How your parents can help with career planning

It might be a while since your parents could lend a hand with your homework, but they can still be really helpful when it comes to careers. Here are three ways that parents and carers can get involved with your career planning.

1. Come up with ideas together

You might think that your mum, dad or carer is the last person you want to talk to about your goals and aspirations. But they actually know you really well – they know your strengths and weaknesses and what you’re good at. So why not sit down together and work with them to fill out your career development plan.

If you’re right at the beginning of thinking about careers then our handy worksheet can help you to identify your personal qualities and how they can link into various job roles and your own career development plan. You can download it for free here.

You can also use our brand new Subject Guides, which map out where each school subject can take you. We've included what job roles each subject can lead to, as well as insider tips from young professionals and students. They're all here.

If you want to boost your chances of getting a job, then login to your Success at School account and look at your skills passport together. Ask your parent or carer to tell you where they have seen people use these skills at their own work. Then think about the skills that you need to develop (we’ve got a skills list to help you do that here) and make a plan together for how you can build them.

2. Finding work experience opportunities

When it comes to career planning, getting work experience is crucial. It gives you an insight into what a working environment is like, as well as helping to develop your transferable skills.

But it can be tricky to find work experience that’s relevant to your interests and is based locally. Many employers don’t offer formal work experience schemes, but plenty of companies are happy to offer students placements if they take the initiative and get in touch. Your parents can help you draft an email that includes your CV and skills (we’ve got a template for your first CV here).

There also might be placement opportunities at your parents’ workplaces. Or you could ask your friends’ parents if their employers offer placements. This is what people mean by networking – understanding who you’re connected to and how you can help each other out.

3. Applying for jobs and prepping for interviews

If you were writing an essay for coursework, would you want to hand it in without getting it checked first? Would you offer to appear in the school play without going to any rehearsals? Probably not.

Job applications and interviews need practice too. Chances are, your parents are pros at filling out job applications, so they can sit down with you and go through the form.

And when it comes to interviews, your parents are the perfect people to practice on. They may even have experience interviewing people themselves, so they’ll be able to give you great feedback.

Main image via Freepik; gifs via Giphy.