Completing High school is the start of your journey, not the end.
Parents can we stop telling our children to “just pass Matric?”
Having a Matric certificate merely means you’re on your journey to deciding what you wish to do with your life.
I often hear parents in the townships make such a big fuss about passing Matric that these unfortunate children are under the misconception that the piece of paper in their hands will land them any job.
The truth is when your child goes with their “wonderful” Matric certificate to a job interview that you encouraged that there are thousands just like your child at that same interview and often with better pass rates than your child.
Naturally, the child becomes deflated when they aren’t successful and so comes the vicious cycle of a life of servitude. You are now desperate for the child to work that your focus as a parent becomes a “get yourself a job” rather than focus on a career.
So the child is successful and starts work as a cashier or merchandiser at a retail store and is happy for the moment that they are earning some money but in ten years’ time that child won’t be happy because those type of positions “kill your spirit.”
You as the parent told them they can be anything they want to be then why are you pushing them to find a job instead of a career? Eventually that brilliance your child displayed dies with the dreams they had of doing better and making you proud.
Worst is when they can’t find work and find themselves depressed because they’re unemployed and you are nagging on their head and their dreams, they harboured in their minds start to wither away.
There is nothing wrong with working for a supermarket chain if that is your ambition but if it isn’t can you as a parent support the child while they try to navigate through the new maze of “life after Matric?”
Can you try access Government funding early for further studies, can you access online studies that are free, can you let your child volunteer at a place for a few months to gain experience in that field, do internships at a place they would like to work, can you as a parent look at all corporate and government sectors and realize that bursaries are offered all the time?
Can you please support your child in their dreams to be more than the norm if that is their wish? Can we look further than doctor, accountant, and lawyer if that’s not your child’s passion?
Have a frank discussion with your child and help them. There are opportunities out there if you aren’t flocking to the same place for a job.
If they want to be an entrepreneur, a hairdresser, clean pools, a barber, and so forth then encourage them.
Even the doctor needs his hair cut.
Please support the future generation and let us build a nation of thinkers and go-getters not merely job seekers.
Motivate them to follow their dreams and if money is needed and the child has to find a job then let them study part-time.
We can change a nation that was born into servitude to a nation that produces these young people that are able to rewrite history.
