Help Your Child Identify Interests and Explore Careers

1. Help Your Child Identify InterestsandExplore Careers

2. Why should you be involved in your child’s education and career planning?

3. Why Parent Involvement? • Research shows that you have the greatest influence on your child’s career choices • As a parent, you have the best knowledge of your child’s interests and abilities • You have more interest than anyone else in your child’s well-being and success • Your child’s future is too important to be left to luck or chance

4. When parents are involved. . . …children have: • Higher grades and test scores • Higher graduation rates • Better attendance at school and get more homework done • Fewer placements in special educationand: • Are more likely to enroll in postsecondary education • Show more positive attitudes and behavior Source: The Family is Crucial to Student Achievement, National Committee for Citizens in Education, 1994

5. Elementary Career Awareness In elementary school, your children can develop these skills: • Identify their interests, likes, and dislikes. • Describe their strengths and talents. • Demonstrate positive behaviors and personal characteristics, such as honesty, dependability, responsibility, integrity, and loyalty. • Recognize that one should accept responsibility for one’s behavior. • Interact with others in a fair, helpful, and respectful way. Source: National Career Development Guidelines

6. Elementary Career Awareness In elementary school, your children can develop these skills: • Recognize that people have many life roles and that these need to be balanced. • Demonstrate study skills and good learning habits. • Be able to set goals and work toward achieving them. • Describe different ways to make decisions. • Recognize a variety of skills that are important for success in school and work, such as communicating, critical thinking, problem solving, and interpersonal skills. Source: National Career Development Guidelines

7. Middle School Career Exploration In middle school, your children can develop these skills: • Identify and demonstrate their abilities, strengths, skills, and talents. • Identify sources of outside pressure and demonstrate the ability to handle it. • Demonstrate the ability to resolve conflicts and negotiate acceptable solutions. • Recognize that they are growing and changing and that growth and change will affect their careers throughout their lives. • Recognize that they will have many life roles and that these will be connected to their lifestyle. Source: National Career Development Guidelines

8. Middle School Career Exploration In middle school, your children can develop these skills: • Recognize that their educational performance is important for reaching their goals and, if necessary, use strategies to improve it. • Identify short-term and long-term goals, including those related to their education, career options, and lifestyle. • Make decisions in a systematic way, including identifying options and potential consequences. • Recognize the need to compromise in making some decisions. • Use career information resources to evaluate their goals and help with their plans. Source: National Career Development Guidelines

9. High School Career Planning In high school your children can develop these skills: • Demonstrate behaviors and decisions that reflect their interests, abilities, strengths, skills, talents, work values and needs. • Demonstrate positive social skills and the ability to get along with others. • Demonstrate acceptance of responsibility for their own behavior. • Reflect on how their personal aspirations are changing with time and circumstances. • Demonstrate adaptability and flexibility in responding to change. Source: National Career Development Guidelines

10. High School Career Planning In high school your children can develop these skills: • Identify personal, career, and educational goals, and demonstrate educational performance levels needed to attain their goals. • Develop a career and education plan, with short-term and long-term objectives, to meet their goals. • Use career information resources to evaluate their goals and support their plans. • Demonstrate job search and general employability skills. • Identify the types of economic conditions and employment trends that may affect their career plans Source: National Career Development Guidelines

11. Ask your child: What are your favorite school subjects? What activities outside of school do you enjoy most? What hobbies do you have or would you like to have? What do you like to do with your friends? What special skills or abilities do you think you possess? What have you done that you are most proud of? What do you like to do with your free time? What types of books interest you the most? Discuss Your Child’s Interests

12. Nurture Your Child’s Interests If your child has an interest in ANIMALS, he or she might like to: Elementary School • Feed and care for a family pet Middle School • Join a 4-H Club • Walk or care for a neighbor’s dog High School • Volunteer at a local veterinary clinic, animal shelter or zoo

