Employers urged to ‘arm’ parents with careers information

There was an interesting story yesterday on the CIPD’s People Management website.

The article said that school-leavers look primarily to their parents for careers advice but half of mums and dads feel they don’t have sufficient knowledge to offer guidance:  two studies have revealed:

• A survey of more than 90 trainees on EY’s school leaver programme found that most children (42 per cent) initially discuss future job options at home, followed by 26 per cent who look for advice online and 17 per cent who speak to careers advisors.

• In a separate EY study of more than a thousand parents and more than 500 employers, 48 per cent of parents admitted they were unaware of the range of options open to young people turning 18, and more than half didn’t fully understand the long term implications for their children’s careers.

The article says that 78 per cent of mums and dads expressed concern about the prohibitive cost of higher education as university fees promise to leave graduates with thousands of pounds of debt, while youth unemployment remains at 20 per cent despite recently falling by 1 percentage point. This may explain why such a high proportion of parents (79 per cent) told the study they were worried their children would struggle to find a job after graduation. Most parents (56 per cent) also felt that helping their children to make career choices was more stressful than moving home or job.

For those out of work, The Prince’s Trust has some useful ideas with something called the Team programme. It’s aimed at young people aged between 16 and 25. It’s free and will not affect the Jobseeker’s Allowance. The programme is also available for employees who would like a chance to develop new interpersonal skills to improve long-term career prospects. Read about it here.

A quick look-around on Google brought up these sites (but I’m sure there are many others) providing information for student and school leaver career and course information:

http://getsmaart.com/

http://www.careersadviceforparents.org/p/free-expert-advice.html

http://www.careersadviceforparents.org/p/free-expert-advice.html

http://www.thebigchoice.com/School_College_Leavers/Advice

http://www.allaboutschoolleavers.co.uk/

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Martin Pollins

Managing Director at One Smart Place

Martin Pollins is a Chartered Accountant and MBA with wide experience in corporate finance and business management. He has served on the boards of several companies, including those listed on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and OFEX. He is Chairman and Founder of OneSmartPlace and was a Council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales from 1988 to 1996. He was managing partner of PRB Martin Pollins, based in Sussex, the first Accountancy firm to advertise on British television.He went on to create and launch the CharterGroup Partnership (the UK’s first Accountancy network) and then LawGroup UK (at the time, one of the largest networks of lawyers in the UK). In recent years, he helped to raise several £millions to fund British films such as The Da Vinci Code, Bridge of San Luis Rey, Head in the Clouds and Merchant of Venice with actors such as Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, F. Murray Abraham. Kathy Bates, Gabriel Byrne, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, Penélope Cruz, Steven Berkoff, Lynn Collins, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and many more.

He has written over 700 business publications (see Glossaries at http://onesmartplace.com/resources/glossaries/) and is editor of Better Business Focus (see http://onesmartplace.com/resources/better-business-focus-magazine). His Blog, on a wide range of subjects can be found at: http://onesmartplace.com/blog/

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