There's a lot to talk about! As a culture, our consciousness needs to be raised about the disparity between today's complex workplace and our preparation of our teens for it. MYCOOLCAREER.com is making a difference. Feel free to bring your audience into the conversation.

Headlines continue bemoaning America's slow jobs economy. With millions of teens hitting the job market -- many for the first time -- parents are wondering whether their children will even be able to find work this summer.

Jill Sanborne says there's no need to worry. Not only can America's teens find interesting jobs, Jill knows how to help them chart a profitable and rewarding financial future.

How?

Jill, who helps 40,000 teens monthly discover new career ideas, will teach parents, their teens, and educators how to successfully tackle the 21st century job market. And, she will teach YOU and your listeners how to turn summer 2004 into a prosperous summer!

Discuss:

• Why classifieds and companies sporting "help wanted" signs may not be the best way to find a job.
•How to help your teens become successful entrepreneurs.
• Dogsitting, teaching computer basics to illiterates and other interesting ways to earn money.
• How to turn volunteerism into a profitable future.

Jill can also discuss:

• The No. 1 reason employers dislike hiring teens.
• Why parents MUST get involved in their children's job hunting.

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LET YOUR TEENAGER WATCH TV!

Where else do teens learn about career options? With limited options, they're primarily getting their cues from popular culture as shown on television and in films – a fairly limited, competitive and often unrealistic view of career options. How do we know this? Guess what teens request for interviews? TV sitcom role careers . . . Forensic Psychologist, Criminal Justice Attorney – Hello! See .:press release.

Utilizing television for career guidance is an act of desperation. Teens don't know where else to learn about different career ideas.

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WHY MYCOOLCAREER.com WAS CREATED

In 2000, I was looking for a big career change for myself and working with a life coach. Paying attention to what was going on around me, I was being told by too many bright high school and college students, and young college graduates that they were lost. Remembering my teen years, I could relate, and decided to do something about it. It became my mission.

The workplace has changed dramatically, but the way our culture prepares our youth for the workplace has not changed. We ask teens to make big decisions at 17 & 18 that affect the rest of their lives, but most don't know themselves, nor what education and career directions would be rewarding or even possible for them. They need more career and career path information, consistently throughout school, from a foundation of self­knowledge to exploration of career ideas and how to attain their career dreams.

Help your teen feel secure about the future in uncertain times

The World Trade Center towers in New York City were violently attacked by terrorists, our country is at war and many people are losing their jobs in a tough economy. Teenagers are concerned about their future. By doing a better job in preparing them for the workplace, giving them options, we can help alleviate some of the concern they inevitably feel. MYCOOLCAREER.com is committed to helping teens feel confident and excited about their futures.

We need a culture change.

• Today's workplace is vastly more complex and technical than when the parents of today's teens entered it, so today's teens need more help finding good directions for their futures.

• That "accidentally bump into it" luck thing doesn't work anymore, without preparation.

• According to the .:Bureau of Labor Statistics and economists, for secure futures, all youth will need additional training beyond high school. We need skilled, technical, educated workers, which means more school after high school. I.e., 50% of an auto technician's job now has to do with computers.

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THE SCHOOLS CAN'T DO IT ALL – So, Parents, You're Up!

Career counseling in middle and high school isn't enough.

• Counselors are way outnumbered: one for every 250 to 3200 students.
• 60% of graduating high school seniors wish somebody'd given them an assessment test – to help them head towards careers that fit their personality and strengths (California Agriculture, spring 2002)

Parents MUST get more involved in their teen's career exploration process

• Parents are already the number one influence on the future education and career choices of their children. They need to take this role more seriously, get informed, and lead the process, starting early in their kids' schooling.
• The schools can't do it alone.
• Teens say they want and need their parents' help: assessment testing, career information and financial aid help.
• The Millennial generation is much more conservative than previous generations.

How Parents can help their Teen

• Take on the responsibility of Lead Career Counselor. With you on this team are 1) your teen, 2) your teen's school counselors, 3) your family, friends and contacts.

