High school and college-aged students are often expected to make major decisions about their lives even though they’re just getting to know themselves and the things that interest them both. As a teacher, guidance counselor or parent, you have a lot of influence over a young person seeking advice about her future career. Guide a student to a career path full of opportunities, and his future will prove a bright one.

Direct Them to Training

Find a field that offers job security, is always in need of new workers and capitalizes on talented workers, like construction, and look into information about training programs. Direct the student to training information like you’ll find here: http://www.letsbuildmontana.com/training/. You’ll find both one- to two-year and four-year programs available, as well as apprenticeships.

Ask Them to Think Outside of the Box

Going to a liberal arts college seems to be the default for most young adults, even though tuition is more expensive than ever and the job market is flooded with people with liberal arts degrees. Ask your student to look into hands-on jobs for which he might be suited, like construction, carpentry, technician work and more. States often have initiatives to hire more people for blue collar work, so your student is likely to spend less on schooling and training and earn more by the time she starts work than her peers attending liberal arts colleges.

Look Into Internships Instead of Summer Jobs

A lot of young adults want summer jobs to earn some money between semesters. Instead of flipping burgers in a job that doesn’t mean much to her future career path, she should look into paid apprenticeships for jobs that interest her. Apprenticeships look stellar on any resume, and unlike internships, they usually pay for the student’s time. Some career paths even require a year or two of apprenticeship before a worker can become a full-time specialist on his own. Apprenticeships are the perfect opportunity for the young adult who’s unsure about his career path to get a feel for a diverse selection of careers.

One of the best things about pursuing a job in a field like construction is that training involves hands-on experience so a student can get a feel for the job. If she discovers it’s not for her or there’s something else – like engineering or electrician work, for example – she prefers, she won’t have wasted four to eight years in a liberal arts college program.