Choosing career for your child, what to do

Right from her days in primary school, Abiola’s father has been nurturing the ambition of his daughter becoming a nurse due to their smart dressing, the way they cater for the sick in hospitals and his belief that the profession is a lucrative one that could take her out of the country to greener pasture. […]

Right from her days in primary school, Abiola’s father has been nurturing the ambition of his daughter becoming a nurse due to their smart dressing, the way they cater for the sick in hospitals and his belief that the profession is a lucrative one that could take her out of the country to greener pasture.

When she was rounding up her secondary school and the need to sit for JAMB arose, the father suggested she went through nursing school, while her mother, who has always been in agreement suggested she could still go for nursing in one of the universities to pursue degree in the course.

But that plan was far from what Abiola desired, she wanted to study accountancy at the university so that she could pursue a career in the banking sector.

The founder of Parenting Support System, Mrs Oluwatoyin Ogunkanmi said, raising children involves you promoting the spiritual, physical, emotional, social, intellectual and moral developments of the child, adding that your role as parents is to help your children discover their potentials and their purpose on earth.

“You do this by observing and identifying their strengths; what they are good at.

“We have a lot of people who are frustrated due to the fact that they have not discovered who they really are or what they can do.”

Mrs Ogunkanmi who was speaking at the NBC #youthempowered programme as a mentor, Tuesday, noted that many youths who studied courses in the university that had nothing to do with their passion or purpose, people working at places and on jobs that are not their first choice of preference said, this Bible verse came to mind, “train a child in the way he should go and when he grows he would not depart from it.

“So, the question is in what way should we train the child? Most people say in the way of the Lord, which is right but what about training the child in the way of his passion, talents, calling or purpose”

She said part of the role of parents is to equip their children with the necessary skills and also create opportunities for them to excel in their chosen career but not to force them into what they don’t have passion for.

“Start by observing your child, identify his uniqueness and strengths. What is he good at? What are the things he can do effortlessly? Help him to harness these latent potentials and develop them into greatness.”

Although parents are the ones who know their children more than any other person, the question on who to choose a career for their future is still begging for answer.

An online platform, Quora.com stated that children should be allowed to make their choices due to the fact that, career impacts one’s entire future, lots of money and time are wasted when the wrong career choices are made. “The children have to do all the practical work and not the parents, the career may not interest him/her and the child may follow you out of emotions and not interest,” it added.