By Jennifer Borland, Jennifer Curry, Ashley Leon, Camellia Sanford-Dolly, Bryce Becker, and Momo Hayakawa

Photo by Vitolda Klein on Unsplash

Growing up is inevitable, but figuring out what we want to do, and therein, who we want to be is a far greater challenge for some, and a lifelong process for others. Caregivers play an important role not only in tending to children’s day-to-day needs but also in helping children to imagine and prepare for their future careers.

To understand how caregivers and their young children think and talk about careers, a team of researchers at Rockman et al Cooperative (REA) conducted 30 interviews in Summer 2021 with a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of caregivers of 5-to-8-year-old children.

During the interviews, researchers shared a list of 16 categories of careers from the National Career Clusters Framework and explored the following questions:

• What careers are caregivers most familiar with?
• Which careers do caregivers think are most important for their children to know about?
• Do caregivers talk about careers with their children? If so, which careers?
• What do caregivers think are important skills that children need to be successful in the future?

What careers are caregivers most familiar with?

In order to fully understand the potential impacts that caregivers can have on children’s future career aspirations, it is helpful to consider the kinds of careers that caregivers are most knowledgeable about. Not surprisingly, caregivers’ familiarity with specific categories of careers stemmed largely from their personal job experiences. Based on our interviews, we found that caregivers were most familiar with the following types of careers:

• Education and Training (43% of interviewees mentioned this career category)
• Human Services (41% of interviewees mentioned this category)
• Marketing and Sales (38% of interviewees mentioned this category)

Which careers do caregivers think are most important for their children to know about?

In seeking to better understand the role that caregivers can play in supporting children’s career interests and aspirations, it is helpful to consider the careers that caregivers value. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly given media coverage and commonly held beliefs about careers, caregivers felt it was most important for their children to know about:

• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) (43% of interviewees mentioned this cluster)
• Finance (29% of interviewees mentioned this cluster)

Among their reasons for thinking it was important to know about certain careers, nearly half of the caregivers who we spoke with (46%) referenced children learning about specific careers that piqued their interest. Others (29%) noted the importance of careers that had practical life applications, such as learning how to deal with money while exploring finance or accounting careers. A quarter of the interviewees thought that it was important for children to have exposure to a wide range of careers, thus enabling them to have many options to consider and explore.

Caregivers were more likely to rate a career category as unimportant for their child to know about in instances when they thought their children would simply be uninterested in that type of career (a response given by 62% of interviewees), or in cases where the caregivers themselves were not interested in a given career or career category (a reason given by 17% of the interviewees). Caregivers also reasoned that it was less important for their children to know about certain types of careers if they or their child already knew about those types of careers (a reason mentioned by 17% of interviewees).

Do caregivers talk about careers with their children? If so, which careers?

Almost all caregivers who were interviewed (93%) said they had talked with their 5–8-year-old child about what they want to be when they grow up. The most common careers that caregivers said their children mentioned were police officer, veterinarian, teacher, doctor, and chef. More than half of the interviewed caregivers (56%) noted that their children liked certain careers based on their personal interests in the topics that the career focused on:

“[She wants to be a veterinarian because] she loves animals. [She wants to be a bus driver because she] likes to be in control, and [she wants to be a dancer because she likes] the glitz and glamor of dance.”

“[He wants to be a chef.] He likes being in charge of the kitchen.”

Caregivers also noted that interest in a given career arises when children observe or know someone who has that career. This was something mentioned by 41% of the interviewees. For example, as one mother shared, “He really likes how the dentist makes him feel and wants to be like him.” Another shared that her daughter is interested in working with food: “My husband is a chef, so he and my daughter bond over that.” For these children, having positive relationships with people in a given career influenced their own interest in it.

What do caregivers think are important skills that children need to be successful in the future?

