A common aspiration of parents in different latitudes refers to the achievement by their children - once they have reached adulthood - of success in the social and labor world. To achieve this objective it is necessary that they have prepared in advance in a suitable way to enter the world of work and it is here where the preparation to choose a career path compatible with the aspirations and possibilities comes to play its role individual. In this PsychologyOnline article, we talk about role of the family in the professional guidance of children.
Index
- Parents' guidance in choosing their children's studies
- Individual factors
- Social factors
- Family and professional selection
- Recommendations to parents who must face the guidance of their children for professional selection
Guidance of parents in choosing their children's studies.
Since the choice of a profession or trade is a moment of great importance in the achievement of personality development, to reach it you must firstly, the individual goes through a process of construction of her subjectivity that allows her to make mature, responsible and self-determined.
The family orientation work whose children at some point have been involved in conflicts derived from professional choice is the main motivation for this analysis.
In psychopedagogical literature, it is observed that for a long time professional orientation was organized mainly according to the moment in which the profession should be selected. In more recent periods, professional orientation has come to be considered as a process that goes hand in hand with the individual development with whose modifications it has been related.
The professional orientation It is a process that takes place in certain stages which do not have to do with age in years but with the development reached at each moment by the personality and that can be expressed in:
First stage
General vocational training occurs: It covers the first ages and should be directed to the development of inclinations and skills in children, knowledge and cognitive interests that serve as a basis to progressively bring them closer to the formation of professional interests in certain areas of work human.
Second stage
Beginning of preparation for professional selection: Professional Guidance is expressed in work aimed at developing cognitive interests, knowledge and skills specific related to those subjects or spheres of human activity in which the subject shows marked inclinations and / or possibilities in the intellectual order for their execution.
Third stage
Beginning of training and development of professional interests and skills: This stage coincides with the student's entry into the vocational school (middle or higher) and its essential objective is the formation and development of interests, knowledge and professional skills that prepare it for the successful performance of a certain profession.
At this stage, Professional Guidance acquires distinctive characteristics that are expressed in the "professional approach" of the educational teaching process.
Fourth stage
Professional interests, knowledge and skills are consolidated at this stage. It begins in the upper years of vocational training and its beginning will be earlier in the students who reach a higher level of independence in the application of professional knowledge and skills in solving professional practice problems (González Maura, 2002).
In working with young professionals, it is appreciated that this stage, which has usually been described, culminates in the first years of graduation, in reality it adopts a new quality.
When the level of integration of professional motivation is high, in the young there is a clear inclination of his professional interests towards the search for new discoveries or contributions in the application or exercise of the selected profession or trade enhancing self-realization in the field of professional life, with which no only existing professional interests are consolidated but even new interests may appear in the exploration of new fields of professional action (Llerena, 2007).
A moment that carries special significance at the end of adolescence is the selection of the future profession. In it, concerns about the future path to be traveled coincide with the emotional changes typical of the stage, hence this is often a difficult and difficult period of time. that concerns parents and teachers alike, hence, taking coordinated actions between the school and the family can lead to a lesser transition through this stage. difficulty.
After controversial and conflicting opinions that prevailed in the field of educational psychology for a considerable period of time, the relationship is hardly an object of discussion. teaching-development and a good part of educational psychologists agree that the first, goes ahead and leads the psychic development, considering its typical characteristics in each age. Hence the school must become the primary factor in guiding selection professional and specialized advice to parents so that they conveniently join this process.
Although I have already mentioned that this is a process that can entail some difficulties, it does not happen the same for all adolescents. It is a reality that there are young people who find it less difficult to make the choice of profession than others.
In each young person they influence individual and social factors whose interaction affects the projection of their future working life. Among the individual factors, the motivations of adolescents, their aptitudes and attitudes can be highlighted in particular. Social factors, on the other hand, refer to the influence on the decisions that must be made by their groups of belonging, within in which the family plays a fundamental role and stereotyped cultural patterns about some professions and / or trades existing.
Individual factors.
Motivational development
Research carried out in Cuba has shown the presence of two types of motives linked to the study of the profession, the intrinsic ones linked to its compliance and extrinsic ones that have nothing or little to do with its content (González and Mitjáns, 1989; Domínguez, 1989; González Maura, 2002;).
The development of skills
This has to do with the skills acquired up to the moment of choosing the profession and that can in certain cases become factors that favor -when they are possessed- the selection of a specific profession, or in the opposite case, the hinder.
The prevailing attitudes
It has to do with the disposition to follow one or another selection and includes three components basic: cognitive, which refers to the previous knowledge that is possessed about the profession or job. The affective component, which has to do with the feelings and experiences that are involved in the selection and the behavior manifested by the set of executive dispositions that are manifested at the time of selection, if does or does not.
Social factors.
The influence of the macro-social environment represented in the different groups in which it is inserted and for the issues disclosed through official (media) or unofficial channels.
