Parent to Parent Support Project
Career search: start charting a path for youth now
Published in PACESETTER, Summer 2008
By Judy Moses
If your child is in middle school or just beginning high school, it may seem like graduation and the transition to adult life are far into the future. Yet it’s during these years that teens can explore interests that may lead to that first full-time job or attendance at a technical school, community college, or university.
By exploring interests now through volunteer work, hobbies, or internships, you can better help your son or daughter decide which career path to take upon graduation.
As a parent, you may have some good ideas about what your son or daughter would like to do after graduation. Talk with your teenager about his or her special interests or passions. These areas may point to potential career paths.
Most youth under the age of 20 are not developmentally ready to think very far into the future. Some will become stressed, angry, or withdrawn if pushed too directly to think about choices outside of their experience.
Yet research shows that if youth can see their dreams as possible paths toward employment, they are more likely to reach their career goals. Early, ongoing career exploration can help you raise the topic at times when your teenager is most receptive.
Consider these Career Exploration Ideas
Your son or daughter may want to consider participating in formal programs such as:
- apprenticeships
- job shadowing
- community- or faith-based service projects
- programs open to high school students at a community college, university, or technical school
- specialized summer camps
Career exploration also can include informal experiences such as:
- visiting technical schools
- starting a lawn care, dog-walking, or other business
- touring a manufacturing company
- volunteering
Use the Individualized Education Program (IEP) to Prepare for a Career
The IEP should help your son or daughter prepare for future goals. Besides specifying high school courses that will provide a strong foundation, the IEP could include activities such as:
- An evening or weekend course at a community college or an adult continuing education program. Attending such a class might help your son or daughter try out transportation options, experience a new learning environment, use high school accommodations in a new setting, or explore what future careers are really like.
- Internships, part-time jobs, or volunteer and community service opportunities. These activities can provide hands-on experience to help define your youth’s career choice.
- Pre-college programs specifically designed for high school students the summer before or after their senior year. The IEP team may be able to arrange financial payment of these exploratory courses if they support career goals.
Translating your young adult’s strengths, interests, and dreams into career goals takes time and effort.
By taking advantage of some real-life work experiences, your network of friends and associates, and some family-supported career exploration, your teenager may discover options to add to those developed by the IEP team.
These first exploratory steps can be expanded upon and enhanced as your young adult continues on his or her career path.
Transition and Career Resources
- PACER Center's Project C3 (Connecting Youth to Communities and Careers) offers an interactive resource map to connect youth with Minnesota resources for education, student loans, apprenticeships, and employment options. See: www.c3online.org
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency provides agriculture small business loans to rural youth. Search for rural youth loans at: www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA
- WorkForce Centers provide job training, education, and employment services at a single neighborhood location. See: www.deed.state.mn.us/rehab/rehab.htm or call 651-296-5616; 888-GET-JOBS (toll free); 651-296-3900 (TTY); 800-657-3973 (TTY).
- Rehabilitation Services are housed in WorkForce Centers and can help people with disabilities achieve their employment and independent living goals. Career training at technical schools, community colleges, and universities can be partially paid for through Rehabilitation Services. See: www.mnwfc.org.
- PACER offers articles on the Americans with Disabilities Act and strategies to help youth prepare for employment and adulthood online at www.PACER.org/tatra/knowledgecenter.asp.
Hobbies, volunteer jobs can point the way
Volunteer work uncovers skills
Ariana has a learning disability and loves helping her father in his workshop. She built bookcases for her bedroom and helped construct a bus stop shelter at the end of her driveway.
When her parents heard about a summer volunteer program to help construct homes for low-income families, they signed up together. With her parents’ supervision, Ariana helped attach decking, frame walls, put up wall board, and follow the progress on the blueprints.
When she returned to school that fall, she signed up for a computer-aided design class and discovered she was good at spatial concepts and mechanical rendering of three-dimensional products.
With help from her parents and guidance counselors, Ariana is now researching technical schools. She is eager to find a career that matches her understanding of construction principles and spatial design.
Hobby becomes small business
Song, who has cognitive disabilities, always enjoyed visiting her aunt on the family farm. The summer she was 15, she asked about raising chickens like her older cousins did. Her parents helped her order 500 chicks, and her cousins showed her how to set up a heated area for them in her aunt’s barn. Song fed and watered the chickens every day. Her aunt helped her track the costs of feed and the death loss. The whole family participated in processing the 470 chickens. After all the costs were subtracted, Song identified how much profit she had made from selling each chicken and had a list of customers for next summer. Song learned many “soft” skills that summer: how to work consistently, how to pay attention to details, how to welcome customers, give change, and encourage a customer to purchase additional items. The next year, she was able to expand her small business through a $5,000 Farm Service Agency loan designed for youth under the age of 18.
Part-time job reveals career path
Simcha’s has a cognitive disability, and his IEP goal was to find a part-time summer job. His IEP team noticed he was good at paying attention to details and keeping his work area orderly and clean, so they recommended that he look for a janitorial position. Simcha applied for a cleaning job at the machine shop where his father worked and was hired. He followed directions well and enjoyed being around the machines. When a worker called in sick, his supervisor let Simcha try machining dental drills. He was soon given full-time summer employment. That fall, the career goals in his IEP were changed from janitor to machining assistant.
PACER's site offers many PDF files for download, which require