Overview
As they build skills to advance their future careers, students need time and space to explore their options. While many are familiar with common professions like teachers, doctors, bus drivers, and store managers, they may not be aware of the vast array of other career opportunities available. This phase allows students to explore without committing to any major decisions, while building a foundation of knowledge that will benefit them throughout their lives. Once they’ve narrowed their interests, they can begin to explore the details of one or two potential career paths and set future goals accordingly.
Objectives:
Students should be able to:
- Define the terms “soft skills,” “hard skills,” and “transferable skills,” in relationship to careers;
- Describe the steps to career planning;
- Interpret data and information about career field growth;
- Compare the pros and cons involved in personal career decisions, and
- Research and evaluate careers based on a variety of criteria, including income, responsibilities, environment, skills, and personal interest.
Introductory Questions:
- How do you like to spend your free time?
- What are you good at? What do others tell you that you’re good at?
- What issues or topics do you care about?
- What work experiences have you had? What kind of work have you seen up close, like that of a family member?
Videos
Short videos help tap into multiple modes of learning and can provide a good introduction to or illustration of a topic. See suggested protocols for classroom viewing.
- How to Choose the Right Career Path in 7 Simple Steps (4:05)
Detailed overview of the process for finding a career path. Works best as a preview for a week’s focus or a unit since some of the seven steps are things students could reflect on and discuss now and some would take time to implement. - Three Questions to Unlock Your Authentic Career (9:51)
Introduction to the tension behind loving a subject and being good at different skills. Best used as an introduction to the topic of career paths, as students could reflect on and discuss immediately after viewing. - How to Choose a Career Path in High School (7:34)
Enumerates several reflective steps students can take to think about their talents, belief systems, and passions. Works as an overview as the video doesn’t go into the mechanisms for how to do all of the steps. - How to Prep for a Job (3:53)
Covers four steps to get a job: find what you’re good at, find mentors, work hard, and do research. Works best as an overview of steps for students to take independently for an assignment or project.
Readings
All readings should be paired with a structure or protocol, especially if any reading will be completed in class.
- Career Assessments Chapter
This chapter from the Modern Blueprint for College and Career Success OER textbook provides a variety of online assessments about careers, including the following embedded activities: O*Net Work Values, Via Character Strengths, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, RIASEC, and 21st Century Skills. - Career Research and Exploration
This chapter from the Modern Blueprint for College and Career Success OER textbook provides databases and embedded activities for career research, including a career research log, labor market research notes, and informational interviews. Goes in-depth on the purpose of, steps for, and etiquette of informational interviews. Continues with a discussion of the changing workplace, in terms of technology, freelance and gig work, diversity and inclusion, and generational divides. - Planning Your Degree Path
This chapter from the Modern Blueprint for College and Career Success OER textbook introduces types of degrees: Associate, Bachelor’s, and Graduate; majors and minors, and pre-professional programs.
Activities
Activities include individual or group tasks that can be completed in less than one class period; some activities may be repeated in a sequence and are re-listed here for ease of access.
Note: Some of the activities below are from Next Gen Personal Finance. To access the plans and activities, you can use the links below. To access the paired assessments, you’ll need to create an account with Next Gen Personal Finance. It’s free for instructors and takes 24-48 hours to be approved.
- Work Interests Quiz and Notes
Asks students to take a quiz, explore a database of careers, summarize a few, and then make conclusions about career possibilities based on what they found. - Work-Related Values Exercise
Asks students to evaluate which three values are most important to them and draw conclusions about career possibilities for themselves. Can be used as a lens to look at specific careers (ex: high school teacher vs. instructional designer for a technology company) within a field students are interested in (ex: education). - The World of Work Student Activity Packet
Explore career pathways, compare skill sets between jobs, and analyze the relationship between income, education, and employment. - Career Fit Student Activity Packet
Uses an interest assessment for career research and reflection. Covers career trajectories, the difference between hard and soft skills, and how certain skill sets can be valuable for a variety of careers. - Career Research and Planning Project
Assessment for career research and planning. