Hold on a minute – Before you sign your child up for those extra preparatory tuition classes for the holidays, read the rest of this article.
Yes, it would be good to get a “head-start”, and no, they shouldn’t be lazing around for the next two months before school begins.
But there are several things we can encourage our children to do (that don’t involve the textbooks they will eventually read) that will help prepare them for the future. Specifically, it is to help them find their passions.
Why Should They Find Their Passion Now?
A heavy choice awaits our children when they reach the end of Secondary 4.
If they choose to go to Junior College, they’ve still got a few years to ponder about the type of career path they intend to pursue through the degree they’ll be choosing in university.
If polytechnic is the preferred choice, depending on the diploma, it could make a huge difference in terms of the industry they find themselves working in down the road – and that’s a big decision to make when you’re 16 years old.
The result of which is that many university graduates end up with degrees or diplomas that have no relation to what they are currently working as.
A graduate named only Mr Tang, spoke to Channel News Asia last year about how he had been working at an admin support position for 18 months, despite graduating with a degree in chemistry.
And because of such instances, career switches happen rather frequently.
In a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey of people ages 18 to 24, they change jobs an average of 5.7 times.
Truth is, many of us have worked in jobs that we do not like, and some of us are still in them because we have to provide for the family.
The holy grail is to find a job that we both love and can pay the bills with. Those who get a true head-start are those who find their passion early in life.
In order to give our children the best chance at attaining this, they have to figure out what they love and how to make a living doing it.
Fortunately, parents can help them do so, by allowing them to explore the professions available across the spectrum at an early age.
Here are some of the things we encourage your child to do during the holidays:
Attend Various Special-Interest Courses
Before you enrol them into a random piano, swimming or art classes, have a chat with your children to understand what kind of activities they might be interested in, and indicate that you’d like to have them attend a course of their choice.
Allow them to make the first suggestion. If they have no preference, suggest a few activities and see which one they lean the most towards do.
By participating in different activities, our children will get an inkling of the type of thing that suits their personality.
Try not to limit them to stereotypes too!
Perhaps the usually reserved girl comes alive during volleyball, and the talkative, outgoing boy may find his true voice in creative writing. The point is to allow them a taste of something other than their studies that they may have the opportunity to indulge in.
Some suggestions of activities or interest groups your child can look into are:
Watch a Wide Range of Documentaries
There are documentaries/shows online that let you get an insight into the day-in-day-outs of specific jobs.
The YouTube channel StudentEdge has a careers section in which they talk to people of various jobs to find out what it really is like as a lawyer, journalist, fashion designer and chef just to name a few.
Below are just some videos your child can watch to gain a better understanding of different professions.
Of course, they shouldn’t limit themselves to watching documentaries. If they are really keen on a specific industry, you may even encourage them to find out more by borrowing books from a nearby library that can offer them advice in detail. There are much more resources than you think.
They don’t have to just consume job-related content either.
Shows on the channels like the Discovery Channel about astronomy, botanists, quantum physics, cars, extreme engineering, and even the wonders of the earth can pique their interest and help shape their understanding of the world away from the textbook.
Work part-time
Taking that first step into the work industry can be both beneficial and eye-opening. It gives our children the chance to see how a business is run from an employee’s perspective, hones their social and communication skills, as well as the exposure to meet people from all walks of life that they wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to in school.
Above all, it’s an opportunity for them to discover what it is about the working environment that they like or dislike at a young age, which can help them make better decisions when searching for a job in the years ahead.
Also, encourage them not to work at the same job for too long, different jobs offer different perspectives. If they’ve worked as a waiter in the first job, try applying to work at a retail store, or as an event helper next.
Of course, your child also needs to be careful not to fall for job scams. If a job seems too easy, it is most likely to be a scam. Read the article below on how a victim fell for it when he thought it would never happen to him.
Meet Actual Industry Practitioners
While documentaries and books can give you some sort of understanding, there’s nothing like talking to an actual practitioner who can answer your specific questions.
If you have friends who work in various industries, it would be helpful for your child to have a chat with them, perhaps even be shown around the workplace or sit in during meetings (if possible) to gain the experience of the work first-hand.
Their Passion Can Help Them with Admissions Too (EAE)
If your child has something that they would like to pursue, they can look into EAE and have a head start on their course admission.
Applying for EAE helps your child take their mind off the stress and worries about poly/JC applications later. If your child is successful in their EAE or JAE, they need not stress too much about their O levels too! As they have already secured a spot in the school/course.
Putting that passion into work early in life will no doubt help them with admission exercises such as this.
For example, if two students with interest in an aerospace engineering course apply for it, which of the two do you think will gain entry into the course?
Chances are, you’d pick student B too, because he has put his passion in action and showed clearly that he would do well in the course because of his enthusiasm for aerospace.
So, this school holidays, allow your children the freedom to explore their interests by attending courses, viewing documentaries and perhaps working part-time if he is of age.
A true head start for the future of our children doesn’t lie simply in academics, but in their passions in life as well.