year or college

A foundation or preparatory year, or a community or technical college: a flexible route into a degree or straight into work.

Guides: Community college vs university

Straight to work

Enter the workforce directly. Plan the skills, experience and roles that get you where you want to go.

Guides: Straight to work after high school

Military

Serve your country, earn qualifications and build a career with structure, purpose and funding.

Guides: Military vs college

Certifications

Industry credentials — from coding bootcamps to professional certs — that open doors fast.

Guides: Certifications vs a degree

Entrepreneurship

For the builder. Explore what it takes to develop skills, find early customers and start something.

Guides: Starting a business instead of college

University

Compare courses and universities across countries. Understand what each one actually asks for.

Guides: Can you go to college later?

Gap year

A planned year to work, volunteer, travel or build a skill before your next step, with a clear plan for what comes after.

Guides: Is a gap year a good idea?

Still deciding

"Not sure yet" is a great place to start. Explore options honestly — no pressure to commit.

Guides: Still deciding after high school? · How to choose a path after high school

Not sure which path fits you? That’s fine — start with Explore and let the options come to you. Pathway is one of the ten rules every scholarship is matched on, so a trade or apprenticeship route surfaces its own funding, not a university list with the labels swapped.

Every path after high school, explained honestly — every route side by side, with sources.

From a blank page to a plan you can act on

Five steps. No entrance test, no jargon — just a clear path forward, whatever direction you choose.

  1. Tell us about you

    A quick start shows you every route before you answer anything long, then a guided profile captures your interests, grades and where you're headed — or that you're not sure yet. No jargon, no entrance test required.

  2. Get a grounded plan

    Pathfinder builds a personalised plan and labels every claim as grounded, modelled or advisory — so you always know how much weight to give it.

  3. See what you can actually fund

    Your profile is checked against every approved award in the catalogue — so you find out what you qualify for, what rules you out, and what is still waiting on one detail from you.

  4. Build proof, week by week

    One focus a week keeps you moving. Try a route cheaply, say how it went, and your options update. Proof you build is linked to the requirement it counts for.

  5. Take your next step

    When your moment comes, whether that is an application, an apprenticeship interview, enlistment or launching something, your checklists are in order. When results arrive, you can compare offers and see the steps before day one.

Scholarships — on the free plan

Find out what you can actually fund — and why

Most scholarship tools hand you a long list and let you work out the bad news yourself. Pathfinder checks your profile against 10 eligibility rules on every award — citizenship, where you live, where you want to study, field, pathway, grade level, GPA, demographic, financial need and deadline — and then tells you exactly where you stand.

  • You qualify

    Every rule the provider states, you meet. The award tells you which ones and why it counted them.

  • You are ruled out

    A rule genuinely excludes you — and you are told which one, so you stop spending evenings on awards you can never win.

  • It cannot tell yet

    Something is missing or the provider never said. Instead of guessing, it names the one detail that would settle it.

Awards for trade, apprenticeship and community-college routes sit alongside university ones — pathway is one of the 10 rules, not a filter bolted on afterwards. There are 49 approved awards in the catalogue today. That is a curated set, not an index of the whole internet, and every record is approved by a person before any student sees it.

The full walk-through of the rules and the three answers: How scholarship eligibility is decided.

Honest by design

Every tool claims an AI. Almost none will tell you what theirs refuses to do

Ours is built to refuse. It never invents a deadline, a cost or an acceptance chance, and when it does not know something it says so and asks for the one fact that would settle it. Every claim that does make it into your plan carries a label, so you always know how much weight to give it.

  • Grounded: backed by a real, checkable source.
  • Modelled: worked out from your profile, not a single source.
  • Advisory: general guidance to consider, not a hard fact.

What Pathfinder will not do

  • It will not invent a deadline or a cost

    If a date or a dollar figure is not sourced, Pathfinder will not print one. You get "I could not verify this, and here is where to check" instead of a number that reads as authoritative and is not.

  • It will not tell you your chances of getting in

    No acceptance odds, no percentage, no "you are a strong candidate for this one". Nobody can compute that honestly from a profile, so Pathfinder does not pretend to.

  • It does not decide scholarship eligibility by opinion

    Eligibility is computed in code against each provider's stated rules, never judged by the model. The AI can explain a verdict and cite the award; it cannot overrule the check or talk you into one you do not qualify for.

Why each refusal exists, with sources: What our AI refuses to say (and why that helps you).

For parents

Stay involved, without hovering

You don’t need to become an admissions expert overnight — and you especially don’t if your child is heading for an apprenticeship rather than a campus. Your student invites you, you get a progress view, and it is built for support at the right moments instead of pressure at the wrong ones.

Your student controls what you see

You record consent when you open the invite, and your student chooses what you see (their direction, decisions, tasks, applications and shared work) and can change it at any time. The reasons behind a decision stay private until they share them. Their counsellor conversations and unshared drafts stay theirs.

Guides for parents

Pricing

Pilot access while billing is finalized

Pathfinder does not currently offer public paid tiers or in-app checkout. New users can create an account and use the mounted pilot workflow while pricing and billing operations are finalized.

