Preparing your Homeschooler for the Workplace
- sstinson46
- Jul 19
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 26
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We live in a terrible time, when adults are regularly making careless mistakes in doing their jobs, where we may purchase low quality products and services and have to deal with the consequences, or when we experience delays and waste money and time when the things we buy do not work as expected. In many cases these are simply inconveniences: but in others, the problems can be very serious, such as an oil drilling rig dumping millions of gallons of oil into the ocean, multiple planes crashing, or the cause of a massive factory explosion. Most of these problems (and others) are the result of a lack of the application of workplace skills and could have been easily prevented.
However, learning workplace skills should not begin on day-one of you first job (or worse, day 10, 20, 30, or never). As a homeschooler you can begin teaching your teenager workplace skills today, so that they won't be that engineer who caused a nuclear disaster or that doctor that amputated the wrong leg of a person, or or even your local postal worker who regularly puts the wrong mail in the wrong box. You can and should teach your teenager workplace skills and ethics, starting today.
Why Teach Workplace Skills?
Obviously, you don't want your young adult to be responsible for some kind of horrible disaster, but by teaching workplace ethics to your teenager you can set up them so that:
They are able to do the work that they are responsible for doing.
They can get a job and keep it.
They can be successful in their job, their career, and ultimately, their life.
However, you can't assume that your teen or soon-to-be young adult is going to be able to just figure things out when they get their first job. The truth of the matter is that public schools are no longer teaching professional skills, employers are really not training their employees (even at an entry level), and if you, as parent, don't teach your child, no one will. The result is that your teen or young adult will have to workplace ethics the hard way through making mistakes on the job, even if they fail or harm themselves and their professional reputation in the process.
How does applying workplace skills lead to being successful in life?
Doing a job well leads to promotions, a higher salary, companies that succeed and grow, enabling them to hire more employers and resulting in a strong economy,
It leads to job satisfaction and integrity, so that you can say you've honestly done the job. When you do a half-ass job or leave incomplete work, it's basically stealing: you promised to do something for your employer, you have an agreement to do it, you've taken their money to do it, and then you didn't really do it completely.
You will develop skills that compound and add to each other, leading to successful career. To have a career (versus a job) you need to have multiple skills and have expertise in a broad area.
People will rely upon you for doing the job, which leads to more opportunities and greater levels of success. For example, you won't ever make any money taking orders at the drive thru window at a Taco Bell, but what if you were the manager of a Taco Bell? What if you were general manager of two or three Taco-Bells?
What kind of workplace skills are important in any job?
Time management: Responding in a timely manner to tasks that need to be done and prioritizing. Taking initiative on responsibilities, not dawdling, being on time for appointments and responding to emails and phone calls in a timely manner. Your teen should be comfortable managing their calendar.
Manners that go beyond saying "please" and "thank you". Saying "please" and "thank you" are the absolute minimum.
Good grammar skills. They will need to read and write in a dignified, professional manner, free of errors on a regular basis.
Conducting one self appropriately for the job, based upon what is needed to provide a service or produce a product for the customer. Your teen needs to have good phone etiquette. They must be able to speak professionally and have good body language and eye contact. Your teen must know how to regulate their emotions and handle conflicts appropriately. They should also know not to engage in any legally prohibited speech and behaviors. They should be able to follow directions.
Handling financial matters, such as setting up your benefits, paying taxes, saving for retirement, negotiating a salary, etc. Dave Ramsey is a great resource for teaching financial literacy. https://www.ramseysolutions.com
Ensuring that you have the skills to do the job well enough so that the work is successful, and figuring out how to gain those skills if needed. Your teen should have a teachable spirit (being able to learn).
Dressing professionally for the job: This includes wearing interview attire to interviews, wearing appropriate footwear for their job and adhering to the company dress code (implied or otherwise). Your teen should know how to dress professionally in a casual way if there is a relaxed dress code. Your teen should have good hygiene, work appropriate makeup and have their hair clean and professionally styled. Nails should be clean and the appropriate length and color.
Taking care of their belongings: They need to learn to be good stewards of their things so they don't get damaged or lost; however in the workplace, your homeschooler may need to be trusted with items such as tools, their company issued uniform or the company vehicle.
The art of small talk: Interacting with others in an appropriate, lighthearted way is an important life skill. Your teen should know to stay clear of gossip, rudeness, interrupting the other person or complaining.
Networking skills: sometimes who you know is more important than what you know. Teens should learn to be careful about who they ghost or the bridges they burn as they may interact with that person in the future. Your teen needs to have confidence and a professional conduct when interacting with strangers (with safety boundaries). They need this skill in their job and to advance themselves in their career. Screening calls could result in a missed opportunity. They should be comfortable managing an "address book" system to maintain their professional and personal contacts outside of social media or their phone contact list.
Boundaries: Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Your teen should also know how to protect themselves in the case their co-workers cross boundaries while at work (CYA).
Protecting their Internet footprint: Anything that is said by or about your teen online is permanent. Not everything needs be commented or shared. Parents, you can help set your teen up for success by refraining from posting your child's personal business and photos online. They do not need their tantrums, embarrassing toddler antics or tic tock pranks posted all over the internet. Even something you deem as innocent, can have lasting permanent harm to your child's future.
Click to see our article about screen free boundaries in an overly digital world.
This quote is about having good boundaries, discernment and accountability. Just because your job (or town, dance school, chess club etc.) does not have laws prohibiting a certain behavior, that doesn't mean you should engage in it.
What will happen if we teach our children workplace skills?
It is our responsibility as parents to prepare our children to be successful in life. Many of the skills listed above are important life skills that are useful outside of the workplace and can be taught in age appropriate ways before your homeschooler becomes a teen in the workforce.
By teaching your teenager how to be successful at work, not only can you ensure that they will have the possibility to succeed, but we can transform our society from the bottom-up. And in doing this, we can enable everyone to succeed: financially and economically, and we can enjoy a more productive world where we have access to the things we need at a low cost. By setting an example and leading in practicing workplace ethics and skills, we enable ourselves and everyone around us to go much further than just having a "job" that pays today's expenses.
Conversely, if we don't practice workplace skills and ethics, the opposite can be true: if even one rower on a rowing team doesn't pull their own weight, the team will lose the race. And in an increasingly complex technology-based society, it takes a team of people with a variety of different disciplines to build a successful business. We don't want our jobs to go overseas, but that's what happens when a business owner realizes that it costs too much or is too difficult to get a workforce to do basic things in a timely manner. We all want to be well-off and able to buy the things that we like, but that won't happen if everything costs more than it should. When the team succeeds, we all succeed!
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