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Report into parental engagement in career education

Sattler, Lucy T.

Publication date: 1 June 2021
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Sattler, Lucy T. (2021). Report into parental engagement in career education. Study Work Grow. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13345416

Abstract

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the role parents play in the career decision-making processes of their children. This study underscores the significant influence parents exert, often surpassing that of educators and peers, in shaping post-school pathways. The research explores the mechanisms through which parental influence operates and highlights the challenges parents face, such as relying on outdated information and struggling to engage with school-based career programs. The report advocates for the development of strategies to better support parents, emphasizing the need for accessible, strengths-based interventions that provide parents with relevant, localised, and accurate information. By equipping parents with the necessary tools and confidence, the report aims to improve the effectiveness of parental involvement in career education, thereby enhancing the success of young people as they transition from school to work or further education. The findings contribute to the broader discourse on career education by proposing a shift towards more inclusive and supportive parental engagement practices, aligned with global best practices in career development.

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Summary

Supporting parents is a priority. We know that parents are the most significant influence in post-school decision making, but that many parents feel unsupported and ill-equiped for the role. In this report, we found the following:

  • Parents are the most significant influencer in their child’s career decisions
  • Parents often rely on out-of-date and inaccurate information to support their children, and may lack confidence in their knowledge and ability
  • Parents are busy, deal with multiple issues in addition to supporting their child, and lack time and resources to regularly engage with the school
  • Schools and teachers lack the time and resources to generate parental engagement programs that go beyond career expos or information sessions, despite their best efforts
  • Existing parental engagement programs for career development, where they exist, prioritise one-way communication and require the parent to attend school, usually in an evening
  • Research from around the world suggests career education best-practice requires multiple touch-points between parents and schools

To effectively support parents, we need to make sure they have access to relevant, localised, and accurate information about jobs, training pathways, and the labour market, as well as the skills to listen to their children and provide supportive feedback. This report explores these concepts through an analysis of how parents influence their children, how we can effectively reach parents, and how to support both parents and students during the school-to-work transition.

A note on terminology:

Parent is not adequate to cover the range of significant adults who care for and raise young people, but for the sake of brevity it will suffice.

We recognise that young people are raised by people who are called a variety of terms, including parent, carer, guardian, grandparent, aunt, uncle, foster-parent, step-parent, and that all of these people have the same status when it comes to guiding young people. What matters is that they have a close caring relationship with the young person, and that they are involved in some way in the decision making process.

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