How to guide your teen to the right career path

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All youngsters in later years of adolescence begin to think about their future and feel uncertain or anxious with regard to what it holds. They also feel the need to be prepared to take their place in the adult world.

This explains why the choice of a career is of vital interest to them. It is, in fact, the first time they have to take a personal stand on one of the most important matters for any person - work or occupation.

Most of the time they choose a career or a job for the wrong reasons. One such reason is the glamour attached to some professions. Some careers like journalism may be chosen simply because they are ‘smart’ and have a high social status. In other cases the choice is made purely on the basis of financial considerations.

Shallow decisions

The shallow decisions result from harmful influence of parents and friends. Parents sometimes force children into one choice rather than another because, in their view, it is the best.

They think because the children are not yet capable of making wise decisions, they should make them for them. This influence may range from simply raising objections to openly opposing what the children themselves want to do.

In fact, it is not unusual for the pressure to be based on income and family tradition considerations. The other harmful influences include the undue eagerness to earn money, changes of interest, the influence of today’s comfort-seeking consumer society and variety of careers.

Young people often tend to make hasty decisions, with little understanding of their own abilities, the opportunities available or the work involved. Their decision may also be based on temptation to earn money quickly through some lucrative employment.

Without some career guidance of psychological and educational nature, any choice of job or occupation can be a game of chance in which the right decision will be sheer luck. The consequences of wrong decisions are failure in examinations or feeling of frustration or insecurity in one’s career.

Career guidance

Career guidance helps one get a job to suit his or her aptitudes and interests. It helps a person know their own talents and limitations and also to help them understand what is involved and required by the various types of work and to choose the one that best suits them personally.

Career guidance should be carried out continuously and systematically for each individual, concentrating on his or her particular characteristics and taking account of the personal and educational performance of their pre-adolescence years.

It is essential to achieve harmony between the individual’s aptitudes and interests, the level of their aspirations and personal capabilities, the choice they make and possibilities of studying or obtaining employment.

Career guidance should not be left entirely in the hands of teachers or specialists because, like any other part of the children’s education, parents have an important role to play in it. It is therefore a joint venture, in which the primary responsibility rests with the parents. The psychologist and the school can help from the technical point of view, but the child herself is, of course, at the centre of the whole process.

The duty of a parent is to put the teenager in touch with experts, providing her with information, giving her advice and encouraging her to think for herself. In no circumstances, however, should they attempt to think for the child.