By Jennifer Curry, Bryce Becker, and Momo Hayakawa

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

Children talk about what they want to be when they grow up starting at an early age, but as parents or caregivers we don’t always know what kinds of follow-up questions to ask or how to engage them in thinking imaginatively about their possibilities to keep those ideas open. Often we are also limited by our own comfort zones and the careers that we’re familiar with.

Dr. Jennifer Curry is a professor at Louisiana State University and an expert in career readiness with K–12 children. As recipients of a Ready to Learn grant focused on career exposure, Twin Cities PBS was interested in Dr. Curry’s approach to talking about careers with young children. She shared her thoughts on why career conversations with children should start at a young age, how they fit into a changing workplace landscape, and special considerations for talking to young children. She also offered some easy and engaging ways to have career-centered conversations in your daily life with your kids!

Often we start talking about careers with middle school or high school students. Why do you think it’s important to start talking about careers with young children?

Young children are always learning about careers. They observe family members and neighbors going to and coming from work. They see people in their communities working when they go to the store or walk down the street. They are surrounded by community helpers like mail carriers, sanitation workers, firefighters, nurses, doctors, grocers, bakers, and cashiers. All these neighborhood workers help children learn, albeit informally, what a career is. Caregivers are also teaching children about careers informally through activities like cleaning their home, cooking together, and role modeling adult responsibilities. Because children are naturally curious and are already learning about the adult world around them, which includes careers, childhood is the perfect time to introduce these concepts. Children want to learn about what people do, so it’s natural to introduce them to careers. You can see their curiosity and interest about the adult world through their play; children love to play with toys that look like adult work tools, such as toy baking and cooking supplies and toy construction equipment.

Even though children are often enthusiastic towards learning about the world of work, we often wait to formally introduce career information to older students who are expected to somehow feel prepared to make career decisions. Yet, we know from research that children need time to explore and understand careers, how careers relate to each other, and how to choose a career based on personal interests. This takes time. So the earlier children start to learn what a career is and start to think about careers, the better.

What are some important considerations in having these conversations with young children versus older youth? For example, is there a special way that you would frame these conversations or anything you would avoid?

With young children, the goal of career development is simply exploration. We want young children to learn what a career is and what people do in specific careers. Young children can learn about career language, career clusters, tools used to accomplish work, special career clothing, and why some workers need special work vehicles. With older youth, the goal of career development is to learn how to use tools (such as career assessments) to explore careers and how to apply their preferences for workspaces, as well as their aptitudes, interests, and values toward choosing a career.

For young children the most important thing to avoid is trying to get them to choose a particular career or pathway or commit to a choice. They don’t need to do that at a young age. It’s beneficial to expose children to lots of opportunities to explore a wide variety of career activities, like arts, sciences, and building careers. Allow your child to develop natural interests, but continue exposing them to new things.

Kids often talk about wanting to be an astronaut, firefighter, or dancer when they grow up. If we think about preparing kids for careers of the future, what can caregivers do to support that preparation, even if we don’t know what future careers will be?

Often caregivers worry about what their children will become. Although it’s natural to worry, when it comes to careers, a healthy approach is to provide as much access as possible to a wide range of careers and options. By developing an “explorer mindset,” caregivers can enjoy learning about careers alongside their children. Even more important, recognize that children’s career preferences may change numerous times as they learn about more careers. They may want to be a geologist, film maker, veterinarian, crane operator, and many more things before they find the career they are passionate about. These changes can be disconcerting for parents, especially when their child chooses a career they weren’t quite expecting. Yet, all these explorations are important. Keep asking your child questions to help them reflect, “What do you like about this career?” “Is there a career similar to this one that you also like?” “What do you imagine a day in this career might be like?”

Caregivers can use spaces like children’s gardens, parks, libraries, and zoos and museums, which often offer free admissions days, for career exploration. Most importantly, caregivers can support future careers by allowing children to explore, promoting children’s sense of confidence about their ability to face new tasks, and encouraging children to have a positive view of themselves. All these attributes lend to hopeful career and personal outcomes for children. Regardless of the career a child eventually chooses, they will have an opportunity to have success if they are confident and assured that they explored their options and chose a career that was a good fit for them.

So where can you start? Below are several activities and conversation starters to try out with your children.

Simple ways that parents and children can experience careers together

Families can begin to explore different careers together based on the fields that children have shown interest in. The National Career Clusters Framework groups careers into 16 different career clusters based on fields. This can help people think about all the possible careers out there, based on topics that are most interesting to them. Here are a few fun activities to explore different types of careers at home together.

Career Cluster: Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

Career: Refuse and Recyclable Materials Collector: Collect and dump refuse or recyclable materials

Activity: With your child, try on the career Recyclable Materials Collector. Collect trash and recyclable materials to dispose of from around your home. Sort the materials. Ask your child, which are recyclable materials and which are trash? How does this career help the community or the environment?

