An “emotional rollercoaster” is how Wilson Cagi describes the process of trying to help his teenage daughter decide what to do next after school.
“It’s hard for parents,” he says. “We have some kind of idea of what we want our kids to do but it is a very thin line between giving them advice and pushing them into something they might not want to do. My wife and I decided that our best position was to try and stay neutral. It was a very confusing time, particularly of course for my daughter because she didn’t know what she wanted to do.”
Whole families can be affected by the transitions that teenagers have to take at 16 and 18. Parents worry about their child’s future and want to help but are also keen to avoid the worst excesses of “helicopter parenting”.
Many feel ill-equipped and out of their depth in the fast-moving world of digital technology that has created a swathe of jobs and careers that did not exist when they were at school. Katie Skea, who has two teenage boys, feels she is struggling to navigate her way through the options.
“Certainly in my day, a smart kid would do A-levels and go to university,” she says. “I suspect that if you don’t want to go down that path, there are loads of different options that I don’t even know about, and that’s the problem,” she says.
“If you don’t go down a classic route, are the alternative routes good ones? T-levels, for example, are they going to fizzle out within a few years? If you do an apprenticeship at 16, rather than 18, are you going to hit a glass ceiling?”
The solution, of course, is to consult an expert. That’s why the Evening Standard is bringing together, for the first time, an array of career professionals to advise parents about vocational, as well as academic, routes at 16 and 18. As part of our inaugural Step Up Expo at London Olympia, which we’ve launched to help Londoners navigate the complexities of the new education landscape, a range of workshops will give families the intel they need to make informed choices, including sessions on how to cope with parenting teenagers, apprenticeship myth-busting and the pros and cons of vocational courses such as BTECs and T-levels.
PwC is one of the recruiters at the event. It regularly talks to parents and students about the careers it has to offer. “The other day I had a sixth former and her mum on a video call together,” says Katherine Bond, PwC Technology Degree Apprenticeships Lead. “We know that the apprenticeships world can be confusing but come and talk to us. We want to help demystify things for parents as well as students.”
For Wilson Cagi’s daughter Shirane, there is a happy ending — and a lesson to other parents that if your child takes the wrong path initially, it is not a catastrophe. After a year at university on an adult nursing degree, Shirane realised she’d made a mistake. With the help of an apprenticeships agency, she is now a digital apprentice with media agency MSix&Partners.
“Her school suggested nursing but it became obvious that her heart wasn’t in it,” said Mr Cagi, founder of digital start-up Wuezza. “Shirane started researching opportunities in technology, which she was always interested in, and had the apprenticeships secured before she told us she’d left the course!
“She did it herself and I kind of admire her for moving from the traditional path she was on when she knew it wasn’t for her.”
* Step Up Expo is taking place from June 30-July 1, 2023 at Olympia London. Register for free tickets at stepupexpo.co.uk
