Courses for teenagers - why are they popular? Comments from a psychotherapist...

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However, it is much easier to cope with it if you already have an idea of ​​‎‎what you want to be when you grow up.‎ Courses for teenagers are designed for this.


Why have they become so popular?

The current generation of teenagers is distinguished by their focus on their future. Information has begun to spread faster, they see examples of creative children and know that all roads are open to them. You just need to choose your own.

Due to the fact that school knowledge is very fragmented, many families have to look for tutors to help the child systematize it. Additional courses for teenagers in a certain direction also come to the rescue, where grades will not be so important, but interest and diligence are very important.


Why the IT sphere?

We live in a world where the real universe is literally transferred to the virtual one. Working with technology is a guarantee of the profession being in demand in the future, a stable high income and various specializations: technical, creative, managerial.

TeachMeSkills has 5 areas at once that teenagers from 14 to 17 years old can master:

Front End Developer
Python developer
UX/UI design
Game Development on Unity
3D modeling

And to better understand what place educational courses play in the life of a teenager and his parents, we talked to psychotherapist Anastasia Rublevskaya.

- Adolescence is called difficult. Why is taking courses a good step, and not an extra burden on the child?

- Adolescence is most often called difficult by parents of teenagers. Because they observe the transformation of how their child becomes an adult - and this transformation is frightening and surprising at the same time.


- So why is taking courses a good step at this difficult age?

- Courses first of all cover one very important social media marketing service need at this age - finding yourself and your profession. Who do I want to be in my life?

This is a kind of training camp for adult life, where everything is like an adult, where you need to be able to make decisions, be able to negotiate, resolve conflicts, be able to express yourself, be able to convince and defend your point of view, etc. This is a legal way to show your adulthood and autonomy from your parents. After all, courses offer the opportunity to get a real profession and go earn money.

Parents are concerned about the huge burden that teenagers have at this time: school, exams, etc. If we proceed from the interest in what the child will do, it will not be as big a burden for him as parents imagine. Interest always wins. The advantage is the plasticity of the nervous system, when a huge amount of information is received and processed.


- And what about communication? Many teenagers found friends in elementary school, in the yard, will it be comfortable in a new team? And what is the role of a mentor here?

- Of course, many teenagers come with their own formed social circle. But this does not mean that they are not interested in making new connections. Quite the opposite. Because at this age, the question of finding yourself and your place in this world is actively raised. New acquaintances easily close this issue.

It is important to find your place in the "pack" \ "crowd", your circle of interests, so that later you can meet more than once and discuss all the newest and most interesting things in the area they have chosen. Remember yourself as a teenager: we found our company, and maybe even more than one, and we spent a lot of time communicating on the topics that interested us.

Therefore, the group that will be created during training at an IT school is the group that can actively influence the formation of a new personality due to the expansion of horizons and great interest.



-The main task of the mentor is to monitor the process, “not to show off” and to give a lot of group tasks. It is also desirable for the mentor to speak the same language with the teenagers and from the position of equals, and not from above. That is, no lectures or advice. It is very important not to forget about discussing what the children have done in the group. Discussions will have a qualitative effect on the dynamics and microclimate of the group.

The main task of group work and dynamics is to teach oneself to express oneself and learn high-quality communication.


- What place should parents occupy here? How can they help decide on courses, should they monitor their completion? What can they do to morally support their children? For example, when something does not work out.

- The role of parents is incredibly simple and complex at the same time: to be there and support your child and their choice.

It is very important for parents not to put pressure on the teenager and their decision, but to give them freedom of choice. Nothing gives a teenager more confidence and strength that they can cope than knowing that their parents are on their side and that they have freedom of choice.

If we talk about recommendations for parents: we discuss, we suggest, but we do not insist. When we discuss the pros and cons, when we discuss their interests with the child, when we offer, based on our experience, some ideas and other options, but we accept the child's decision and support them in this decision.


- Should parents control the course completion?

- The answer is clear - no. Let's figure it out.

If a child makes a choice in favor of studying, then the responsibility for attending it also lies with them. This is another element of adult life - made a decision, accept the consequences. We give the teenager the right to choose and they decide for themselves how interesting and important it is for them.

The only thing I would talk about with the child is that they should honestly come and admit that they may not be happy with everything or not be interested at all. Because parents are financially responsible for the learning process, and no one wants to pay money in vain.

"You have the right to stop studying, just be honest with us and with yourself about this."

Moral support for children. The difficulty is to find the right words that will suit your child.

What we do: listen, give feedback and provide the support that the child asks for. It is both easy and difficult at the same time.

It is difficult to cope with emotions in the moment, it is unusual to ask the child how to help/support him. We support in the way that will be most effective for him.

Moral support in adolescence is that children should know that they have parents and they can come to them with any questions, that their parents are their rear, that they are not ashamed to turn to their parents with different feelings that they are experiencing. And most importantly, they know that they will not be rejected, and that there is always a place and time for them. That they are still important and needed and, of course, loved.

The key to everything is to just be there. Both when it is good and when it is not so. And the right words will always be found. This is exactly what the parents of Egor, one of the students of the Python developer course


for teenagers at TeachMeSkills, did : "... they supported me. They often gave me the opportunity to try myself in something. And when your own child develops in different areas, it is always a plus for parents, isn't it? I even thought about transferring to another specialty related to IT, but it did not work out. The academic difference is too big... I study, I repeat, I constantly watch some videos, I do coding, I flip through notes. It is more difficult for me than in courses, but thanks to my previous experience I already know how to organize myself, how the study plan should be built."