Career Cluster: Architecture & Construction

Career: Engineer: Plan, design, and oversee construction and maintenance of building structures

Activity: With your child try on the career Engineer. Plan a structure to build and allow your child to lead this project. Use any materials you have on hand- including recyclables. Allow your child to plan, design, and direct the building project. When the building activity is complete, ask your child: What would you like to call our building? What is it like to be an engineer?

Career Cluster: Health Science

Career: Nutritionist: Plan and conduct food service or nutritional programs to assist in the promotion of health

Activity: With your child, try on the career of Nutritionist. Collect food from your pantry and refrigerator. Help your child sort the food by what is healthy, what is somewhat healthy, and what is not so healthy. After sorting, prepare a healthy snack, like a smoothie or celery with peanut butter, with your child. Then ask your child: How might nutritionists encourage people to eat more of the healthy foods? Why are nutritionists important for people’s health?

Career Cluster: Hospitality and Tourism

Career: Server: Take orders and serve food and beverages

Activity: With your child, try on the career of Server. Help your child write out the menu for dinner. Then, have your child help set the table. Once dinner is prepared, have them take the drink order from the family. Allow them to deliver the drinks to the table, and assist as needed. Next, allow them to share the menu. Then, let them deliver the food to the table. After the meal has been eaten, assist your child with clearing the table. Ask your child: How do servers help people enjoy their meal? How do servers help restaurants be successful?

Career Cluster: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)

Career: Meteorologist: Interpret weather-related data, gathered by surface and air stations, satellites, and radar to prepare reports and forecasts for public

Activity: With your child, try on the career of Meteorologist. Look at the weather outside, then give your own weather report. You can draw your report with crayons on paper before you give it. Will it be cloudy with a chance of rain? Sunny and breezy? Give your reports to each other. Ask your child: How do meteorologists help people in their community and keep them safe?

Photo by Kobby Mendez on Unsplash

Career-related questions parents can ask their children

The following are career-related questions that parents can ask their children. Remember to listen and not interrupt or judge your child’s answers.

1. What is your favorite subject at school? What do you like about it?

Your child’s favorite subject can give you some ideas about their career interests. For example, a child that loves math might have future interests in finance careers.

2. What is your favorite toy/game/activity?

Often, games or activity preferences can give insight into what children are interested in. An example includes children that love to spend their play time doing creative things, such as music or art activities. This might be an indication of children’s future interests in Arts, Audio, Technology and Communications Careers.

3. When you grow up, what career do you think you will have?

If your child shares a career they think they will have, it doesn’t mean that is the career they would like to have. Follow this question with: What career might you like to have? Remember, young children are only exploring, but this question can help you understand if there is a difference between what career your child might be interested in and what career they believe will be available to them.

4. What career would you like to know more about?

Any career your child wants to know about is worth investigating more. Don’t worry about salary, education, or training. For young children, exploring is important as they learn more about different kinds of careers. A child that likes construction work may also like architecture, engineering, plumbing, and electrical work. There are many opportunities that fit every interest. You can help your child explore by visiting the library and checking out books or viewing career videos online.

5. What skills do adults need to have to be successful in their work?

This question can help your child think about both the subject skills they learn each day (such as reading) and the skills they are developing, such as teamwork and communication, creative thinking, and organization. All skills are important and can help them be successful as they grow and think of their futures.

6. What responsibilities do you have now that can help you prepare for a career? What responsibilities do you enjoy the most?

Your child may have responsibilities at home like making their bed or taking out trash. These responsibilities are helping them learn to be dependable, to keep things clean, and to understand the importance of accountability. Responsibilities teach us all about ourselves, also. We find certain things we like and dislike. For example, some children prefer animal care over housework. These preferences help us understand the work environments and tools we might like to work with in the future.

7. Imagine you woke up tomorrow as an adult and you had a very important job. What would you be doing? How would you know you were important?

This gives you a sense of what your child perceives is a valued career. It can also tell you how your child perceives important people are treated.

8. Does it matter if kids try hard in school? How come?

This question can give you a sense of how children view the purpose of school. It lets you know if they think school is about getting good grades, lifelong learning, or finding and preparing for a career.

9. If someone wants a career, what steps should they take to get a career?

This question indicates whether your child understands that attaining a career is a process including education and training. Most young children won’t know and that is okay. One goal of this question is to help children understand that to find a career, people need to explore their interests, aptitudes, and career options.

10. How do people act in workplaces? What about schools? Are they different or the same?

This question is meant to help your child start to connect the behavioral expectations of school with workplace expectations. In many ways, they are similar. In making these connections, children can start to understand why rules and expectations at school are similar to those in workplaces.

These are just a few ideas to spark your children’s thinking about careers! Leaning on best practices from the career readiness field, Twin Cities PBS is developing television, digital, and analog resources for children and families to learn more about the myriad of career opportunities children can explore in the future and the basic skills that will support them in any path they take.

Photo by CDC 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: Helping young children learn and think about different careers.

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.