The child decided to go to college! But it is sometimes extremely difficult for a teenager to decide on a future profession and a place where it can be obtained. And, of course, the help of parents, their sensible advice will not hurt here. Only now it can be difficult for parents to tell the right direction.
There is nothing fatal
When choosing an educational institution and a specialty in which a teenager will study, it is necessary to clearly understand whether college is for him the place where he will receive his final profession, which he is going to devote his whole life to, or this stage of training will become only an intermediate link between the school and the university.
In the second case, it is worth making a choice in favor of a college at a higher educational institution, in which the child ultimately plans to enter. As a rule, these educational institutions provide for a successive program that makes it possible to shorten the period of further studies at the university. It is not uncommon for the university and college to have the same teaching staff. The transition to the next step will be smoother and more natural for a teenager, and college will allow him to finally determine whether this specialty is suitable for him and prepare the basis for a deeper study of it.
If college is the final planned link in the education of a child, choosing an educational institution, you should still remember that even if the education received does not become the basis for a successful professional activity for a teenager, it will serve as a good foundation for further education and work. In addition, a specialist with a secondary vocational education will be hired, even if not by profile, much more willingly than a person who has completed 9 classes of school.
In the future, if desired, a young person will be able to continue his studies: enter a university, graduate from another secondary vocational institution, courses, etc. So, in any case, you should not treat the choice of a specialty as something final and unchanging.
Assess inclinations and opportunities
Often, adolescents choose college based not on professional inclinations and abilities, but "for the company" with friends, either because it is easier to study there, or because the chosen educational institution is close to home. Adults, of course, understand the entire inconsistency of such motivation, and their task is to help the child understand that the decisive factor determining the choice should nevertheless become the inclinations and abilities of the child himself.
You can determine the tendency of a teenager to a particular profession by contacting a psychologist, or by independently passing several career guidance tests. As a rule, by the age of 15-16, a teenager already quite clearly understands what he likes to do, and what he “doesn’t have a heart for,” and this must also be taken into account. So, a person with a penchant for the exact sciences can choose the profession of an accountant, or he can do IT technologies, and these are completely different things!
It is a good idea to ask what professions are most in demand at the present time and which of them will remain relevant in the next 5-10 years. So, in the near future, professionals in the field of construction, nanotechnology, medical workers, ecologists, PR managers and IT specialists will be in demand. But the market for specialists in the field, for example, economics and jurisprudence, is already overcrowded.
In addition, one should not forget that, no matter how the society develops, it will always need workers in the food sector, service and trade sectors, teaching staff and other "eternal" specialties.
You should also not insist on the compulsory prospect of obtaining a higher education for your child, especially if he does not have any inclinations or special abilities for this. Skilled workers are often more in demand and have a good chance of finding higher-paying jobs than some white-collar workers. In addition, one should not forget that it is from those who started their professional careers from the “bottom” that in the end the most competent and qualified leaders turn out. And if in the future a young man who has chosen a working profession feels a taste for professional growth, he will have every chance for this.
