Parents can help children find a passion for a career

As school league tables show top performing schools place a big emphasis on career guidance. Ellie O’Byrne has been looking at how parents can help children find their passion

FOR teenagers, the world is filled with a bewildering array of possibilities. They are probably more concerned with Ask.fm then asking for careers guidance. Yet at this time of hormonal and emotional upheaval, we expect young people to make informed career choices that will affect them for years to come. No wonder, then, that one in seven students drop out of college in Ireland. Of 1,400 students surveyed by campus.ie, 51% had considered dropping out, while 23.3% felt that their course wasn’t what they were expecting.

Dearbhla Kelly is a careers guidance counsellor from Co Donegal whose new book, Career Coach, is a timely publication aimed at the parents of young people faced with these choices, be it after the Junior Cert, when many teens review their subject choices for the leaving cert, or towards the end of the senior cycle, when CAO applications are made.