Talk Regularly About The Next Steps
There are a wide range of factors that can influence the career aspirations of your child. These include:
- Parents’ jobs
- Parents’ expectations
- Expectations from school, peers or community
- Wider social messages about ‘desirable’ jobs
When beginning to talk about your child’s future, this list can provide a useful starting point, as can discussing your own career and life experience. It is equally important to encourage your child to keep an open mind and to reassure them that it’s okay if they are unclear about their ideas at the moment.
Helping students to understand their skills and what makes them unique is something we often find difficult in our experience of delivering careers education in school. Lots of young people end up ‘following the herd’ because they don’t yet understand or value their own characteristics and skills. As a parent or carer, helping your child to discover what makes them unique and which kind of job may suit their skills and preferences is crucial in ensuring they make the right decisions for their future.