As a parent, you are expected to be in a position to know better, what makes your children unique, and most importantly, guidance and encouragement can make a significant difference in every child’s career success. Faustin Mutabazi, an educator and a parent says having daily contact with your child is important as it means they are paying attention to their skills and interests. When this is done especially at an early stage, he says it helps strengthen a child’s ability to focus on a task and improves learning at school. To achieve this, Mutabazi says as a parent, you can provide tools that help improve your child’s skills to help them grow and develop in general. This, according to him would mean that as a parent, you understand your responsibility and more importantly your child and their attention to detail better. “As a parent, I believe that we serve as a major influence in our children’s career development and career decision-making,” he says. Meanwhile, research indicates that when students feel supported and loved by their parents, they have more confidence in their own ability to research careers and to choose a career that would be interesting and exciting. By providing guidance to a child, Marie Ange Mukasine, a kindergarten school teacher says it means as a parent, one is providing opportunities for their child to make choices and practice self-determination skills. She explains that by providing opportunities to make choices, the child will see that they have control over many parts of her life. “This may help your child develop confidence and become more comfortable making their own choices, which is very important for any person,” she says. Mutabazi on the other hand, says to be able to guide the child in career development, as a parent it’s vital to always encourage your child to dream and to plan. “As parents, we always have high aspirations for our children, yet, we don’t think we have failed to acknowledge that there’s more than one pathway to define success,” he adds. He goes on to note that since every child is unique, as a parent, there is no need of restricting them to a single path of success. Mukasine says it’s also helpful to help your kids see the variety of dreams that they can envision and achieve. For instance, she mentions that letting the young ones know that you as parent support and value their dreams is important. “Stay by their side as they break down barriers. Make them believe with a lifetime ahead of them anything is possible. Your belief in their dreams will help them get past the potential fear of failure,” she says. In addition to this, it’s also believed that providing opportunities for the child to experience work settings is very important. The more parents are involved in their children’s education, the better their entire class’s motivation, behavior, and grades become. Mutabazi says encouraging parent engagement is more than common courtesy. It’s one of the best ways to create a positive learning environment for every student. “When parents are engaged in their children’s school lives, students have the home support and knowledge they need to not only finish their assignments but also develop a lifelong love of learning,” he adds.
