Parents invite kids to their work

• Source: Global Times
• [08:57 August 06 2010]
• Comments

By Huang Shaojie

More than 2,000 parents will celebrate the city's first take kids to work day next Friday.

During a one-day trip to their parents' workplace, pre-school and primary school children will observe what adults do for a living said the organizer.

"Many young men and women are talented and ambitious," said Ren Jun, director of the Idiil Learning Center, "but they need more job-related knowledge and skills."

The day provides an opportunity for children between 5 and 12 to learn about jobs by watching their parents and talking with adults about work, Ren said. It might help them figure out what they want to do when they grow up, he believed.

Ren was heading for work on June 1 when his kindergarten-age son said, "I want to go to work with you, Dad." There came the idea, Ren said. Children could go to work to see what their parents do for a living.

"This is also a parent-kid bonding time when the adults' world opens up more to the little ones," he said.

Ren believed it would be a good educational opportunity despite all the possible negative things that adults do but don't want their children to learn: like office politics or the fact that smoking isn't banned in workplaces in Beijing.

"You can't shield your children from reality," he said, "but you must teach them about it."

A learning center that promotes early career education and self-learning abilities for children, Idiil began to promote and publicize the kids' day last week, explained marketing manager Lü Guogang. They supplied a study pack for kids to complete on the trip.

The pack asks children to identify various jobs they are familiar with, learn to recognize signs often seen in a workplace, interview coworkers of their parents and observe a meeting.

"What was your dream when you grew up and what is your dream now?", "What does it take to do your job?" and "Could I apply for your position?" are some of the interview questions suggested.

"I think my daughter would love to come and see me," said a mother of a 6-year-old from an education agency who gave her family name as Dong.

"She doesn't know much about what my husband or I do. I just hope she won't get too inquisitive as to become a distraction for my colleagues."

The idea of taking kids to work could work for all kinds of jobs, Ren said.

The first take kids to work day, a concept Ren has borrowed from the United States where he worked, will involve a broad range of industries, according to updates on the website of the event (takekidstowork.com): There are corporations like Google China, law firms, insurance companies and government agencies such as the ministries of railway transportation and agriculture.

Companies are encouraged to create a friendly, safe environment for children. But children ought to have freedom to explore on their own, Ren said.

Idiil operates three learning centers in Haidian district, providing individual tutoring for children from pre-school to secondary levels, Lü said.