Create account · See pilot details

Questions students and parents ask

Straight answers about how Pathfinder works, what it costs and how we keep it honest.

I'm not sure what I want to do yet. Is Pathfinder for me?

Absolutely. "Not sure yet" is a perfectly valid starting point — and a great one. You can answer "I don't know yet", see every route before choosing, and get an exploring plan with two or three directions to test cheaply instead of one fixed path. You narrow down over time. You don't need a destination to get started.

Does Pathfinder work for paths other than university?

Yes — that's the point. Pathfinder supports every path: university, a foundation year or community college, trade programmes and apprenticeships, military service, industry certifications, entrepreneurship, going straight to work and a gap year. The All routes page lays them all out before you narrow down. Pathway is one of the ten things every scholarship is matched on, so a trade or community-college route is a first-class filter rather than an afterthought. If a path is worth taking, it's worth planning well.

How does scholarship matching work?

Every approved award carries a rule for each of ten eligibility dimensions — citizenship, where you live, where you want to study, field of study, pathway, grade level, GPA, demographic, financial need and deadline window. Each rule is in one of three states: open to everyone, restricted to certain people, or simply not stated by the provider. Pathfinder checks your profile against all ten and sorts each award into what you qualify for, what rules you out and exactly why, and what it cannot determine yet — naming the single detail that would settle it. The check runs in code, so a verdict is never the AI's opinion.

How many scholarships are in the catalogue?

There are 49 approved awards visible to students today. That is a curated catalogue, not an index of everything on the internet, and we would rather tell you the real number than claim thousands. Every record is reviewed and approved by a person before any student can see it — nothing is ever published automatically.

Do I have to pay to see my scholarship matches?

No. Scholarship matching, including the reasons behind every verdict, is on the free plan. Awards for trade, apprenticeship and community-college routes sit alongside university ones.

Who is Pathfinder for?

Every high-school student (roughly grades 9–12) thinking about what comes after school, and the parents who support them — whatever path they are considering, however sure they are, and whatever support they need to get there. Pathfinder starts from where each student actually is. Today the product is built around the student: every planning tool is theirs, and the core of it is on the free plan.

My child has additional needs. Can Pathfinder help?

Yes. That includes students who are autistic, have ADHD or a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or low vision, or have a physical, medical, mental-health or other additional need. The learning support page turns the parts families usually piece together alone into a timeline of steps: exam accommodations and how long they take to approve, school support plans (IEP, 504, EHCP and their Saudi and UAE equivalents), university disability services, and what changes at 16 and 18. It covers Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US and the UK, plus exam boards including College Board, ACT, IB, Cambridge, Pearson and the English-language tests. Every step links to its source, and anything we could not confirm is left out. The student or a linked parent can fill in the support profile; it reaches the AI only if you switch that on, and it is never shown to school staff. It is on the free plan, and it is general guidance, not legal, medical or educational advice.

Is it really free to start?

Yes. You can create an account and try the planning flow free — no credit card needed. The free plan includes guided intake, pathway exploration, one AI-generated plan, scholarship matching with full reasons, application tracking (targets, requirement checklists and the application command center), portfolio and task basics, and five AI counsellor messages a day.

What does the Family plan add?

Pathfinder does not currently offer public paid tiers or in-app checkout. New users can create an account and use the mounted pilot workflow while pricing and billing operations are finalized. Pilot terms may be handled manually by the Pathfinder team until checkout is live.

How do you keep the AI honest?

The AI is instructed never to invent deadlines, acceptance rates or costs, and anything it cannot source it reports as unknown along with the fact it would need from you. When it does share a figure or a recommendation, that claim is labelled grounded, modelled or advisory, so you can see what is sourced and what is general guidance. Scholarship eligibility is not left to the model at all — it is decided in code.

Does a real person ever look at my plan?

Where a school or counsellor works with you, plans can be reviewed and endorsed by a real counsellor. The AI helps you prepare; people stay responsible for the advice that matters.

What can parents see?

Only what their child decides to show them, and only after being invited. The parent opens the invite and records consent, and from then on sees a progress view. The student chooses, per parent, what that view shows: the direction they are exploring, their decisions (the reasons behind a decision stay private until the student shares them), tasks, applications, evidence they marked as shared and their support profile. The student can change or revoke this at any time. Counsellor conversations and unshared drafts are never on it. On the Family plan the parent sees the shared direction, decisions, applications and how they can help, with a summary emailed each Sunday; on the free plan a parent sees that a plan exists and whether it has been endorsed. Parents can also note their own hopes for the family to compare with their child's, use the parent pages in Arabic, and ask a few questions a day about their child's shared plan.

We are not in the US — does it still work for us?

Yes. Pathfinder is designed for internationally-mobile families and includes country-specific guidance packs, so the plan reflects the system you're actually studying in. For Saudi Arabia and the Gulf that means Qiyas (the General Aptitude Test, the Achievement Test and STEP), national admission and a checked catalog of local routes such as technical colleges and military academies, each linked to its official source. Where a country has no verified pack yet, Pathfinder says so rather than borrowing another country's rules. Citizenship, country of residence and country of study are three of the ten dimensions scholarships are matched on.

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