Careers Information for Parents and Carers

 Q: Why have we created a careers information page for parents?

A: Because it is widely recognised that parents are one of the most influential forces in a young person’s career and education decision-making. It is therefore very important that parents have the information, guidance and support they need to help their children navigate these decisions.

There are several interesting points in “Parents’ engagement in the career guidance of their children; Autumn 2020”, a research report commissioned by the Gatsby Foundation. They surveyed 2,001 parents of 11-18 year old secondary school students and found that:

• parents tend to speak to their children about career options once a month (64%) and are confident when they do so
• 86% of parents said they would be likely to carry out activities with their child at home if they were prompted to do so by their child’s school or college
• as parents begin speaking to their children about careers and education from year 7, schools and colleges should communicate to parents about 18 months to 2 years before decisions need to be made

 In addition, the Department for Education 2021 report “Young people’s experiences of careers information, advice and guidance. Evidence from the Second Longitudinal Study of Young People in England” states:

• During school, at age 13-14 (year 9), young people found the information, advice and guidance received from their family to be more useful than the information, advice and guidance they received from teachers; 22% finding this information from parents ‘very useful’ versus 10% from teachers.
• The most accessed sources of information, advice and guidance when the cohort was aged 18-19 years old, were friend and relatives (90%), followed by teachers (53%), and trained careers advisors (32%).

 Getting involved:

By becoming involved in the careers-related learning at Fosse Way School, parents and carers not only gain an opportunity to benefit our pupils but also to learn more about this area of work going on across the school. There are several ways in which you could become involved in our careers programme:

• you might have a job which you would like to come in and talk to our pupils about
• you may be happy to have a pupil shadow you at work to find out more about what you do
• you might work for an organisation which would be happy to have a stall at one of our school-based careers fairs

If you are interested in being involved with any of these areas, or have any other ideas, thoughts or comments, please email our Careers Lead, Jade Jeffery jjeffery@fossewayschool.com