• Develop a NEW FAMILY CULTURE that's conscious about career ideas and the importance of dream exploration. Your teen, throughout high school and college, should be exploring at least three different education and/or career directions at any given time. Teens should explore their career dreams and ideas by participating in .:school and .:afterschool activities, volunteering, part­time and summer jobs, and .:reading biographies about people on their cool career list. And, no respectable exploration would be caught dead without your helping your teen arrange and practice for face­to­face (or, second best, via telephone) career interviews with professionals in the fields that interest them. MYCOOLCAREER.com provides teens with the .:DIY questions to ask in these interviews. Let them practice on you and your friends. Your teen can also .:Request­A­Career on the website for the host to locate someone in that career to interview and webcast in the near future! Encourage your teen to excel in all that they do.

• Meet with your Teen's School Counselor – Most parents never meet their teen's counselors• School Counselors are intelligent and very hard working professionals, who have your teen's best interests in mind, but they are way outnumbered and need your help, too. Meet at least once a year throughout their high school career starting in the freshman year. Meeting with the counselor only in the junior and senior year is TOO LATE. Find out your school counselors do and can't do, find out what they recommend for your teen and the academic path your teen is currently on. The counselors can provide you with resources and good advice to lead the way.

• Remove barriers to your teen's realizing their dreams and potential – Perceived or real, studies show that many teens feel that they can't have their career dreams for a variety of reasons. In a nationwide 2002 study, 47% of graduating high school students cited lack of money as the greatest barrier to them realizing their educational aspirations, followed by lack of information.

In my own experience in conducting workshops with teen groups in lower socio­economic environments, lack of information and money seem tied to each other. The lack of information appears to extend to lack of some basic information that could form stepping stones to more information. An example of this would be how to find a part­time or summer job while in school through the newspaper or online. In my experiences teens talk about their environment (home and family, neighborhood and schools) telling them that their dreams are too big and that they ought to aim for the minimums: graduating from high school, getting an AA degree. I heard that the problem wasn't the lack of big career dreams, but the information and encouragement necessary to help them attain these dreams.

There is quite a bit of financial aid for college available to teens but the process can be overwhelming. In meeting with your teen's school counselor, if financial wherewithal is a challenge for your teen's going to college, tell them and ask for help. Also, all students should take the PSAT tests in their junior high school year. The PSAT is the first opportunity to qualify for financial aid that's not available ever again.

The MYCOOLCAREER.com website provides lots of information about .:Financial Aid, describing what it is, what different forms it can take, online resources for financial aid providers, and applications.

The website's 30­minute .:Career Interview Shows inform students about the steps to their career dreams by discussing the how­I­gothere­ from­there, "here" being in high school, "there" being their career. There's a LOT in between, but it looks like magic to many teens, and these career interviews' practical information makes the careers suddenly appear to be attainable, possible, and very exciting.

• Assess Early – Demonstrate your family value for the importance of selfknowledge and ongoing career exploration. What are the teen years but a journey to find out who we are, and aren't? Self­knowledge provides confirmation of that which is already known and self­confidence, opens up new ideas and opportunities, provides security about the future and actionable life directions to explore.

In their Freshman and Junior years teenagers should be tested with a battery of assessments like the Myers­Briggs, Strong Interest, Values Card Sort, ASVAB and any other testing available at their school. These tests provide education and career ideas based on personality, values, aptitude, interests, personality, and more. Testing will help identify weaknesses and learning disabilities, so that you can arrange tutoring or other help to give your teen every advantage for their future.

Check out .:MYCOOLCAREER.com's online Self­Assessments that teens can use for free or a low fee, other than the tests listed above.

Private Education Counselors & Career Counselors ­ If your teen's school does not have assessment capabilities, seriously consider hiring a Private Education Counselor and/or Career Counselor to help them better understand themselves, their interests, education and career options, choose the right classes for their future. Find out if the Counselor can administer assessment testing and start the testing in your teen's freshman high school year. Read these articles about the growing trend towards private counseling: .:1 and .:2. You can find Private Education Counselors through the websites at the .:Independent Education Counselor Association and .:National Association of College Admission Counseling.

An outside conversation with a Counselor, an adult trained who's not their parent, can be helpful for teens where communication between parents and their teenagers is difficult. Teens may be able, in this environment, to open up and express their dreams, fears and hopes about the future more easily.

• Buy a "Dream Book"! Keep a book like the FISKE GUIDE TO COLLEGES on the coffee table. It demonstrates your commitment and the family value of education, is very exciting to read, creates dreams for the future, and information about how to get there!