Existing beliefs about the selected profession or trade
There are professions that throughout the history of humanity have surrounded themselves with a halo of acceptance or rejection for its characteristics, which can undoubtedly influence the selection of the same for the future.
The family
A special place belongs to the family, within it and under special conditions of positive or negative affective commitment, human beings grow. There are behaviors that are reproduced within the family with respect to the selection of profession by children, which can be stimulants of self-determined decision making or limit these.
The family and professional selection.
Due to its influence on the professional orientation of children, the family deserves a separate reflection.
Various are the ways in which the family can influence the professional choice of children.
There are families in which one of the parents -or both- due to different personal circumstances could not see their dreams fulfilled in relation to the study of a certain profession. It is common in these cases to try to incline the child towards the study of it regardless of whether is personally inclined towards her or whether or not she has developed skills that can lead to success in the herself.
In other cases that bear some relation with the previous one, from generation to generation and successively the members of a family have studied the same profession. The problem occurs when some of the younger members - who were supposed to follow the path of her predecessors-refuses to do so because she does not possess skills or attitudes in relation to the study of herself. There are cases in which profession is chosen on the basis of an idea almost marked in the genes of its members in a forced way.
On the other hand, there are also some families in which children are considered too immature to select profession and take on the task of selecting themselves the profession they consider best for their children or the daughters.
There are also families that stimulate from the earliest ages in an organized and coherent way the inclinations of their children that they consider may be the basis future professional development, urging children to speak out openly about their interests and to further refine their skills. These are just some behaviors that parents can assume when their children must choose their future profession.
Recommendations to parents who must face the guidance of their children for professional selection.
Considering that in the world of work new offers appear every time that demand the greatest competition from those who work in it. A task of the first order should be aimed at promoting a knowledge as wide as possible of the existing educational offerings and that they are in correspondence with her individual possibilities and aspirations. It follows from the foregoing that the young person cannot be expected to be at the gates of select profession to investigate about the different existing offers in the environment of it and share them together.
It is good for parents to know that the school with the professional guidance it carries out is either integrated into the curriculum or extra-teaching, contributes greatly to the professional selection of young people, however, it is the latter who bear the maximum responsibility in this choice. In that process, parents can provide strong individual supportSince, like any process linked to growth, the selection of trade and profession can generate important emotional crises.
One area in which parents can provide important help is the identification by their children of their individual qualities in relation to a certain profession, since they sometimes dream of future professions that are known from of him beforehand his skills, knowledge or personal characteristics will not allow him to achieve in a way successful. Giving you emotional support and helping you identify your best options can be an important source for making important decisions.
Another important element is the continuity that can be produced in the family of the guidance work started at school, so it is advisable for parents to systematically maintain oriented of the steps that are taken in the school related to the vocational-professional orientation of the children. Sometimes the school works in one direction and the family, due to ignorance of the school's line of work, hinders it or deviates it from its normal course.
The school and especially the figure of the teacher can be important when it comes to knowing what the characteristics of the learning of young people and towards what professional paths attending to them can lead his future.
On the other hand parents can go to support networks, formed by the parents of their children's friends who surely have similar concerns and From the joint dialogue, important collective contributions may arise aimed at guiding the youths.
On many occasions, parents worry because, against all their criteria, young people persist in making a professional selection against all the opinions expressed by adults. In this case you must talk and know the criteria followed to make that decision. If they are firm, solid and reasonably mature criteria, it can be assumed that this is a serious decision; hence, you can probably have future success in your performance if you train in that profession.
When the decision about the professional life of the children is not appropriate, then the response of the parents should not be directed at censorship or scolding that can lead to responses of rebellion or disagreement. It is more appropriate to seek professional help both for the young person, and to prepare themselves as parents to help them find good solutions to the professional choice.
It is necessary for the family to understand that it is in a privileged position in the professional orientation of the students since it has the affective force necessary to guide them to the achievement of self-knowledge, the valuation of one's own strengths and possibilities and promoting the necessary maturity to face the selection of the profession in an analytical and responsable.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to The role of the family in the professional guidance of children, we recommend that you enter our category of Education and study skills.
Bibliography
- Domínguez García, L. (1989) Study of some components of the motivational sphere in university students ". Cuban Journal of Psychology. Volume 6. No. 3.
- González Maura, Viviana. (2002) Educational-vocational guidance. A methodological proposal for the choice and responsible professional development ". International Congress. University 2002. Course. Havana.
- González Rey, F. and Mitjáns Martínez, A. (1989) Personality, its education and development. Havana: Editorial Pueblo y Educación.
- Ibarra Mustelier, L. (2007) Educate at school, educate in the family. Reality or Utopia? Havana: Editorial Félix Varela.
- Llerena Companioni, O. (2007) Educational strategy of professional orientation for the students of the career of Psychology in the municipal university headquarters Primero de Enero. Thesis as an option to the degree of Master in Higher Education Sciences.
- Talizina, N. (1988) Teaching Psychology. Moscow. Editorial Progreso.
