Bringing parents and carers into career conversations

Parents and carers are influential on their child’s choices and career decisions and therefore are key players in shaping what their best next step might be. We have developed a range of resources designed to help parents and carers have more constructive and informed careers conversations with their child.

Approaching parent and carer engagement strategically

To have the greatest impact, Careers Leaders appreciate the need for parental engagement in careers to be approached strategically and inclusively across the whole school or college.

We understand that engaging parents and carers about careers will require support from all members of staff, especially the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) who will need to advocate and guide a whole school or college approach to identify opportunities to enhance current practice.

Support for schools, colleges and special schools

There are several key resources available that have been successfully tested to help institutions like your own enhance parent and carer engagement:

• Parent Engagement Toolkit - gain the foundation knowledge to amplify the role of parents and carers in careers-decision making
• Parent learning journey - map what parents and carers need to know and when, against what has been planned for young people in your careers programme
• Engaging SLT - a presentation to share with your senior leadership team to explore how to embed parent and carer engagement in your careers programme

Explore more resources

Be part of this year’s campaign

We are developing more resources and guidance to help Careers Leaders to take a strategic and embedded approach to parent and carer engagement in careers.

If you’re a Careers Leader...

Sign up to the Careers Leader newsletter to be the first to know about new resources to support parent and carer engagement in your school or college.

Contact us at education@careersandenterprise.co.uk to share success stories of parent and carer engagement in careers taking place in your setting.

If you’re an Education Leader or Governor...

Sign up to the Education Leader Digest or Governors newsletter to stay informed about policy updates and further information to improve student outcomes.

A parents’ toolkit for conversations

The Gatsby Foundation has developed a suite of resources directly for parents to help them have more informed and constructive conversations with their child about the different training and education pathways available to them. You can support parents with their own learning at home by signposting them to the Talking Futures website: www.talkingfutures.org.uk