• .:Biographies – Help your teen learn more about their career ideas by providing them with biographies of people who have been successful in them. If you don't have one, get a library card for yourself and your teen from your local public library. Librarians are great resources for locating information about careers and biographies.

• Extracurricular Activities ­ Encourage your teen to participate in extracurricular activities at school and after school. The more different types of activities in which your teen participates, the better they will know themselves. Clubs and organizations provide places where teens can gain social and leadership skills, both important to their future. Organizations that focus on course of study interests help expose them to career ideas, develop more knowledge and skills, and make contacts that may be valuable in their futures.

• Get involved in your teen's school PTA or PTO ­ Find out what's going on and influence school activities. Help put together more Career Days or a Job Shadowing program.

• Get informed! .:See below on How Parents Can Get Informed.

Things Parents shouldn't do

• It's tricky. You probably have a good sense of your teen's strengths and weaknesses, and have some careers in mind that your teen could pursue. It is, in fact, as a parent, your job to guide your teen in the directions that you think are best for them. However, often what you and your teen think are the best directions don't jive. Be careful not to push your teen to fulfill your unrealized dreams.

• You are different from your teen and may not know their real dreams because to express them can make them vulnerable to criticism and disappointment.

• The truth is that your teen does want to know what you think (even if this is not obvious) and wants to please you. They especially want to hear what you think their strengths are. Your gifts to them are encouragement and support of their dreams, and removing barriers. You can remove barriers by helping them understand who they are (assessments by an outside party) and by exposing them to a wide variety of career ideas (information).

• Your teen, by learning about themselves and the education and career options that are available as a result, will be in a position to consider multiple career directions, with confidence. With this information in hand, don't worry, they'll do fine!

• Your teen, by exploring (an essential step to this process) a variety of career ideas before they graduate from high school, will be able to both, open up new career ideas that they wouldn't have thought of on their own, and narrow down an overwhelming list of options to ones that they can do and will enjoy. Exploration of career ideas helps teens find out if a career is a good fit for them, if it is as they thought would be – or not. Often, as a result of the exploration process, teens will change their direction to one they will like better. See the .:Explore and .:DIY pages.

• Encourage and respect your teen's dreams. If you've helped remove the barriers, it's up your teen to make their dreams happen.

How Parents Can Get informed

• TALK WITH YOUR TEEN'S SCHOOL COUNSELORS and, if applicable, private education counselor and career consultant ­ and make a plan.

• PARENTS' GUIDE TO MYCOOLCAREER.com ­ Utilize the plethora of easy­to­use information on the website. Use the PARENTS' GUIDE TO MYCOOLCAREER.com to get informed about your teen and their needs, about the .:3 Steps To A Cool Career, what .:careers are hot for the future, the different types of .:post­high school education, .:how majors translate to careers, and .:financial aid, and much more!

• CAREERPARENT Magazine ­ Sign up for terrific and timely online newsletters that keep you up­to­date with the latest information on how to help your teen discover and attain their dreams, provide pep talks and other resources. They're free, but invaluable• Sign up at Bridges.com's website at www.careerparent.com. The e­magazine comes in two flavors: for parents with teens 13­17 and those with teens 18 and older.

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SURF THROUGH THE MYCOOLCAREER.com WEBSITE (.:teens love it!)

Let your audience know about the easy to use online tools that both teens and parents can use. It all starts on the HOME PAGE:

New! ARCHIVED CAREER SHOWS! All previously recorded 30­ minute career interview shows are now up on the website for streaming MP3. Teens, high school school counselors and college career centers have been waiting, and now it's here.

Weekly Career Interview WEBCASTS – Teens can Request, topical and "Hot" future careers

GOT QUESTIONS and CoolNEWS gathered from a variety of news sources that's pertinent and relevant to the lives of teens and young adults.

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"HOT" CAREERS to 2010 and NEW CAREERS of the FUTURE!

The brave new workplace: Forensic Accountants, Genetic Counselors, and Fuel Cell Engineers!

Find out what the experts think about future job shortages, hot careers and industries, new careers to meet the demands of future, secure careers, most admired careers, and more!

On the .:EXPLORE (2nd of 3 steps) page in the right hand column, career information is gathered from sources like Fortune Magazine, US New & World Report, Smart Money magazine, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that project what careers they think will be "hot" in the future.

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