Parental Influence on Career Choice

Societal expectations sometimes form the basis for how parents influence the career choice of their children. Such professions like medicine, law, engineering are highly regarded in society. There is therefore the temptation to force a child into doing one of the above courses.But it is a bad educational policy to force a child to do a course for which he or she does not have aptitude. Conducting of aptitude test becomes the best way of selecting pupils and students to pursue any course in higher education.

Certain family variables such as economic status of parents may also affect the career choice of a child. For instance a student may have a flair for mathematics and other related courses, which places him in a better position to do courses such as engineering. But if the parents do not have money enough to finance the training in such a course, they may tell him or her to do Mathematics single honours which they can finance. But regardless of parental and societal expectations, the individual should be allowed to discover his needs, values and aspirations to shape his career choice. They should not be forced into doing a course they do not have aptitude for.