Konnie Huq on how talking to teens about their future is vital

The former Blue Peter presenter is backing national campaign, Talking Futures, which helps parents give career advice to their kids. By Lisa Salmon.

Mum-of-two, Konnie Huq, believes it’s important to have career conversations with teens (Alamy/PA)

An economics degree from the University of Cambridge isn’t the most necessary qualification to work as a Blue Peter presenter, but having such a feather in her cap never did Konnie Huq any harm.

Despite having no idea of which career she wanted to pursue when she was at school, and having diverse passions for both sciences and performing arts, after finishing her degree, Huq landed a job presenting the iconic children’s TV show and eventually became its longest-serving female presenter.

“When I was taking my GCSEs, I had no clue, really, about what I wanted to do,” she recalls. “And even my degree choice was sort of ‘eeny, meeny, miny, moe’ – I’d done all science A-levels, and I didn’t want to go into sciences as a career, so I just chose to do economics. I’d never done economics before, I didn’t really even know what economics was!”

Huq now has two children of her own – Covey, who’s nearly 12, and Huxley, 10 – with the writer and TV presenter Charlie Brooker, and the kids are fast approaching the time when they’ll need to start thinking about what subjects they really enjoy at school, and if there’s any career paths they might like to follow.

It’s for that reason, and the fact that she could’ve done with some help navigating her own educational choices, that Huq, 48, has teamed up with another former Blue Peter presenter, Simon Thomas, to back Talking Futures, a national campaign and online resource that helps parents talk to teenagers about their future education and career options.

“A resource like this could have been such a helpful tool for when me and my peers were growing up,” Huq reflects.

“Basically, the campaign is all about talking to your young people about what it is they want to do in the future and what paths they want to go down. I’ve found from talking to my parental peers that lots of people aren’t actually aware of all the new education options available to children growing up – there’s so much more than when we were young, because we’re living in a different world, essentially.”

Huq explains that the Talking Futures website offers support to parents, and there’s a chatbot that tailors advice to each child’s unique circumstances.

“It just helps you to navigate what will suit them, because these secondary school years are pivotal to getting them on the right path to what they want to do after school and beyond,” she says. “Often, your whole life can go down a different pathway because you might not have realised something that was available to you. So it’s really, really important to have these conversations.”

And Thomas, who now hosts Sky Sports Soccer Saturday, says: “Having a 14-year-old myself, I fully understand the struggles in engaging teens in conversations around their futures.

“It’s important for parents to get into the habit of having career conversations regularly, and it’s something that I broach with my son fairly often. Time flies, and it’s good to know what your kids are thinking early on – you don’t necessarily have to define a certain pathway, but explore the various possibilities so they know what’s out there.”

Research for the campaign – which is run by the charitable careers and education organisation, the Gatsby Foundation, found seven in 10 parents have noticed a significant difference in the careers available to their children compared to when they were growing up, with almost half (47%) admitting it can be difficult to support their children’s education and career decisions as a result.

And 64% of the parents questioned said they find it easier to have tricky discussions with their teenagers when they’re occupied with another activity like cooking or baking (52%) or walking the dog (39%).

So as part of the campaign, Huq and Thomas have made a series of ‘Earn Your Badge’ films in which they tackle well-known Blue Peter tasks, like the creation of Tracy Island, while sharing guidance on topics like career pathways.

“It’s trying to encourage parents to do something with their kids,” explains Huq. “Often, when you’re chatting with them face-to-face, it can feel like you’re lecturing them or telling them off, whereas if you’re doing an activity with your child, sometimes it can be disarming and it can be much more organic and natural to bring up a conversation.”

The bottom line, she says, is that parents just want their kids to be happy, and choosing the right career path is a major part of that. “I want my kids to be happy – that’s all we want for our kids,” she stresses.

“But they might think ‘I’m going to be happy being unemployed, just gaming all day on my computer and eating McDonald’s’. So it’s a balance, isn’t it? You don’t want to force them into something they don’t want to do, but similarly, you don’t want to be irresponsible and let them have free rein to a point where actually it won’t be good in the long-run.

“If you can be in a job you enjoy, then you’re winning, because all we want to do really in life is to be happy. And if you’re not happy at work, that constitutes a lot of your life as a grown-up, so it’s very valuable for mental wellbeing.”

She stresses that because parents know their children better than anybody, they can help steer them to what makes them happy, because often young people have no idea what they want to do in life.

She adds: “Your child’s future, it’s massive, but most people don’t even know what’s open to them. You know about GCSEs and then some do A-levels and some get a job. But it doesn’t have to be those pathways – there’s so many different options available.

“It’s such a common thing for a child not know what to do next, and as parents, we have a share in the responsibility for helping them go down the right pathway.”

Konnie Huq and Simon Thomas are supporting the Talking Futures  campaign to help parents talk to 11-18-year-olds about their future education and career options.