1. Help Your Child Identify Interests Explore Careers and Develop Plans for the Future

2. W hy Should You be Involved in your Child’s Education and Career Planning ?

3. Why Parent Involvement? Research shows that you have the greatest influence on your child’s career choices As a parent, you have the best knowledge of your child’s interests and abilities You have more interest than anyone else in your child’s well-being and success Your child’s future is too important to be left to luck or chance

4. When Parents are Involved... Children have: Higher grades and test scores Higher graduation rates Better attendance at school and get more homework done Fewer placements in special education And: Are more likely to enroll in postsecondary education Show more positive attitudes and behavior Source: The Family is Crucial to Student Achievement, National Committee for Citizens in Education, 1994

5. High School Career Exploration In High School Your Child Needs to: Understand how individual personality, abilities and interests relate to career goals Demonstrate skills that can apply to a variety of occupations and changing work requirements Understand how high school education relates to college majors, further training and/or entry into the job market Be able to use a wide variety of career information resources Source: American School Counselor Association

6. Discuss Your Child’s Interests Ask Your Child: What are your favorite school subjects? What extracurricular activities do you enjoy most? What are your favorite hobbies? What do you like to do with your friends? What special skills do you think you possess? What have you done that you are most proud of? What do you like to do with your free time? What interests you the most?

7. Nurture Your Child’s Interests If your child has an interest in animals, he or she might like to: –Volunteer at a local veterinary clinic, animal shelter or zoo If your child has an interest in art, he or she might like to: –Design a personal or school website If your child likes to help people, he or she might like to: –Be a summer or vacation camp counselor –Assist at a day care center

8. Nurture Your Child’s Interests If your child likes to build or repair things, he or she might like to: Design and build a robot or a piece of furniture Help repair or remodel things in your home If your child likes sports, he or she might like to: Umpire or referee community games Coach a youth sports team

9. What if My Child’s Interests Change? If your child has been exploring interests, and he or she decides that interests have changed — hurray! It is just as important for your child to know what he or she does not want to do as it is to know what he or she does want to do Exploration is the key to helping make informed decisions

10. Help Your Child Explore Careers To help your child with career exploration: Encourage your child to make independent decisions Involve yourself in your child’s future planning Encourage exploration of all kinds of post-high school education opportunities Give your child economic responsibilities Encourage job awareness Be flexible as the decision-making process evolves

11. Parent Resources Visit www.acrnetwork.org for Parent Resources Click on Parent Involvement Guide to learn about: Helping Your Child Identify Interests Helping Your Child Make Career Decisions Helping Your Child Make a Post-High School Plan Finding the Right College Locating Financial Aid And more

12. Career Exploration Resources California Career Zone http://www.cacareerzone.org Occupational Outlook Handbook at http://www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm O*NET OnLine http://online.onetcenter.org/ Your local library has career information books and publications, as well as Internet access to explore careers online

13. Help Your Child Plan for the Future

14. What Parents Need to Know About Education and the Labor Market

15. Parents Need to Know Unemployment rates for non-institutional civilians ages 25 & older Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 2003

16. Parents Need to Know Of the 22.2 million jobs to be generated between 2000 and 2010...

17. Parents Need to Know...17.5 million will require some postsecondary education. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001

18. Parents Need to Know 8 of the 10 fastest growing occupations between 2000 and 2010 will require some form of postsecondary education Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001

19. Parents Need to Know 48 of the 50 best paying jobs will require a college degree Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002

20. About College Although over 97% of students (and their parents) aspire to college 63% enroll in college the fall following their graduation from high school More than a third leave within two years without earning a degree Only about half earn a bachelor’s degree by the time they are 29 years old Source: The Condition of Education, 2002

21. About College Community or technical college can lead to well-paying jobs, and may be all a child needs to reach his or her career goal Community college can also be the path to a 4-year degree Many students start out at a community college to save costs or get a handle on college-level work Source: Higher Learning=Higher Earnings, Center on Education Policy, Sept. 2001

22. College Preparation Freshmen who enter college without a career goal or an academic major in mind have higher college dropout rates More than 22% of college freshmen need to take remedial courses — these do not count as credit toward a degree Your child should take challenging courses in high school to prepare for college-level coursework

23. College Preparation 83% of students who take Algebra I and Geometry in high school go on to college Students who don’t take Algebra and Geometry in high school are much less likely to go to college — only 36% do Taking challenging courses in high school not only helps children get into college, but also increases the chances they will complete college

24. Help Create Post-High School Plans Discover the training that is required for your child to meet his or her career goals Find colleges or career schools that provide training specific to your child’s goals Think about the school’s atmosphere, does your child do better in small classes or large groups? Will he or she do better at a school in a large city or a small town?

25. With your help, your child can create a solid plan that will guide him or her to successful post-high school training and rewarding career.