Help with career guidance.

Every parent wants to ensure a prosperous future for their children: so that they receive a quality education, develop as a person and acquire a prestigious and highly paid profession. However, in some issues, an important point is lost: will this profession be of interest to the child himself, does he really want to associate his further education and activity with this kind of activity? When starting to go through the options, you may not notice how the child finds himself in a maelstrom of suggestions, advice, comparisons and even pressure. At some point, parents begin to hear from their child the phrase “I don’t know what I want and I don’t know where I should go.” And then panic begins: a lot has been said and shown, the work has been carried out for a very long time, everyone was preparing for the fact that their son or daughter had long ago decided on the choice, and at the last moment – you get such an answer. What to do and how to organize the work on career guidance so that it is as effective as possible?

STEP 1. Together with the child draw up a chart of professional preferences: what requirements the future profession should meet, what needs it should satisfy, what interests it should touch. After you have done this, write down all these preferences in one column, and in the opposite column write down those professions that, more-less, satisfy the requirements. Analyze which of the professions more fully meet all the specified parameters and evoke a positive response from your child.

STEP 2. Improve the quality of knowledge about the professional world. Remember that the adolescent’s ideas about professions are not always objective: they can be limited, rely on inaccurate data or the opinions of a small number of people; may be considered in the system of another country or other time period. Always discuss information that is relevant for a given time and place, involve acquaintances who work in the area of ​​interest to the child at the moment, study the labor market together. Many questions can be closed already at this stage.

STEP 3. Try to pay as much attention as possible to collecting information about a particular profession, ranging from standard questions of payment and demand, and ending with non-standard characteristics: how the representatives of this profession are treated in society, what are the benefits of this or that profession, what risks this work is associated with, what curious or interesting cases there have been with representatives of this profession during the period of its existence, etc. The wider the child’s ideas about a particular professional field are formed, the easier it will be for him to decide in the future.

STEP 4. After discussion, get down to business. Offer your child “professional tests”: visit a university or other educational institution of interest with him as part of an open day, arrange a personal meeting with a representative of this profession, visit an enterprise or a company, watch a documentary film, “rehearse” some features of the profession with your child at home or invite him to attend an elective in career guidance.

STEP 5. Offer your child to undergo comprehensive career guidance testing, which will show not only preferred areas of activity and common interests, but also help to draw up a general personality profile, identify the child’s current needs, aspirations, self-esteem and the formation of the world views. Remember that the results of such a diagnosis will not give you a right direction to the only professional path, but will help you to deeper study the inner world of the child, his motives and fears, tell you which vector to focus on and which specialists to turn to next.

* Please note the link provided below. By clicking on it, you can see a block of career guidance tests that you can take online and get data analysis, with which you can contact both the school psychologist and other career guidance specialists.

https://adukar.com/by/proftests

STEP 6. Always discuss alternatives. Never impose your choice on a child, arguing it with personal experience, but offer it as a fallback. Children themselves rarely think about additional options, so it is important to help them with this and suggest other ways of realizing themselves as a professional for consideration. The presence of such an alternative will minimize anxiety and general emotional stress in relation to this issue.

Always remember that the child’s professional fulfillment is his personal right. Do not try to fulfill your own preferences and desires at the expense of your child. Discuss with him/her the issues related to the choice of a future profession from an early age. Children’s opinions will still change, but understanding the essence of the issue and the importance of an informed choice will already have a stronger foundation. For assistance in career guidance, you can contact a school psychologist, as well as regional and district career guidance centers, career guidance portals.

http://www.portal.mogileviro.by/

Roman Vladimirovich Gaiduk, educational psychologist at Concord School.