Big Ideas: Parent Connection
April 29, 2009
Did you know? Studies show that young adults look to their parents, not their teachers or counselors, as their top adult influence when making career decisions. Because parents have tremendous influence on their sons’ and daughters’ career choices, California Community College Career Center’s counselors and staff may be well-served by implementing programs to engage and educate parents about the career planning process. As career centers encourage and support their students’ exploration of careers, parents should be considered and treated as a partner in this developmental process, rather than being bystanders. Here are three ideas on how to take advantage of these VIP’s.
- Connect with Parents via Parent Orientation Events. Palomar College offers a variety of Parent Orientation Programs through their Early Enrollment Program (EAP). At these events, they connect with parents to introduce them to the campus and the variety of services for students including the Financial Aid Office and Career Services Department.
Identify departments on your campus who connect with parents and explore how to collaborate with them to make more parent connections.
- Establish a Parent Page within your Career Center site with resources, links, and lists of upcoming student career events. As part of the University of Irvine’s Career Center site, they have an interesting and informative Parent Page. Brandeis University’s Career Center Site includes a Parent Section that contains a Family Member Career Checklist. The Binghamton University site offers new resources and timely information for parents like this Smart Moves in a Tough Economy - Message for Parents.
Build a parent page and include relevant and useful resources. Track the site traffic to learn more about what parents want.
- Invite parents to partner with the Career Center by participating in a variety of ways. After all, they can be resources for you too. University of North Carolina connects with parents by asking them to support and help deliver career center services. Since most of your students’ parents are employed in your community and have a diverse array of occupations and valuable workforce connections, why not capitalize on their expertise, experience, and connections? Ask parents to help by doing the following:
Post their employer’s jobs and internship opportunities on your career center’s job board.
Encourage their employers to attend your campus’s career fairs.
Volunteer to be a career mentor for a currently enrolled student.
Allow a student to shadow them on their job.
Serve as a speaker/panelist at career center events.
Consider adding parents to your advisory committees and exploring new ways to engage the parent population on your campus.
Quik Quote: Parents have a vested interest in helping their children find high skill and high paying careers.