How To Help a Child Choose The Right Profession?
How to help a child choose the right profession or how to properly help a child choose a profession?
Even at an early age, the phenomenon of professional orientation is formed in the child. He begins to study and find the occupation that interests him the most, improves in it and creates a basis for further professional choice.
Sometimes we can help the child, and sometimes we can hinder him in making the right choice. Before choosing the profession itself, it is necessary to develop SEVERAL skills in the child, which will help him choose the profession that suits him the most and gives him the most pleasure. In order for your child to be ready for anything in life, you need to help him acquire these basic skills.
Let’s discuss them.
Budgeting skills
Money is not the most important thing in life, but it is definitely important to live comfortably. This is why financial discipline is an important skill to learn as a teenager.
Budgeting skills help teens learn to value money, spend wisely, and plan for the future.
Below are important financial concepts that can be taught to a teenager.
- Every teenager should know how to open a bank account, use an ATM, transfer money online, etc. it is not necessary for him to have a lot of money, in general, it is not desirable, because he does not yet master the art of managing it correctly.
- He should be somewhat informed about loans and taxes in order to imagine the pros and cons of these terms and how much he needs them. They should learn to save money, spend or invest wisely.
Cooking skills
Knowing how to get food or cook food is one of the basic skills that teenagers need. Teach them how to:
- Use kitchen appliances such as microwave oven, coffee maker, dishwasher, etc.
- Prepare healthy food with simple ingredients
- Know the proper methods of food preservation
- Read food labels for nutrition and ingredient information
- Be aware of the consequences of eating too much fast food, etc.
The skill of sorting clothes correctly
Your teenagers can completely change their style under the influence of external factors.
They should know:
- Correct selection of appropriate clothing size;appropriate clothing for the appropriate occasion
- A certain sewing skill that can be used by both men and women
- Distinguish between clothes that need to be ironed and those that don’t
- Wash clothes or use the washing machine properly
- Pack
- Read and understand texture labels
Personal hygiene
Caring about oneself is a skill that children must learn at an early stage. Grooming is essential to staying healthy and leading a good social life.
Teach them about
- Daily teeth cleaning
- Proper bathing
- How to care for their skin and hair
- Teach boys to shave or keep their facial hair hygienic
- Teach teenage girls how to properly dispose of sanitary pads, etc.
Cleanliness and hygiene
Cleanliness is one of the principles of hygiene. Teach your children to keep themselves and their surroundings clean.
Some basic things your teen can do include:
- Use the vacuum cleaner correctly
- Wash the floor and get rid of excess garbage
- Keep the bathroom cleanKeep the kitchen clean
- Take the garbage out regularly
- Clear the room of unnecessary items
- Keep the closet tidy, etc
Skill in proper health tracking
One of the most important things teenagers need to learn is to take care of their health.
A few important points:
- Knowledge of over-the-counter medications that may be helpful
- Know when to consult a doctor
- Proper care for common problems such as cough, fever or flu
- How to call 911 or an emergency number
- Learn basic first aid skills such as washing a wound, applying a bandage and administering first aid that may allow him to save their or someone else’s life.
Social skills
Some social skills that can help them:
- Hobby, development of entertainment games and communication with like-minded people through them
- Develop and maintain friendly relations
- Appreciate relationships and people in their lives
- How to maintain healthy family relationships
- Respect for people and their views, regardless of what they think of others.
Organizational skills
How to help a child be organized and develop his organizational skills:
- Teach them the skill of doing everything in the right place and at the right time
- Help them order their books, clothes and other essentials
- Explain to them that being organized helps keep the room from clutter and makes it easier to find something in a short amount of time
- Explain to them that they can avoid mistakes when they are more organized
Navigation skills
The ability to navigate the area will help them avoid everyday issues to big problems:
- Teach the directions of buses, trains, the basic 1, 2 or 3 buses to go from home to school or any group at the initial stage
- Map knowledge
- Understand the directions: left, right, north, south, east and west
- Knowledge of the most common traffic rules and signs
Ability to cope with emotions
Dealing with emotions will allow them to see both sides of a situation and make the right judgment.
