{MyTalentPlace}When people talk about having “an elephant in the room”, they’re talking about everyone in the room knowing there’s an issue but no – one talking about it. So, this big old elephant stands in the corner munching away on the canapés and sticking its trunk into the punch and everyone pretends it doesn’t exist!
I think careers advice is often approached in a similar way. In many ways, careers advice is a tough area. It’s tough for all of the parties concerned. It’s tough for the careers advisors who, if they’re working in a school or university probably don’t have much direct contact with the business world and are therefore questioning their ability to provide relevant and current careers advice. It’s tough for the parents because their set of skills and experience are often limited to a fairly narrow area. Possibly more of an issue for parents is the problem of how to approach sons and daughters in a way that has the best chance of engaging them. Finally, it’s tough for the kids themselves because they’re being asked to think about a future world when they’re often just finding their feet in their current world. It’s far easier to postpone any real thinking about careers until one absolutely has to.
So there we have it. Careers advisors are doing their jobs, but in the UK that often means ticking the required boxes rather than really providing careers advice that really rocks. Parents feel that the advice they can provide is limited, and young adults are postponing any engagement with these topics for a variety of understandable reasons.
So should we all give up then? Not so fast. Of the 3 categories of people involved I do think the onus rests initially on careers advisors and parents. Only after they’ve done their job well can the students themselves reasonably be asked to take more responsibility.
Let’s start then with the careers advisors. At schools there’s a lot of budget being spent on legacy resources (books etc) about careers. Careers advisors need to be more savvy about how they spend their money and ensure they obtain online resources that are updated regularly. At www.mytalentplace.co.uk we recommend considering a subscription model. That way careers advisors know that they are committing to current resources rather than legacy and longer term commitments with no guarantee of relevance. These resources need to be designed with today’s teenager in mind so that the look and feel is media rich and high impact.
Parents have to be more creative when considering how they get involved in careers advice. Rather than drawing on their narrow experience, how about getting a group of parents and their offspring together so that the parents can openly discuss what they do, the kinds of decisions they make and the pro’s and con’s of a career in their field? There are plenty of things parents can do to provide great careers advice if they think creatively.
Once these kinds of things are happening, I think we’ll start to see more youngsters engaging with their career choices and options in a proactive manner.
Dr Grant Crow is founder of My Talent Place a specialist careers advice provider for students. For more info please Visit http://www.mytalentplace.co.uk to more about career advice or Email to: info@mytalentplace.co.uk
Dr Grant Crow is founder of My Talent Place a specialist careers advice provider for students. For more info please Visit www.mytalentplace.co.uk to more about career advice or Email to: info@mytalentplace.co.uk
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