How do you help a teenager get ready for the future?
Hi, my name is Gennady Nikolaev.
I help families get from school to a profession as effectively as possible. There is one goal — to get the most out of a teenager's potential, and to have them learn along the way to genuinely enjoy growing, with their parents as support rather than as supervisors.
For about ten years I have worked with teenagers — from middle school through graduating university and their first steps in a profession. Below I want to share what that experience has taught me and show what I can be useful for.
People usually come to me when the teenager is 15 or 16: state exams and university admission are just ahead.
And the family tries to solve school by sheer volume — more hours, more tutors — while the returns stay flat.
So, what we do
We build a system around the teenager in which they study effectively and grow into an independent person. The work runs along three lines.
Studies
It is usually not about the number of lessons but about how the process is set up: done right, the same material is absorbed noticeably faster and still holds by the time of the exam.
Here we build a study rhythm and get the teenager used to sitting down to work and to handling information. I bring in specialists who teach them how to learn. We prioritise the subjects worth pushing hard on and keep the rest at the level they need to be.
Career trials
This part of the work is often the more important one: without it, studying keeps resting on outside control. We do not hand out ready answers like "go be a programmer" — we help the teenager work out for themselves what interests them and where to move. We try different directions in practice, see what fits, and carry at least one project through to the end — one they took on themselves. The point is not to pick a profession once and for all, it is to learn how to try things and make a choice deliberately. What comes out of it: the teenager has goals of their own and a first real experience of finishing something.
This line is run by a tutor — a specialist in building a teenager's independence.
The parent
At this age a lot comes down to how the adult behaves. When a parent controls everything and worries, the teenager reads that and hears themselves less well. So the third line of work is helping the parent move from the role of controller into the role of advisor and support. We go through real situations and hand over tools that work: where you can and should make demands, where to set boundaries and hold them, how to reach agreements with your child and keep them, which decisions to leave to the teenager. And we work with the anxiety itself.
What comes out of it: the parent has a clear role in the system and fewer clashes over school and daily life.
What I do
I understand well how motivation takes shape, and I know how to plan and organise. Those are the skills I use to build the system: for each line we pick specialists and arrange their work so that it all feeds the teenager's motivation.
Studies are covered by subject teachers and by specialists in techniques for working with information — and we arrange the teenager's routine so that studying feels comfortable. Career trials are covered by the tutor and by the trials themselves. For the parent there are short workshops where we gradually learn to communicate with a teenager effectively.
All of it usually takes four to six months. My job in that time is to assemble the team, get it working and step out.
Who runs the system after me
Once I step out, the system is held by the specialists I picked and brought into the work. Usually that is three roles.
The first runs the studies: grades in the subjects that matter, contact with the school, exam preparation.
The second works on independence: with the teenager, on their goals and trials.
The third supports the parent: helps build the role and work through difficult situations.
It is important to understand: these are not three people on permanent duty. One is brought in for a month, another for a couple of meetings, another for six months or a year. And they are all needed exactly as long as it takes for the teenager to become independent and stop needing them.
How we track the result
The work does not go on blind. At the start we take a reading on all three lines: where the teenager stands on studies, where they stand on independence, what is happening with the parent's role. After that we check in roughly every two months: what has moved, what is stuck, what to adjust in the approach. Towards the end we go through the same points and look at what has changed.
Studies: grades in the subjects that matter have gone up, and the teenager organises their own studying.
Independence: goals of their own have appeared, and there is a first project of their own carried through to the end.
The parent: a clear role in the system, fewer clashes at home.
That is exactly my exit point: there is a result on all three lines and the system runs on its own. And the parent interacts with their child effectively.
The development plan
Inside the project we put together a plan the family then lives by on its own. It is built from the general to the specific: first a picture of the future — where the teenager wants to be in five or ten years — then a goal for the next couple of years: a direction, a university place. Then the next steps over a few months, six months, a year. That way the distant goal does not hang in the air but is broken down into clear actions.
Separately we hand over tools for reviewing and rebuilding the plan: the teenager grows, their interests sharpen, and the plan changes along with them instead of going stale.
Money
Here is how it works. My work is €1,250 / $1,400 a month for the duration of the project. On top of that we budget €600–1,250 / $700–1,400 a month for specialists while we are assembling and tuning the system. After I step out, the system costs roughly €1,000–1,250 / $1,100–1,400 a month paid directly to the specialists, already without me.
If you have questions, write to me and we will start the conversation. We can get on a call for half an hour and get to know each other.
Either way, we will discuss your situation before starting — the work begins with a conversation, not with a payment.