An important skill you need to help your teenager with is accepting their emotions. Tell them that no emotion is bad or good and that it is normal, happy, sad, scared, angry, excited, jealous and even guilty.
- Teach them different ways to deal with their feelings, such as physical activity, meditation, listening to music, or just talking about it.
- Remember that the teenage brain is undergoing serious changes. Therefore, empathize with them wherever possible and try to understand that they are still learning to control their emotions and exercise patience.
Problem solving skills
One of the main life skills of young people is the ability to solve problems. You cannot expect that your children can turn to you for help when they have problems.
What you can do:
- Teach your children to face problems instead of running away from them,
- When your teen asks for advice, try not to interfere and solve the problem for him. Instead, ask them what they think they should do, and help them work out the possible options. This will help to get rid of the problem of dependence on the parent.
- Analyze each decision to determine which option gives you the desired result, or something close to it.
- Help them use their decision-making skills to choose an option that they think is best for them
- Then they can apply the chosen decision and check if they are correct.
Time management
How often have you heard your teen complain that he doesn’t have enough time to do the things he wants to do?
Key skills your teen may need for better time management are:
- Teach them to organize their time with a simple schedule
- Teach them to prioritize their tasks so that they use their time responsibly
- Help them identify important issues and distinguish between what is important and what is secondary
- Developing a schedule for the day makes time management easier
- Encourage them by modeling their behavior, but don’t get mad at them for wasting their time.
Decision making skills
Your teen needs to be able to make decisions and make choices.
- Instead of ordering something for them, give them a choice. Let them choose.
- Every choice they make has consequences. Thus, they will learn to take responsibility for their decisions.
- Help them make the right choice by weighing all the pros and cons.
After developing these and a number of other skills, we begin the stage of choosing the profession itself.
If your teen has no idea what he wants to do, it’s important to keep an open dialogue with him and gently encourage him to think deeply about what he wants to do with his life.
A great way to facilitate this is to ask them some thought-provoking questions about their future.
Here are some of them:
- “Do you think a lot about your future and what points do you think about most?” Ask open questions that allow your teen to think and share a generalized perspective.
- “Tell me about your dreams and aspirations.” Does your teen already have goals they want to achieve? This can be related to career, family, buying a house, travel – anything that is important to them. These conversations will help them decide where their priorities lie.
- “How big a role will your work play in your life?” Some individuals are suited to jobs that require many working hours each week. Others prefer a clear work/life balance and see work simply as a way to make money. By starting to think about how much of their life they want to work, the options will be limited.
- “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” This is a common question asked in job interviews, but it can also help define the scene they want to appear in.
- “What activity are you doing right now that gives you energy?” Figuring out what makes your teen tick may be the key to figuring out what areas he might find appealing.
By encouraging your teen to think about the future, they will hopefully begin to develop a vision of what they want their life to be like and what they need to do to get there.
These questions will help to determine to a certain extent what kind of professional orientation the child has and still help the child to make the right choice.
And finally,
To help your child think about different careers and fields, you can encourage him to:
- talk about career ideas and future plans
- study different professions
- learn about available education, work and training options
- discuss ideas and options with teachers or careers advisers at school or college
- develop skills by participating in groups and activities, both in and out of school
- discover details of work experience and extracurricular activities in the world by talking to relatives and family friends about the types of work they do
- go to career events organized by their school, college, NGO, etc.
By developing these skills, asking these questions and carrying out these activities, you will be several steps closer to the child’s real profession without interfering with their desires and emotions.
It is important to remember that you cannot force them to choose any profession, which they do not want or which is trendy at that moment. Leave them alone and don’t try to make a decision for him. The only thing you can do is introduce them to various professions and occupations, expanding their horizons and discovering new skills.
