Careers news

Assisting your Teenager with Career Planning

As your teen moves through secondary school, they may be thinking about their future career and the options open to them.

Career planning involves:

Identifying interests, skills and goals
Exploring options
Deciding on preferences
Making it happen

As parents/carers, your role is to guide your child through their career journey and encourage them to prepare for unforeseen obstacles along that journey. Remind them that sometimes plans don’t work out as expected. Help them to adapt and be resilient when things don’t go as planned.

Here are some tips that might assist your teen with career planning:

Together, explore their interests and discover their passions.
Engage in a range of career-related activities
Connect with mentors and allies who will encourage them and assist them in making informed decisions.
Encourage them to try on “career hats” through volunteering and work experience

Focus points when assisting your child in their career journey

Stay Up to Date

As the working world is forever changing, it is important to research trends, growth industries and new or emerging jobs. The availability of jobs in the future will depend on:

demand for goods and services
demand for resources
technological advances
work turnover

The Australian Government projects that there will be strong demand within the health care sector, including aged care, childcare, home based care and education services.

The expectation is that construction and infrastructure investment will stay strong, while some impact from COVID will be evident in tourism and the international education sector.

It is also expected that Australians will change their job 17 times across five different careers during their working life, so it is important to stay informed and up-to-date.

Sources:

Communication is Key

Listen and discuss your teen’s concerns with them.

Ask questions regarding their interests and hopes for the future, allowing time for discussion. In the car and at the dinner table are good opportunities.
Referring to interesting articles from newspapers, magazines or online can help start discussion.
Exploring interests together is another good starting point for career-related discussions.

Lead by Example

Offer your teen the benefit of your own experience to model best practice to them.

Explain the benefits of discipline and that making mistakes are part of learning.
Explain the importance of embracing new challenges and learning new skills.
Share information about the various jobs and roles you have experienced and what factors brought about changes in your working life.

Seek Support

It is important to seek support from a wide range of allies. These can include teachers, sports coaches, career counsellors, family friends and community and religious leaders. Encourage your teen to discuss things with you and utilise various career assessment tools available on line, including MyFuture, Morrisby, The Careers Department, and aapathways for Apprenticeship information.

Encourage your teen to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and the careers that may interest them. You can make suggestions and ask questions to help them understand more about themselves.

Please take a moment to explore some of the career and job search links that can be accessed directly from the Doncaster Careers Website.

Mrs Donna Mckinlay

Careers Support

2021 Vocational Education and Training (VET)

The GET VET website has some great videos offering student perspectives on a range of VET courses. See the videos here.

Some of the VET courses available are Animal Studies, Applied Fashion and Design and Technology, Automotive, Building & Construction, Hospitality, Kitchen operations, Music Industry, Plumbing and Screen & Media. These are certificates that some of our students have studied.

Mrs Wakeham

VET Coordinator, Career Counsellor

Latest DSC Career News

DSC Careers News 21 August 2020.pdf