National Careers Week: Three ways to talk to your child about career plans - from dream jobs to planning ahead

• National Careers Week is here - an annual event to connect young people with resources and get them excited for the future
• Career aspirations start earlier than you might think, so it’s worth talking about with your child no matter their age
• By asking the right questions, you can uncover their passions and get them thinking about how jobs could change by the time they grow up

It’s never too soon to start talking to your child about what sort of job they’d like to have someday.

This week is National Careers Week, which runs until Saturday, March 8. It aims to get young people thinking about what their future careers might look like - and get excited about what’s to come.

The UK’s only newspaper specifically for young people - First News - recently published some new tips and advice for parents to mark the occasion. As well as signposting to helpful information on how to get into different career pathways, it also featured some useful guidance for getting children thinking and talking about their future.

Here are three of their suggested ways for starting a conversation with your children about careers:

‘If you could do any job in the world, what would you choose?’

This is a great question to open with if you and your child haven’t really discussed careers before. First News says that career aspirations start earlier than you might think, so it’s good to get kids thinking about their futures - no matter their current age.

Even if your child’s answer seems a little unrealistic, don’t blow it off. Not only could your child end up surprising you, but it’s an opportunity to get some valuable insight into their thoughts and feelings about work. It can help give you some idea of where their interests lie, and what they could see themselves being happy doing some day.

‘How do you think jobs will change in the future? What careers might not exist anymore?’

It’s no secret that we live in a changing world. Issues like the rapid advancement of AI mean that certain jobs that once needed a person to do them may become automated, and disappear as technology advances.

Overall, what sorts of jobs people do is likely to keep evolving over the coming years. This could very well have an impact on the options available to your child by the time they’re older - and to what their working life looks like at the very least.

But this doesn’t have to be a doom and gloom discussion. You can also try asking them questions like; ‘If you could create a new job that doesn’t exist yet - what would it be and why?’

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Exploring different career pathways together

If your child has a little more of an idea about what they’d like to do one day - or is weighing up a few different options - Careers Week can also be a good opportunity to sit down together, and take a look at what steps they’ll need to take to get there.

This could be anything from talking about whether they might need to go to university one day or do an apprenticeship, to helping them pick out classes at secondary school. You could even help organise work experience or volunteering opportunities in a field they’re interested in.

First News also has a whole series of short films on its website, exploring how to get into a variety of career paths. Watching a few as a family could be a really eye-opening experience, and shine a light on what it takes to do different jobs - especially if you don’t really know yourself.

This article is produced in partnership with First News, an award-winning newspaper for UK children read by 2.2 million each week. To find out more about getting First News at home or in your child’s school, or even to browse its other online offerings for young people, you can visit its website here.