What our parents do (or did) matters
Antony Adams
Creating confident students through coaching and events. Founder of the Careers Confidence Score.
I asked LinkedIn the following:?
Your personal story matters, but does it matter what your parents do or did for a living?
32% said YES it does?
68% said NO it doesn’t.?
There’s more to the question than meets the eye.?
It DOES matter what your parents do for a living, but it shouldn’t matter when making value judgments on others.?
Growing up, I had one parent who worked four jobs to keep the house going and my other parent had fragmented employment. For that parent, redundancy hit them and the family hard. I can remember the day it was announced in the family home. It presented the family with an enormous challenge. It is possibly part of the reason why I now work in careers education.
I remember, redundancy shaping my decision to do my year 10 work experience - the Job Centre of all places! I chose to work in the job centre because I wanted to understand the role work/career played in our lives.
What your parents do (or did) matters. If it didn’t, then we wouldn’t have high levels of intergenerational unemployment. What your parents do can impact several aspects of a young person's life.?
Let’s take a look:?
Socioeconomic status
This determines the family income which in turn influences everything else including where you live, the school you go to, the healthcare you access and general lifestyle. Higher socioeconomic status typically provides more opportunities and resources. There is no doubt about that.?
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Location
Where you live will determine your educational opportunities. People move to better areas because of the reputation of the local school and college and Ofsted reports. Look at estate agents and housing websites.Their listing will include a reference to the local schools. Location will also help when sourcing work experience and job opportunities.?
Social Learning Theory
Proposed by Albert Bandura, suggests that people learn through observing, imitating, and modelling others' behaviour. Parents often serve as role models for their children. Their work ethic, attitude towards their job, and career choices can shape children's attitudes towards work and aspirations. When I chose to go to university some members of my family questioned my decision because of their view “We work in factories and do working class jobs” - there were strong cognitive biases at play which I had to challenge every time my decision-making was questioned.?Cognitive biases live on all in communities. A good Careers Adviser will recognise these and challenge them.
Network
Depending on your parents, their personal and professional network will influence a young person's career potential and choices. As a Careers Professional, we know too often of young people who secure work experience because of family connections.?We also know of students who have no network and struggle for that reason.
Work-life balance
Work-life balance is important for two reasons: the amount of time parents get to spend with their children growing up and the example you set for your attitude towards striking a balance of work and living life - this will help a child understand “what work looks like”.
Global Outlook
Parents with international backgrounds tend to set their children up for understanding beyond the local economy and the idea that you can work in other places. The same is true for parents who stay locally and have a "local mindset".
To conclude
What our parents do (or did) matters, even if they do nothing. Humans model behaviour. We draw inspiration from our parents or not, we use them as a guide to help shape our understanding of the world. The social and cultural capital that our parents possess is “passed down”. This is well documented across a number of theories but perhaps the one that sticks out for me is Roberts (1977) theory of “Opportunity Structure” which suggests factors such as social class, race and ethnicity, sex and family background influence available opportunities and therefore perpetuate inequality.?
Does it matter during an election campaign? I’ll let you decide but places that it shouldn't matter are in the pub, when we apply for jobs and when our colleagues ask us about our parents and their working life.
Highly experienced and effective careers & employability professional / community learning and development practitioner.
9 个月What about young people who are care experienced?
I agree with your points here, Antony Adams - and I love the work of Roberts because it helped me think about my own socio-economic situation growing up and the impact that had on my career choices and decisions growing up, well into my twenties. I’m one of those who doesnbelieve that what our parents do/did for a job makes a difference - like anything, there are exceptions to the rule (a few people break out when they work hard to become exceptional at something). Really interesting piece, thank you!
Empowering HE Students for Career Success ? Employability & Careers Consultant @ University of Suffolk ? MA Career Development & Management ?QCD Level 7 ? AGCAS Trainer
9 个月Completely agree these factors undeniably influence the opportunities available to young people and the decisions they make. I find Roberts’ views difficult to accept, yet coming from a socio-economically disadvantaged background, they are clearly present in my own life and the lives of many I have worked with since entering the careers profession. As Career Development Professionals, we actively promote social equality, equity, and inclusion, and strive to challenge Roberts' ideas that social influences and the environment essentially dictate an individual's opportunities. By recognising and addressing the influence of these factors, we can better support the people we work with in making informed decisions that allow them to reach their full potential, irrespective of their social influences and environment, that would be levelling up! Your article is a crucial reminder of the need for inclusive and equitable career guidance to challenge and overcome these social barriers. As I said earlier, a fantastic post Antony
Higher Education Careers Professional, with a focus on guidance for students on non-vocational routes. Podcast host of "Careersphere" and "1865". Listens, talks, writes, edits.
9 个月Excellent piece Antony. I will forever be grateful that, before I was born, my parents chose to leave a part of the world with limited opportunities and a more rigid social structure. My Dad in particular set a good example in terms of professionalism, work-life balance and aspiration. Part of the drive in my work is to do what I can to help my clients see opportunities that maybe weren't presented to them from their existing social structures.
| Project Consultant at Gradconsult Ltd |
9 个月It also goes into determining how much student finance you can get - which can limit/influence where students decide to go to university. I know it did for me!