Educational and career aspirations

Investing in their own future.

Ideas for taking action Programs and activities

Helping your child make choices at the end of secondary school

Effective initiatives and tools to work on school motivation

Aspirations scolaires et professionnelles

A great source of motivation

Students whose professional and academic project is well defined easily find the motivation to persevere in their studies. The definition of a project is often linked to their perception of their own cognitive abilities (ability to learn, satisfaction towards their school results, considering themselves as intelligent as others, etc.), to their overall efforts, to their school history (successes and failures), and to their parents’ school accomplishments.

Why are we talking about this?

Academic and career aspirations (ACA) allow students to envision their future, which helps them find meaning in the efforts required for their academic success. ACA can help fuel motivation and contribute significantly to academic success (Martin et al., 2020).

Conversely, a student who lacks aspirations or is highly indecisive experiences a decline in this type of motivation and may be more prone to procrastinating on activities related to ASPs (Boulet et al., 2020).

The Source of Aspirations: I Want, Therefore I Can?

Parents’ social class, social network, and level of education—as well as their attitudes toward education and their ability to support their child—create an environment that plays a very important role in helping children achieve their aspirations (Marcoux-Moisan, 2015).

*Source (French only) : https://www.preca.ca/images/Upload/Outils/102/aspirations-sco_52136902__1_.pdf

Ideas for taking action

Ideas for effective actions regarding professional and academic aspirations

Parents play an important part in helping to develop their children’s academic aspirations, regardless of their socioeconomic situation. Their part probably has more to do with the clear messages they send their child on the importance of their studies, and words of encouragement they provide during their time in school.

1. Organize activities that help parents in their role in developing and encouraging their child to pursue their professional and academic aspirations, IN ORDER TO:

be a model for the child at home
identify the child’s aspirations more easily
promote school success, and keep their child motivated regarding school
promote the child’s success, especially in reading.

2. Organize mentoring activities and student/adult guidance opportunities, IN ORDER TO:

provide the child with positive role models
allow the child to talk about their concerns, and consider solutions that suit them
allow the child to receive encouragement from inside or outside their family
promote professional exploration, especially with students at risk of dropping out of school
explore career opportunities and their requirements.

3. Organize activities aimed at more vulnerable students, IN ORDER TO:

provide guidance to students who lack motivation regarding their school path
promote the creation of significant, positive relationships with adults in the school and in the community, as well as with their peers
make the student interested, and improve their skills, especially those related to school and their feeling of belonging in school.

Download the information sheet

Existing programs and activities

A legal expert hosts a workshop in your classroom (Éducaloi)

These free interactive and fun workshops to introduce children to the legal field are held during classroom hours and hosted by legal professional volunteers, everywhere in the province of Québec. Their objective is to bring children to think, to challenge their ideas and to develop their own opinion on legal questions that may have an impact on their lives.

Nine themes, from Secondary 1 to Secondary 5
Requests are processed according to the availability of legal professional volunteers.

More information about these workshops

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FIND YOUR PATH – School Staff Section

You’ll find useful resources to help guide students through vocational training, including games, activities, and all the information they need to answer their questions. Please note that the resources and links are available in French only.