How Can I Help My Child
As their parent or carer, you are likely to be the single biggest influence on your child’s thoughts and feelings about their future career. It is really important that you are aware of the influence you have and that you try your best to make this positive, supportive and empowering.
Parents helps their teens the most when they:
- Have a good general understanding of the options available
- Listen carefully to their child’s views without being judgmental or critical
- Are open to new ideas and possibilities
- Encourage them to explore all their options
How can I help my child with their career plans?
- Talk to them from time to time about possible careers they might be interested in and why they appeal. Don’t make a big deal out of it. There will be plenty of opportunities for such an exchange of ideas that crop up naturally while you are doing something else, this way it won’t seem forced
- Encourage them to take an interest in the occupations or past careers of grown up family members and other adults who they come into contact with so they can learn about different career experiences and develop their own network.
- Help them to explore the possible employers, apprenticeship providers and further education courses available in your local area
- Attend open events and information sessions with them
- Encourage them to participate in out of school activities. These are valuable in themselves and will help greatly later on in giving a good impression to people like employers or course tutors.
- Finally, remember that career choice is a personal decision
When can my daughter or son leave school?
The official school leaving date is the last Friday of June of the school year in which they turn 16.
They must then do one of the following until they’re 18:
- Stay in full-time education, for example at a college
- Start an apprenticeship or traineeship
- Spend 20 hours or more a week working or volunteering, while in part-time education or training