Parent involvement in career path planning

A question I am often asked by parents at this time of year is, ‘How can I best support my child in their decision-making around careers?’ It can be a difficult task. It is important to provide support where you can, but also really important to remember that these decisions need to be ultimately be made by them. They need to identify their interests and passions and identify their best pathway. The following guidelines, provided by Youth Connect, may assist you when conducting conversations with your children about jobs and study pathways. 

Key messages for parents regarding career conversations with their children

As our senior students complete their subject selections and our Year 12 students are in the midst of making important decisions regarding courses at university or TAFE for 2022, it is timely to consider how we can best support our children in making career decisions. These key tips are from a PACTS (Parents as Career Transition Support) workshop run by Youth Connect:

• Our role is to be a career coach for them, not to make the decisions for them.
• Be aware of your reactions to your teenager’s ideas, and their extracurricular interests and activities. These can play an important part in increasing a person’s self-awareness.
• Make sure your teenager feels that any decisions are theirs with your support.
• Taking responsibility for important life decisions is a significant step towards becoming an adult.
• Encourage your teenager to research opportunities and take advantage of resources available to them at school and in their community. 
• Encourage your teenager to participate in community activities through volunteer work, sporting clubs and other organisations. This can be a great way of getting to know more about a particular area of work and also allow them to develop skills that are very valued by employers.
• Help your teenager to think about planning for the future.
• The way parents talk about jobs at home can impact enormously on teenagers. 
• Let your teenagers know you are interested in their goals and dreams. Your support will encourage them to value their individual goals, and realise they are worth working towards. Encourage them to ask important questions about themselves and the world of work.

Find out more about the workshop.

Cath Freney

Careers and Future Pathways Coordinator