Youth coaching: Helping young people make future choices

Life coaching with young people can provide a supportive space for young people to explore their thoughts with a professional who is there to listen, without the expectations that can sometimes influence conversations about their future.

A common question from others is ‘what can life coaching do for young people?’ Young people may explore a variety of topics through coaching, including:

• Confidence
• Stress management
• Making choices about their future
• Relationships

A common topic that can really help with a young person’s development is career and further education coaching: a career path after GCSEs or deciding whether further education is for them. It’s recognised that it’s vitally important for young people to develop an understanding of their own identity, what they really want to do – not what is expected of them by others.

Young people can often be heard to say phrases like ‘I should’ or ‘Everyone expects me to’ rather than ‘I really want to’ or ‘It is really important to me’. Life coaching can give a young person space to explore these expectations and consider the opportunities available to them.

Theories of adolescent development in the late teens (key stage 4 & 5) explore the importance of identity formation. These theories consider how identity can develop during adolescence, including the role of understanding one's values, beliefs, and interests in making choices about the future.

There are two well-known theories:

• Erikson's theory of development
• Marcia’s Life Stages

Common to both theories is the importance of giving young people opportunities to explore what is important to them and what makes them ‘tick’. To enable this to happen in a healthy way, young people need the opportunity to explore what they might want for their future.

It is possible that adolescents can feel pushed towards a particular career direction, believe they have limited choices or simply not have had the opportunity to fully explore the decision, as outlined in Marcia’s Life Stages (1966; 1993).

Giving young people opportunities to explore their interests, values and options can help them make choices that feel more considered and personally meaningful.

Therefore, from a coaching perspective, three things can be particularly useful when helping young people think about their future:

• Developing a clear understanding of self (talents, strengths, beliefs, values)
• Exploration of a range of options available to them (e.g. further study, apprenticeships, entrepreneurial, gap year, volunteering)
• Making a plan with their dreams at the heart of it, that is both realistic and exciting.

Bringing these elements together can help young people feel more informed, motivated and involved in the choices they make about their future.