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Career Exploration Begins Early
What can parents do to help their children make career choices, and when should
they start? Experts agree that understanding the world of work and planning
for a career is a developmental process. Differentiating interests, likes,
dislikes, as well as learning to make choices are really preliminaries to
career planning. Throughout their lifetime our children will regularly draw
and build upon the foundation skills they learned early in life.
Career awareness begins as soon as children are exposed to role models. Preschoolers
love to role play, mimicking what they know and admire. They "play" parent,
teacher, firefighter, bus driver, police officer, builder, doctor, etc. During
the elementary school years children become aware of their community and the
roles and jobs that adults perform. Adolescents are able to make finer distinctions,
connect educational achievement with career opportunities, and understand the
process of career planning.
What can parents do to foster career awareness and exploration? Have conversations
with your children about the careers and roles you encounter in story books,
movies, or TV programs. Discuss what the careers or roles involve. Find out
if your children like or dislike the possibilities. Why?
Make sure your children have a good understanding of what you do. Discuss what
other significant family and community members do: parents, grandparents, aunts,
uncles, neighbors, etc. If you think they know what you do, ask them. You may
be surprised by the response.
Inspire your children by providing them with opportunities for exposure to
different careers and occupations. Your network of relatives, business and
community contacts will begin to form the foundation for your children's own
future network. Take your children to work or arrange for them to visit the
work place of someone that you know. Both boys and girls need to experience
the range of cultures and environments that the work place provides.
Provide options for your children to access career information, research ideas
and for opinions for themselves. When children come up with solutions or comparisons
by themselves, the learning is much greater than when a teacher or parents
gives them the answer. Just as you cannot swing the bat or take a test for
your children, you cannot make career decisions for them either, no matter
how tempting it is to try.
Encourage your children to be entrepreneurial. Our fast-paced, high tech economy
demands a spirit of risk-taking and strategy.
That is at the core of successful small business operations. Even if they do
not end up starting their own business, students who understand the elements
of entrepreneurship will make better employees. They can practice collecting
baseball cards, stamps, or beanie babies and by keeping track of the values.
Do not reinforce the notion that certain careers are gender specific. Increasingly,
qualifications for careers are based on education, skill, training, perhaps
physical strength and agility- but not gender. Career choices should be based
on one's own desires, strengths and special talents, not what others might
expect.
After academics, the most important skills that your child will need are flexibility
and versatility. Gone are the days of selection a field of study and spending
40 years climbing the career ladder. In the future, workforce participants
can expect to experience three to five different occupational shifts.
The most valuable legacy we can give our children is permission to be what
they are most comfortable being. That does not mean taking the easy way out.
Children need to own their own destiny and experience all the responsibilities
that accompany it. Young people with a vision for their future can better focus
on tasks of the present.
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