Parents and carers who talk about careers choices at home and who also get involved with school and college activities have a positive impact on their children's career development.
* Many parents don't feel confident to discuss careers issues and value support from schools and colleges.
* Schools and colleges can and are taking positive actions to build parents' confidence and knowledge.
* Report shares examples of best practice and highlights tactics schools and colleges can adopt to help parents and carers
When it comes to helping the young people in their care succeed in the world of work parents have to become advisers, supporters, information providers, advocates, role models, aspirants, and facilitators - but many don't feel confident in giving careers advice, a new study has found.
In this new report, The role of parents and carers in providing careers guidance and how they can be better supported,
According to the study, which was supported by the
The authors were surprised to find that despite this broad recognition of the importance of parental involvement, there is a lack of evidence on the best ways for schools and colleges to engage parents. They call for further evidence to be collected on what works, in order to inform a national strategy for engaging parents, with emphasis on allowing individual schools and colleges to tailor their approaches to reflect the needs of their communities.
Dr
'The current situation is showing the value of strong, ongoing relationships between schools, colleges and parents. There is a real opportunity to build on this once the schools re-open and to get parents more involved in careers activities.'
Among the report's suggestions for schools and colleges are:
Create parent-friendly environments with activities to draw parents into the school or college
Activities should have senior leadership and management support
Careers activities should be promoted across the curriculum to encourage an ongoing conversation about careers that involves parents and builds on current parental engagement
Parents should be involved in the design, development and delivery of careers-related activities and events, and encouraged to contribute their own experience and expertise
Communication with parents should be targeted and personalised to help parents understand the relevance to their child
Offer a flexible mix of face-to-face and online activities which makes it easier for parents to get involved.
'The case studies in our report show that trying out new activities, sharing practice, learning from each other and building on what works is really important. We also found evidence that careers conversations with parents and students needs to be embedded across the curricula and to start at a much earlier age.'
The report was commissioned to increase understanding of how parents and carers can be better supported by schools and colleges to feel more informed and confident when discussing careers options with the young people in their care and to recommend practical measures schools and colleges could adopt. The case studies presented in the report include national examples, as well as international examples from
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