How to help a child decide on a profession and not ruin his future

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Finding the work of your life when you are not yet 18, and never regret your decision - such a scenario, although it looks correct, is often utopian in practice. Together with the national project "" we have collected advice for parents who want to help the child and support him in the difficult choice of a professional path.

Childhood

Teach your child to be independent

You need to start preparing for adulthood from childhood. Teach your child to make informed decisions and take responsibility for them, manage time and money wisely, plan studies, extra classes and housework.

Develop these skills gradually. First, show how to proceed, then correct the nuances, and then outline the area of full responsibility of the child. It will be difficult for a teenager who cannot assemble a portfolio without his mother, not only at work, but also in life in general.

Don't try to fulfill your own ambitions

Remember that your child has his own path, his talents, and in general he is not you. No matter how much you want your son to become an Olympic champion and your daughter to be an excellent cellist, take their opinions into account. Perhaps the cello and medals are just the wishes of dad and mom. And the time spent stupidly for the realization of other people's ambitions will be directly proportional to the number of sessions with a psychologist in the future. It is better to immediately spend it on something that really arouses a keen interest in the child.

Give your child the opportunity to try different activities

Additional education will help with this. School is the basis, but circles and sections can become an excellent superstructure and the first steps in a future profession. Today there is plenty to choose from: robotics, programming, architecture, bioengineering, foreign languages, motion design, blogging. At the same time, many courses are held free of charge.

Let your child try himself in several areas at once and do not scold when something does not work out. If in the future he decides to radically change his profession, knowledge in several areas will help determine. Knowledge is not superfluous, and the flexibility of the mind develops only when it is constantly trained.

Every child can get additional education free of charge and reveal their talent - this is one of the directions of the national project "". Additional education programs, children's technology parks "", digital development centers "", collaborations with universities - thousands of opportunities are open for children. The Education Initiatives work across Russia, from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad, and enable schoolchildren to find activities that match their interests and hobbies.

Do not frighten with "bad" professions

Probably, each of us at one time heard the phrase "You will not study, you will become a janitor", and the notorious "free cash register" has long turned into a meme. Refuse negative rhetoric when talking about your child's future. Your desire for a better life for him should not devalue someone else's, sometimes very hard work. In addition, not every adult is able to overcome self-doubt in difficult moments and step over the attitudes laid down in childhood. "Anything, just not to sweep the streets" - this will be his choice in the end. And he will disappoint, sooner or later.

“You can become whoever you want if you work hard and hard on it,” is a good phrase to cheer up and motivate your child in times of crisis and fatigue.

Senior classes

Understand the situation in the job market

Teenagers are prone to maximalism and overly emotional decisions. At the same time, the new generation usually has an intuitive sense of the market. Suffice it to recall the 90s, when children secretly from their parents played the first computer games all night long. No one even knew that professional esports would soon bring gamers millions.

To help your child make a choice and find a job to their liking, you yourself must be well versed in existing professions. You should not rely on rumors, the experience of the children of relatives, acquaintances and acquaintances of acquaintances. Look for vacancies, including on foreign resources, compare incomes, note what skills and competencies are needed for a particular specialty, think about where it is better to get or improve them. The more knowledgeable you are about market opportunities, the more likely your child will heed your advice.

Teach your teen to make money

From the age of 14, a child can start earning money, for example, in the summer or on vacation. This will help him broaden his horizons, learn how to plan income and spending. In addition, any job improves soft skills, which are increasingly being paid attention to by large companies when hiring employees. This concept includes punctuality, responsibility, the ability to interact in a team, solve problems and correctly get out of crisis situations.

Having earned the first money, the child will become more confident in their abilities and will be able to better cope with fears about the future. And also, posting ads or delivering orders in a cafe, in practice, he will get acquainted with the disadvantages of low-skilled labor: a large consumption of internal resources, a lack of professional development and a modest salary.

Show your child the work from the inside

Many professions are too idealized. For example, in the films, all lawyers are smart, assertive, damn resourceful guys in strict suits who administer justice and collect applause. In real jurisprudence, there is little pathos. This is painstaking, sometimes boring paperwork. And justice is generally a vague and very subjective concept.

To protect your child from mismatching expectations of reality, try to show him some specialties from the inside. Explain exactly what each family member does, how his work day is structured and tasks are distributed. If you have someone familiar with a profession that interests a teenager, ask that person to organize a short internship or master class.

Try yourself as a nurse, see what a financial analyst is doing, spend a day with a tour guide. All this is possible thanks to the platform "", created within the framework of the national project "". Each student can plunge into the profession for a short time and decide whether he likes it or not. In addition, on the platform, you can take vocational guidance tests, search for information about educational institutions, participate in educational events and receive recommendations on choosing a specialty. All you need to do for this is to register and fill out the form.

Students and the first steps in the profession

Understand that retraining is not a tragedy

Accept this yourself and explain to your child. Most likely, he will have to change several specializations in his life. And if in the first years of the university it became clear that there will be no success and the soul does not lie in the chosen direction, let the student decide for himself what to do next. To complete their studies and try to "love" the profession, transfer to another faculty, change educational institution or drop out altogether. An independent child is aware of the consequences awaiting him in each of the options.

Tell me that getting a degree is just the beginning

The speed of appearance of qualitatively new information, even within the framework of one profession, is cosmic. "You have to run as fast as you can just to stay in place." It seems that now we are beginning to fully experience what Lewis Carroll was talking about.

Explain to your child that admission, diploma and first job are just the beginning of his professional career. To remain in demand as a specialist, he will have to constantly study: take courses in related areas, independently master applied skills and new technologies, practice a lot and improve competence. The habit of continuously “investing” in your knowledge will greatly help if one day the child decides to radically change his profession.