Abstract:

Educational institutions and parents play a significant role in career choice and the acquisition of career management skills by youth. It is important that both parties (parents and educational institutions) mutually cooperate to help young people make reasonable choices, which will affect all their future life.

The topicality of the study is related to the observations and opinion of teachers that parents oftentimes lack sufficient understanding of the kind of career development support young people receive in educational institutions. The aim is to perform an empirical study and analyse the data obtained in order to test parental understanding of the kind of career development support young people receive in general and professional education institutions in Latvia.

Research methods: theoretical literature analysis, parent survey, visualisation and interpretation of the data obtained. The survey questions are related to the contribution of both educational institutions and the parents themselves to the career development support for youth.

The participants of the study were 4785 parents, who provided responses to the survey questions. Thus, the data obtained in the survey are considered sufficiently representative. The results of the study show that only 52.27 % of the parents understand the career development support received by youth in educational institutions. Whereas 24.45 % of the respondents admit that they did not know about the existence of a career counsellor at school and have not been informed about his or her duties. According to the parents, the most recognisable career development support measures in educational institutions are the following: the “Shadow Day”, career consultations with the school career counsellor, the annual Career Week, youth meetings with representatives of different professions, educational excursions to enterprises. A little over a half of the parents have talked with their child about his or her career development scenarios and know their child’s strengths and weaknesses. Within the study, the parents’ proposals for the improvement of career development for youth in educational institutions have been summarised and conclusions have been made following the research aim.

Keywords:

Career counselling, career development support, parents, youth.