“What do you want to be when you grow up?” an adult asks a precious and precocious child. This is a scenario you’ve most likely witnessed countless times, whether as a child or as a parent of small children today. The replies can range from the obvious (“doctor,” “lawyer”) to the adorable (“princess,” “ice-cream guy”), to the ludicrous (“dinosaur,” “Pokemon Master”), fantastic (“astronaut,” “professional wrestler”), or simply uninspired (“I don’t know”).
Whatever the case may be, getting children interested in careers beyond a surface level can be a difficult task. However, this does not imply that discussions about employment and careers should be limited to children who are older or on the verge of maturity. In fact, youngsters who have a better awareness of the various job alternatives available to them are better able to work more thoughtfully and systematically toward their objectives. Here’s how you may widen and deepen your child’s employment discussion with some effort and inventive ideas.
Raising Awareness of Different Job Types
As all parents are aware, the world of work offers a plethora of opportunities — both desirable and less attractive — that children are unaware of. This is more true than ever before, with the market becoming increasingly digital-centric and demand for tech sector occupations requiring higher-order and abstract skill sets, such as data scientists and cloud engineers, increasing. Depending on your line of work, you may have already given your curious child a simplified and not-quite-accurate job description. Rather than scaring your child away, think of queries about your job as a terrific place to start your child’s career inquiry. Highlight jobs and roles that your youngster might not have considered otherwise, in addition to your own. For example, while being a mermaid as an adult may not be the most practical employment choice for your child, her passion for the sea and undersea life could be channeled into a career as a marine biologist.
Make a connection between school and future career opportunities
After you’ve had a proper employment chat with your child, the next step is to make the connection between what they’re learning now and what they’ll be using it for in the future. Again, most children are not capable of drawing this connection on their own. While it may be simple to make the connection between a child’s aptitude for and interest in Science and a future career in research, the reality is not always so simple. When they are frustrated with one or more weak topics, brighter or more curious children may begin to question the future worth of their learning. This is where parents with work experience can help youngsters understand the wider picture. Much of what we learn in school end up being beneficial in some manner, no matter what area we end up in. A lack of linguistic skills can stymie a scientist’s attempts to communicate his or her results to the rest of the world, just as a lack of scientific knowledge can stymie a would-be entrepreneur attempting to assess the viability of a particular manufacturing method. One of the basic ideas behind why students study a variety of disciplines in school is that having a diverse and broad-based skill set on top of one’s specialization makes one more marketable. Discover a wealth of free activity papers that can help your child see the connections between the things they are learning in school and their future dream careers.
