How to help your child choose a profession if you yourself do not keep up with changes in the labor market

1. Ask friends to talk about their work

So the child will understand that the list of professions is wider than they say in social studies. At school, they usually don’t mention 3D designers, targetologists, data specialists, game designers, or project managers, and these are full-fledged profiles, without which it is impossible to imagine the modern market labor. Most likely, one of your friends or relatives is building a career in a field that you do not understand and have not studied. Refer to them, because this way a teenager will be able to assess the direction of blockchain development or the Internet of things.

Talking with adults about career experiences can keep a child from making the wrong choice. Children tend to romanticize many professions and do not always have an objective idea of ​​what routine tasks they will have to face. An honest story from a competent adult will help the teenager see the real picture. For example, it seems great to be a photographer: you do non-stop creativity, choose models and scenery, travel a lot. But the majority, in order to afford this seductive part of the profession, have to shoot weddings and corporate events on a daily basis and constantly adapt to the client's requests. Every profession has a shadow side, so it's best for your child to know about it in advance.

2. Pass career placement tests

Another method that will help start the search for that very dream job. From the pros: you can learn about new areas and professions, become interested in them and then study specific proposals and requirements in more detail. But use tests compiled within the last 20 years at most: Soviet questionnaires are outdated long ago. Of the minuses: often such tests work too generalized and do not report anything new.

An alternative may be career guidance organizations in which testing is carried out with a psychologist or coach. Here the chance to find the right direction is higher. Specialists of such centers evaluate not only the test results, but also the child's communication skills, his behavior, character, and openness to various topics for discussion. Children's hr-managers can not only assess the capabilities and interests of a young client, but also suggest areas of activity that neither the child nor his parents even know about. Also, the specialist will talk about the prospects for specific vacancies in the near future and universities worthy of attention.

3. Attend open days and job fairs

Job fairs and educational exhibitions are an excellent source of information about career prospects and a variety of current professions. Universities arrange presentations of their areas of study, hold quizzes and competitions, talk about student life and extracurricular activities, and organize career guidance tests. And sometimes they hold lectures and master classes on immersion in the profession, within which you can learn how to get the target direction and where it is better to prepare for the introductory ones.

Attending job fairs and open days is a great opportunity to develop soft skills. Adolescents can show initiative and adaptability - talk to unfamiliar students in search of the necessary information. This is not an easy task, and the skill of such communication will be useful both in the process of studying at a university and at work.

At the same time, it should be remembered that often such events tell more about the advantages of the university and about learning than about the realities of a particular profession in the future, so you should not rely only on this method.

4. Explore pro flagger programs

Many children love summer camps: team games, guitar songs, a second dinner with hematogen and kefir. How a trip to camp develops communication skills, empathy and creativity is understandable, but this is not the whole benefit of a vacation. There are professional flags in which children not only do exercises and live according to the regime, but also study. In addition, they usually have a certain educational bias: programming, robotics or theatrical art - each student will find a place to their liking.

During short breaks, children can learn how to type up cool presentations, make scientific projects according to a plan, make presentations and conduct experiments. Many camps invite foreigners: this will help the student not only improve English, but also gain experience in learning according to foreign standards.

If a child is not used to leaving home and is not ready to live with someone in a room, this is not a problem, because there are professional flaggers who work during the holidays in the usual city mode: from 8:00 to 18:00.

5. Go to presentations and exhibitions

Reading about new technologies and the specialists who invent them is good, getting to know them personally is even better. Previously, schoolchildren were taken to museums, now a dozen other interactive events can be added to the list of locations for an educational excursion. Scientific and engineering exhibitions will tell about the conquest of space from the technical side, art festivals will introduce creative directions and contemporary artists, and on the Internet you can take courses in hundreds of professions and often - is free. Educational videos are all the rage right now, so the bad habit of watching videos at lunch can also be good for a student.

6. Help your child get an internship

An internship is the most effective way to show your child what a job is and what their dream profession looks like. Large companies sometimes cooperate not only with universities, but also with schools, and are ready to evaluate the talents of the youngest specialists. In the labor market (and especially in the IT field), new professions appear so quickly that universities do not have time in the relevant areas develop training programs, so those who have gained experience in interacting with new technologies already at school are unlikely to be left without attention employers.