In this interactive workshop, aimed at policy-makers, careers teachers, consultants and trainers at national, regional and local level who are keen on involving parents in careers work in secondary schools, we will explore with and through the participants recent research, policies and practices around the world.The literature confirms that parents have a major influence and role in the career development of their adolescent children. Many countries are now responding to this with a political drive to involve parents in the educational and career decision making of their children in secondary education, e.g. to prevent drop-out in higher education. However, examples of parent-involved career interventions in careers work in secondary schools are limited, under-researched and mostly short-lived which may explain why knowledge of how to involve parents successfully in careers work is underdeveloped. We will start off by making an inventory of good and interesting practice at national, regional and local level shared by the workshop participants. We will map these examples against research rooted in systems thinking (Patton and McMahon, 1999), and a taxonomy of parental involvement (Oomen, 2018), which sets new and challenging objectives for developing the parental capacity to be involved in their child’s career development and stimulating educational innovation. In the workshop, we will share instruments and materials, available in hard copy and digitally, that we have inventoried and were developed on involving parents in careers work. We will lead a reflection on what are the potential benefits of a policy to involve parents, but also on a strategy and approach to parent-involved career interventions at national, regional and local level. Finally, we will reflect on the well-known barriers to parental involvement in the school system and how we can recognise and overcome them.