We asked caregivers what future success would look like for their children and what kinds of things would ultimately enable success. Rather than having prestigious careers or abundant wealth, we found that happiness and self-sufficiency were more frequently mentioned by caregivers as indicators and elements of success. More than a third of the caregivers (37%) noted that happiness would be a key component of a child’s future success, such as one caregiver who expressed a desire for her daughter to be “happy with who she is and what she is doing.” Another stated:

“The main thing I want for her is to be happy. I tell her all the time, you know, you can make all the money in the world and be absolutely miserable. And I don’t think that’s a full life for you, for anybody at that point. I’d rather her find something she’s about, and do it and not worry about what comes next.”

Just under a quarter of the interviewees (23%) asserted that a child becoming a responsible and independent adult would also be an indicator of success. They noted things such as “living on his own, having a job, having income, a family. Being comfortable and not struggling” or simply “being a functional and productive adult.”

In contrast, only a few caregivers (13% of interviewees) felt that a child’s future success would hinge on them having a certain career, such as“being a master chef and having his own restaurant.”

Caregivers also referenced skills and activities that would likely contribute to a child’s future success. These included:

• Getting along with and respecting others: 27% of interviewees mentioned skills like listening and communicating. For example, one interviewee shared, “Communication, above all. The ability to make connections and knowing ‘social things’…We live in communities. We live with and among other people.”
• Life skills: 27% of interviewees mentioned life skills like patience, responsibility, and perseverance and/or being hard-working, goal-oriented, focused, organized, open-minded, and confident. One interviewee stated, “Keep going if something does not come easy.”
• Continuing education: 23% of interviewees mentioned academic skills and degrees, because, e.g., “The more access to information, the more answers you have.”

Takeaways

Interviews with caregivers revealed that they are talking about careers with their children from a young age. These conversations are shaped by caregivers’ own knowledge about different careers as well as their knowledge of children’s personal interests. Being exposed to different career options is important in helping children explore their possible future selves, and caregivers can support their children’s career exploration by talking about the role that people with different careers play in their community. Findings from this study also suggest that caregivers believe children’s future success relies on more than the career they choose — it also includes happiness and self-sufficiency. Caregivers can support these ideas by pointing out how their children’s strengths are important to a wide range of careers and by letting their children take the lead in career exploration activities. In the following section, Dr. Jennifer Curry, a professor at Louisiana State University and career-readiness expert, shares tips for parents on how to help their children think about careers.

Tips for Caregivers to Help Your Child Think About Careers

Encourage your child to try on careers with your family.

1. Let your child explore a career for a day. For example, if you are baking a cake, include your child. Ask, “Would you like to be a baker today?” If you have an apron available, put it on your child and allow your child to take on the role of baker as they sift, measure, mix and bake.

2. Let your child explore a career for a week. Although all children need chores, you can give weekly “career try-outs” as opportunities for your child to try a career while exercising some new responsibilities and skills. For example, you might let your child try the role of gardener for a week. Each day, your child might try some tasks related to the job of gardener. Tasks might include weeding, watering, or putting a packet of new seeds in a pot of soil.

3. Make every family outing a career adventure. For example, if you are planning a trip to the zoo, encourage your child to explore the career of zoologist for the day. Explain that a zoologist studies animals. Give your child a sketchbook, some crayons, and maybe some binoculars. During the day at the zoo, let them make observations to share with you later. Ask your child, “What did you learn from your observations?”

At the end of the day or week, you can ask your child:

• What was it like to be a ______?
• What tools did you use?
• What are some new skills that you used?
• Would you like to be a _____ again?

Talk to your child about careers they see.

1. Point out careers in your community.

2. Help your child notice careers in books.

3. Discuss careers in songs, stories, and television shows.

Whether you’re going to the grocery store, library, or post office, reading a book together, or watching television, you can point out the jobs that people are doing, and ask your child: “What careers do you see? What kinds of things do they do? What tools and skills are people using to do their work?” Remember, tools can be types of clothing and vehicles too!

Photo by Chris Benson on Unsplash

To learn more about our project, please visit: https://skillsville.org/ and for many more tips and ideas about how to talk about and explore careers with your children, see our related article: How to Talk to Young Children about Careers and Support their Curiosity about the Future.

This content was developed under the Ready to Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education (PR S295A200002) awarded to Twin Cities PBS. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

To learn more about Rockman et al Cooperative visit: rockman.com.