13. Nurture Your Child’s Interests If your child has an interest in ART, he or she might like to: Elementary School • Make birthday or holiday cards for relatives and friends Middle School • Create graphics for the school newsletter • Design invitations for a special event High School • Design a personal or school Web site

14. Nurture Your Child’s Interests If your child likes to HELP PEOPLE, he or she might like to: Elementary School • Join a Girl Scout or Boy Scout club Middle School • Teach a younger child to read • Volunteer to read to nursing home residents High School • Be a summer or vacation camp counselor • Assist at a day care center

15. Nurture Your Child’s Interests If your child likes to BUILD or REPAIR THINGS, he or she might like to: Elementary School • Use Lego's or Lincoln Logs to build things Middle School • Build a radio or computer from a kit • Take apart an old appliance and put it back together High School • Design and build a robot or a piece of furniture • Help repair or remodel things in your home

16. Nurture Your Child’s Interests If your child likes SPORTS, he or she might like to: Elementary School • Play on a sports team Middle School • Assist a coach • Take a fitness class High School • Umpire or referee community games • Coach a youth sports team

17. What if My Child’s Interests Change? • If your child has been exploring interests, and he or she decides that interests have changed — hurray! • It is just as important for your child to know what he or she does not want to do as it is to know what he or she does want to do • Exploration is the key to helping make informed decisions

18. Help Your Child Explore Careers To help your child with career exploration: • Encourage your child to make independent decisions • Involve yourself in your child’s future planning • Encourage exploration of all kinds of post-high school education opportunities • Give your child economic responsibilities • Encourage job awareness • Be flexible as the decision-making process evolves

19. More Parent Resources Visit MyChildsFuture.org to learn about: • Helping your child identify interests • Helping your child make career decisions • Helping your child plan • Finding the right school • Locating financial aid • And more

20. Help Your Child Plan for the Future

21. What do you need to know about education and the labor market?

22. Parents Need to Know Unemployment rates for non-institutional civilians ages 25 & older Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2004

23. Parents Need to Know Of the 22.2 million jobs to be generated between 2000 and 2010...

24. Parents Need to Know ...17.5 million will require some postsecondary education. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001

25. Parents Need to Know 8of the 10fastest growing occupations between 2000 and 2010 will require some form of postsecondary education. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001

26. Parents Need to Know 48 of the 50 best paying jobs will require a college degree. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002

27. About College Although over 97% of students (and their parents) aspire to college… • 63% enroll in college the fall following their graduation from high school • More than a third leave within two years without earning a degree • Only about half earn a bachelor’s degree by the time they are 29 years old Source: The Condition of Education, 2002

28. About College • Community or technical college can lead to well-paying jobs, and may be all a child needs to reach his or her career goal • Community college can also be the path to a 4-year degree • Many students start out at a community college to save costs or get a handle on college-level work Source: Higher Learning=Higher Earnings, Center on Education Policy, Sept. 2001

29. College Preparation • Freshmen who enter college without a career goal or an academic major in mind have higher college dropout rates • More than 22% of college freshmen need to take remedial courses — these do not count as credit toward a degree • Your child should take challenging courses in high school to prepare for college-level coursework

30. College Preparation • 83% of students who take Algebra I and Geometry in high school go on to college • Students who don’t take Algebra and Geometry in high school are much less likely to go to college — only 36% do • Taking challenging courses in high school not only helps children get into college, but also increases the chances they will complete college

31. Help Create Education Plans • Discover the training that is required for your child to meet his or her career goals • Find colleges or career schools that provide training specific to your child’s goals • Select the school that fits your child’s needs, for example: • Does your child do better in small classes or large groups? • Will he or she do better at a school in a large city or a small town?

32. For Information on Work and School • Career Information • Use Oregon Career Information System (CIS) at home. oregoncis.uoregon.edu • Labor Market Information • Visit the Oregon Employment Department’s Web site at QualityInfo.org

33. With your help, your child can create a solid plan that will guide him or her to successful post-high school training and a rewarding career.