Continue studying or start working? How to help a teenager make such a difficult decision

In the coming weeks, many Spanish teenagers will have to make important decisions about their future. Choices that will mark the beginning of a professional itinerary, a life plan that will lead them to achieve what they want. Continuing studying or opting for the world of work, pursuing high school or vocational training, choosing a university degree in science or literature or traveling abroad to learn languages ​​and work may be some of the options.

In this world that moves too fast and is constantly changing fundamentally due to the development of technology and the impact it will have on our lives, it is very difficult to make long-term decisions. Throughout his life, a person will face approximately 8 or 10 job changes to which he must adapt. This means that all people will have to learn to reinvent themselves and develop the necessary strategies that allow them to face all these new challenges.

More information

Overprotection during adolescence raises cowardly and passive children

Many of these adolescents show a lot of insecurity and confusion when making such important decisions for their future, a great headache that generates intense emotions of fear, impatience or overexcitement. Not feeling attracted to a specific profession, the fear of making the wrong choice, the fear of confronting their families because their concerns do not coincide with the expectations they have of them, the lack of information or little motivation to continue studying are some of them. of the reasons that cause it to become such a difficult decision to make.

Families, together with the team of professionals who accompany the adolescent, will be key in their professional and vocational guidance. They must offer the young person all the necessary information about the multiple professional opportunities that exist and the different ways to access them. The young person needs to find a project that excites them to work on with commitment and motivation. If you do not find a plan that seduces you, it will be very difficult for you to get involved with it and make an effort in the face of adversities that may appear.

Guiding means accompanying and not deciding for the adolescent what he or she should or should not do. A process that requires large doses of interest, time and affection. The adult references must become guides who do not condition personal decisions or solve the problems for which the young person must be responsible. Support based on listening, respect and trust that helps young people find what excites them and motivates them to work in the coming years. That responds to his personal, emotional and social needs and aspirations and is a source of security and motivation.

The families, together with the team of professionals who accompany the adolescent, will be key in their professional and vocational guidance.Thomas Barwick (Getty Images)

How can we help a teenager design their professional career?

Help the adolescent to know himself better, to identify his interests, aptitudes, strengths and weaknesses that allow him to discover his vocation. To organize her thoughts and design the steps he must take along his professional path through dialogue, trust and experience that promote responsibility and effort. To make decisions thoughtfully and autonomously.

Show interest and confidence in the decisions you make, making them feel that they are supported and respected at home. It will be very counterproductive for him to put pressure on him to make his decisions satisfy the wishes of the adults who accompany him.

Adjust the expectations you have of the adolescent without allowing the personal history or the worldview of their adult references to condition their decisions. If the teenager feels pressured or judged, he will show little desire to share with his parents or family everything that worries him, excites him, or generates doubts. He needs to feel that he is accepted as he is and that he has the freedom to decide what he really wants.

Encourage the teenager to investigate the different professions and the job opportunities that each of them has. Help you understand the current labor market and learn about new professional profiles that can help you open new horizons. If the young person does not have the necessary information, he will end up deciding his future in a circumstantial way; From what he sees on social networks, what is fashionable or what the rest of the young people in his peer group do.

Accompany you to educational and employment fairs where education and career guidance professionals can resolve all doubts that may arise in your choice. Offer you extensive knowledge so you can find what really motivates you.

The adolescent needs to feel that in this complicated and stressful choosing process they are not alone, that they are respected and accompanied. That he has adults at his side who walk alongside him with trust and understanding, who help him decide without coercing his desires, who do not judge his previous mistakes because they understand that they are an essential part of learning and the path. . They understand that he has doubts and that it is not easy to make the decision. As the American poet Edwin Markham said: “Decisions are the hinges of destiny.”

Sonia López Iglesias

is a teacher, educational psychologist and educational disseminator, as well as the mother of two teenagers.

You can follow Mamas & Papas on

Facebook

,

X

or sign up here to receive

our biweekly newsletter

.