Parent As An Employability Adviser and Career Mentor

We already know parenting is a difficult job. It demands that parents have reasonable knowledge on many things- education, relationship, health, income generation, homemaking etc. To combine these with their professional skill is a tough call. But now, the person’s specification has become even more sophisticated. And more than at any time in history, as a parent, you will have to be.

To this end, there is an urgent need for you to upgrade your knowledge and skill. Particularly you now need to acquire employability and career coaching skills. Wait! I know you are about to tell me why that role is better left to the professionals. Or perhaps you want to remind me that parents don’t make for good advisers. I know I know I know.

But let me explain what I mean, why it is necessary and how you might achieve that.

We read daily about graduate unemployment and of the efforts (?) of government to sort it out. Well I am here to suggest that parents have a big role to play in ensuring their future graduate children do not become part of the statistic.

My suggestion is not to make professional career advisers redundant. Rather it is to remind parents of their critically important complimentary role in supporting their children to gain employment as at when due. And the only way to do this is to become better in understanding your child’s attributes, skill and talents. You need recognise the employability skills of your child, it is the foundation upon which professional advisers can build. It is the hallmark of responsible parenting.

Before your child steps out of home to meet professionals – teachers, carers etc he/she would have spent a long time with you. Even after then, they still spend an enormous amount of time with you than anybody. In other words your capacity to help them discover who they are is always there. You should be able to provide basic but important background information to work which ensures that they have a head start in the future scramble for jobs.

And that is where your role as employability advisor begins. Afterall employability advisers can only do their jobs when they have taken time to understand their clients. If we expect these professionals to achieve result with just a few meetings of getting to know them, then we should be better in helping our own.

Why is it necessary to acquire employability or career coaching skills? These are tough times for getting jobs if you are young. Therefore it is particularly important to upgrade your knowledge if your child is currently in college. The reason is that going by current economic predictions; the national economy will still not be strong enough to absorb every graduate when your child graduates in a few years time. The queues are likely to still be there.

Graduate unemployment is at its current worrisome level because many young people can’t seem to make up their minds early enough what career path to follow upon graduation. As a result of which they would not have developed the essential skills. Where this occur, it is easy to trace the cause to weak home support and encouragement.

Also, if your child is in this age bracket, it is about your last chance to offer any positive life changing assistance for them. Beyond that age, your efforts becomes interference and hence rebuffed. Young adults do not take much advice especially from their parents. They feel entitled, and rightly so, to follow their own counsel. It is an opportunity that you must seize.

If you are interested in learning tips about helping your child with career and employability skills, then register for the parent’s awareness evening scheduled for Feb 16 2012 in London. Details here.