College and Career Planning

Students are never too young to start thinking about their future! Choosing a career is a big decision. Being aware of the process and engaging in it now will help our children make better decisions about their future plans. Here are some things you can do now and over the next few years to support your children as they explore their career options:

Things parents can do to help support their children in future planning:     

• Promote your child’s self-awareness from a young age – help them to identify their strengths and the things they are good at. Help your children to develop interests and hobbies. What classes in school do they enjoy or are they particularly good at?
• Encourage your children to take risks and try new things. Even if they don’t succeed at first, they can learn new things about themselves. Children learn a lot about themselves in school, but also by taking part in sports and other activities outside of school. Some of the experiences they have and skills they develop will be useful later in life. These activities also promote healthy social development.
• Talk to your children about the things that are most important to them about work. What values does your child have regarding work? Making lots of money? Having flexible work hours? Working on their own, or with other people, or with technology? Having lots of freedom to be creative, or having a supervisor that tells them exactly what to do? Being able to travel as part of the job or working out of an office?
• For older kids, encourage them to develop skills, values and interests by volunteering, joining clubs, and taking classes.
• Help your children to see the real-world application of what they are learning in school and in other activities to potential careers when they get older.
• Teach your children about the value of identifying goals and developing a plan to achieve them.
• When possible, invite your children to come to work and let them see what you do for a living. Encourage them to ask questions to understand the process that you went through to pick a career. Share with them the things you enjoy doing at your job and the parts of your job that you don’t enjoy.