My life experience

As a child my parents always expected me to get a qualification and be employed. My parents never once told me to go out there and start my business, or go out there and be a leader. Their ambition for me was to get into a profession that had job security. I remember my mother complaining that I was not getting good grades in agriculture and I remember her saying that everyone must excel at farming or else they will starve. My parents never once asked me what I enjoyed doing or what I want to be when I grow up. I went into Biomedical science by chance, because the only university we had in Zimbabwe, would randomly place you in a course if you did not meet the requirements of your first choice. It worked well for me as I really love science and I was on the road to a professional qualification from the day one.

However, for other people this random selection of courses led to failing and some even dropping out. Sometimes parents were just desperate for their children to be seen studying a prestigious course and they just pushed them to attend university to do any course that they were offered. There was no other choice of university at the time as there was only one in the whole country.

Now since moving to the UK, and raising our children here, I have realised that at times as parents we end up raising our children in the same way and yet they have better choices than we had and we need to be more open-minded as parents in order to get them into careers which suit their characters and their passion.

As parents we end up raising our children in the same way and yet they have better choices than we had and we need to be more open-minded

I’m going to point out a few ways that your child can get into different careers without the parents forcing them into careers that they themselves did not achieve to get into.

Setting the foundations

The world is changing and careers are not the same as they were years ago especially in this Internet age. Listen to what your child likes and what they would like to do when they grow up, discuss with them the pros and cons of going into a different career options. Get them to write down what draws them to that career path and why. Get them to also write a 5-year plan of the road map of how they intend to get to that profession. I feel my parents never talked about my long term goals and now as adults we just walk through life not knowing how to navigate life effectively.

Get them to write down what draws them to that career path and why.

Even if the school runs a career guidance program, also find other ways of getting your child exposed to other professions by talking to friends and family in different career paths. See if they can facilitate some time for your child to shadow them at work or just chat with your child about what they do and why they are in that career. Furthermore, your child can use social media to find out more about their career of choice and follow some leaders in the industry of choice.

Enquire from the school if they have a career guidance counsellor and sit down with the guidance counsellor and find out how they guide pupils on the different professions. This can also help you as a parent to guide your child. Know the job market and how the career your child chooses can affect their employability. There are also some self-assessments online that can guide your child on what profession would suit them.

Find different ways that your child can apply the course as sometimes we tend to not think outside the box

Find different ways that your child can apply the course as sometimes we tend to not think outside the box. For example if your child goes into a career, they do not have to be stuck in the traditional way of applying the knowledge. Take for instance, if your child likes cooking, they can either teach cooking, write books on cooking, make you tube videos on cooking, start a cooking blog, open their own restaurant, even sell their cooked food online on platforms such as Uber eats or start a catering business.

Expose your child to as many career prospects as possible

Within the first world children tend to get jobs at a very young age and they can explore different opportunities. So when it comes to going to higher education, or getting into careers, children can first work and take a gap year and they can can explore different prospects in life which can expose and enlighten your child before they commit to a career which they might regret later on.

If possible, the gap year can be used for travel as well, to explore other countries and get an even wider perspective of what the world has to offer.

Explore different avenues into career paths

University is not the only pathway to a career, there are other ways and means. My older daughter always blames us for the student debt that she has because we did not give her a choice. We just told her that she was black and was an immigrant and should get the minimum qualification for herself and we told her that the minimum we would settle for was a degree. She feels that she could have done an apprenticeship in marketing and learnt on the job instead. Now looking back I realise that we as parents should not let our fears stifle our children\’s dreams. Children can go into apprenticeships which do not require them to go to university.

Apprenticeships can put them straight into a profession that can earn them money from the beginning. I used to think that apprenticeships were only for manual labour jobs. But with time I have learnt that other industries also offer apprenticeships. Furthermore, with the internet, there are a vast number of job prospects online with appropriate skills. Skills can also be acquired by online learning and therefore careers can also be applied online. There are some jobs that children can learn to do like, being a video editor, an online virtual assistant or even to start an online business.

At times just going straight into a job can also be the best option. As they say, experience is the best teacher, your child can just go into formal employment without necessarily choosing a career path after leaving formal education. This is just as good as they become independent and learn to navigate adult life.

So I implore you as parents to open your minds to what the children need for a successful career choice. Try not to force your children into career paths to fulfil your own ambitions.

What other ways have you used to guide your children into choosing their career path? Please feel free to add to the comments section. Don\’t forget to subscribe so you do not miss future blogs.