THE ROLE OF PARENTS IN THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY: According to the Oxford Advanced Learners dictionary (7th edition) career is the period of time that you spend in your life working or doing a particular thing while on the other hand development is the gradual growth of something so that it becomes more advanced, stronger etc. from the concept of the definition of both career and development, one would be quick to conclude that career development is the change, growth or improvement over a period of time in a job that someone spends most of his or her life working at. In order to achieve a successful career development process, it is important that the child’s personality or point of interest comes to congruence, with the chosen career, that is why Holland (1959) said, career development congruence, the most extensively studied topic in career development is how well an individual’s interest match with their career goals. In Holland’s theory, congruence is the agreement between an individual’s personality (i.e. their level of interest in either realistic, investigative, social, conventional, enterprising or artistic realms) and their occupational goals. Holland went further to say that when an individual’s personality is congruent with their occupational goal, there is little or nothing that can be done to influence their career choice and if otherwise, this might lead to lack of dedication in execution of career duty.

Another factor that can also contribute to the successful career development process in the child is the parent. Parents are the single most influential factors in the career development of their children, yet most parents are not adequately informed about how to help. Parents need to know how to use career information, how to assist in exploration, how to support development of interests and abilities and how to challenge the stereotypes facing their children.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

It has been seen that many parents across the strata of the society form the habit of choosing career for their children and from close observation, it was observed that the level of performance, dedication and seriousness to work of some of those people who had their career chosen for them by their parents deteriorates by the day and as such ends up in a dismal state. If not properly addressed, the problem of ending in the wrong profession may lead to lack of fulfillment in life, non-achievement of personal futuristic goals and sometimes underachievement in career life. It is against this backdrop that the researcher intends to examine the role of parents in the career development of the child.