Parents have been urged to respect the career choices of their children so that they may make the best of their passions.
This call was made on Wednesday at the 8th edition of an annual Career Mentoring and Life Skills Seminar tagged PEA Academy in Lagos.
The event, which is an initiative of Pyramid Education Foundation, aims to equip senior secondary school students with information and experiences that will guide them in making positive academic, career and life choices.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, the Managing Director of YOA Insurance Brokers Limited, Enitan Solarin identified the passion parents have for their children as a driving force for all they do cautioned against altering the children’s dreams.
“Parents want the best for their children. They are very ambitious for their children. Sometimes, they fail to see that some of these children have limitations. Parents, therefore have to set realistic expectations.
“They should know that no two children are the same. They have different talents and abilities. We should also realise that academics is not the beginning and end of it. You have to be able to discover your children’s God-given abilities.
While acknowledging that more parents nowadays allow their children to follow their passions, she called for more concerted actions towards making children live their dreams.
She also admonished children to develop the ability to talk to their parents and convince them to believe in their abilities.
“You children should be able to talk to your parents. Let them see your talent and abilities. Let them know what your difficulties and challenges are.
“Instead of a parent forcing a kid to do physics and chemistry, perhaps, the child would do better at studying economics.”
“You, as a child should be able to convince your parents that you can do better in economics than in the Sciences. At the end of the day, your parents want you to succeed.”
“Parental expectation is just to give a framework to the future of your children. You have the responsibility as a parent to have a plan for your child. But children that don’t continue to engage their parent would get to be continuously pushed to act their (parent’s) dream.
“If a child wants to be anything meaningful in life and discusses that with her parents, the primary concern should be how the parents could go about helping them achieve the dream. There are a lot of high educational institutions out there to help children develop their passion further. Believe in them and enrol them in one,” she added.
She also told parents to keep in mind that even if they forced their children to career paths other than their expectations, these children would grow into adults capable of making their own independent decisions at a time parents can do nothing about it.
Passion first
On his part, the Creative Director at JB Multimedia, Joel Benson told the participants to identify what they are a passionate about and develop on that.
He stated that even when they have little or no support from those around them, their ability to connect with other people who could drive their passion is a path to their success.
“You need to figure out what you are passionate about. When you are passionate about something, that would drive you to acquire the skills needed.”
He told them the story of how he became a film maker by being under the tutelage of a mentor who took interest in his passion and taught him the basics, which prepared him to later acquire further formal education in the trade on scholarship.
Mr Benson who was one of the mentors at the event said that having the skill was not enough to propel one’s dreams without passion.
In his words, “Someone can have skills and not be passionate about what he is doing. So, he wouldn’t make a success out of it simply because he is not passionate about it.”
The essence of the PEA Academy
Speaking with EduCeleb.com on the essence of organising the event, the Director of Library Services at PEA Foundation, Toyin Omotayo said that the mentorship programme started with career counselling some years earlier before its metamorphosis to what this five years ago.
“This mentorship programme started with career counselling. We found out that much more than the theory, the beneficiaries have to see people who live out their dreams.”
She added that mentors are drawn from all works of life to give insights into what they do and how they do it. Consideration is given to the character and integrity of the persons for them to be selected as mentors.
EduCeleb.com gathered that fourteen mentors engaged about 700 participants in the first half of the two-day event.
