Parents Key to Preparing Kids for Career Success

Posted at September 19, 2008 12:11

By the Missouri Department of Higher Education
and the Missouri Connections Public Outreach Partnership workgroup

A Missouri report reveals steps parents can take to help their children prepare for successful careers. Among those steps: 1) help them explore careers, especially in shortage fields, 2) teach them to be diligent lifelong learners, and 3) hone their soft skills.

This advice comes from the Missouri Workforce 2025 report, which contains a wealth of data on how Missouri’s workforce and economic landscape will, and will not, be different by 2025 – when many of today’s infants will graduate from high school. The report was published by the Missouri P-20 Council, a group created by state law to coordinate learning from preschool (P) to graduate school and the workforce (20).

Explore careers, especially in shortage fields
One of the report’s key findings was that Missouri is not producing enough graduates with strong foundations in math, engineering, technology, and science (METS). While METS occupations are projected to grow at a rate of 20 percent from 2004 to 2015 with over 22,000 openings, the proportion of college students seeking METS degrees is on the decline.  Compounding the deficit, a large proportion of current METS workers, such as nurses and other health care workers, are at or nearing retirement age. All of these signs point toward a mismatch between supply and demand that would favor people with strong METS backgrounds.

“Parents can encourage their children to explore careers in these areas by taking trips to the St. Louis Science Center, for example,” says Dr. Bragg Stanley, director of Guidance and Placement at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. ”Parents can also work with their children’s schools to provide career exploration opportunities in these areas.”

Be lifelong learners
Another report finding emphasized the need for members of the future workforce to be lifelong learners, especially in regards to emerging technologies. Some form of “digital literacy” will be required in all careers, the report found, from running GPS tractors in farming to electronic patient monitoring in health care.

“Parents’ values and attitudes toward higher education and continual learning play a key role in the values and attitudes of their children,” says Stanley. “By demonstrating positive attitudes toward schooling and education and by encouraging children that there are new and exciting things to learn all the time, parents will be helping to instill a drive for life-long learning.”

Soft skills, manners are important
Finally, the report highlighted the enduring importance of “soft skills.” Though technology is changing the way Missourians work, employers will continue to place a high value on such skills as teamwork, integrity, professionalism and initiative. Stanley stresses that parents play a crucial role in helping children learn to cooperate, to get along with others, to be honest, and to do their very best in all they attempt.

MDHE Institution, Program, and Degree Search
highered.mo.gov/ProgramInventory/

Missouri Workforce 2025 report
 www.p-20.mo.gov

Career and Educational Planning
www.MissouriConnections.org

Career Research (Careership)
mappingyourfuture.org/planyourcareer/careership/

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