How do you support your child in Year 8 about career choices?

[Dipsy62]

In Year 8 Children have to make choices about their subjects and start thinking about their future careers. How do you help your children prepare for this as a parent?

Try to avoid telling them what to do and influencing them too much. The best thing is usually to keep their options open by doing a broad range of subjects. But if they really don't enjoy something it's much better not to do it, as they probably won't do well and get a good result. It's great if they have teachers they can trust to talk it through with, especially if the teachers don't teach the subjects they are trying to choose between and can give impartial advice.

Unless your child has a very definite idea about what they want to do then I think the key thing is to play to your strengths. I have left it to my 2 dds to choose for themselves. They know the subjects they enjoy and the teachers they like working with.

The school should help them really, my son in year 8 did tests and talks and had to give a presentation about what they want to do later.

He came home saying he wants to be an electronics engineer, and he wants to drop history and languages and focus on science, tech, anything computer and maths.

Sounds like a plan

Do your school really not do that?

I probably do plenty of wrong things... I'd like to build their self-esteem. Good self-esteem is like a dose of preventative medicine against may pitfalls in life.

may=many