90% vote lack of confidence in relation to CAO2022 - What to do!

This is the result of my recent polls on Twitter and Linkedin in relation to how parents perceive their teenage son/daughters confidence in figuring out what to do after finishing school.

I’m not surprised to learn that parents report that their teenagers are either somewhat confident (47%) or not at all confident (41%) in their ability to figure out what they want to do after finishing school.

10% of parents reported that their teen was either confident or very confident. While this is a small poll of 40 parents, what’s interesting is that the results are similar to a large-scale study - Growing Up in Ireland - carried out with 20-year-olds in 2019.

So... 🔹 What is confidence and how is it developed? 🔹 What’s so challenging about the task that school leavers are asked to do? 🔹 What does confidence mean?

Being confident requires a realistic sense of one’s capabilities and feeling secure in that knowledge. It’s specific to a particular task we are required to carry out. First, we need to feel competent that we can do the job. Then and only then do we start to feel confident. The more we practice and get better at the task, the more confident we become. Learning to drive a car is a useful example.

What’s so challenging about figuring out what you want to do after school? In my opinion, one reason is that it’s a BIG PROJECT, but generally not acknowledged as such.

The second is that leaving cert students have never carried out this task before. It’s all new to them. They are novices.

Novices learn best when they are shown precisely how to do something and why. 🔹 They need rules and guidelines to follow. 🔹 They need the task broken down into bite sizes. 🔹 They need to carry out the task under supervision, get feedback, redo, get more feedback and practice, practice, practice - precisely what happens when we learn how to drive a car.

But it’s more complex than driving a car, which brings us back to the idea of this being a BIG PROJECT that requires a host of new knowledge and skills. Here is a list of some of the knowledge and skills students need to make informed course and career decisions

🔹 A basic understanding of the CAO system 🔹 Know themselves – who they are, their interests, strengths, likes and dislikes, how best they learn to Research Use available resources Be organised Weigh up the information Make decisions Network Take the initiative Communicate effectively including asking for help.

Novices need hand-holding until they can do the task well, without support.

Choosing courses and colleges for inclusion in their CAO application is a big project and as such requires time, attention to detail and support.

If your son or daughter needs a helping hand in figuring out what CAO courses would suit them best, please call or email me. ☎️086 8108192 📧anne@annemangan.com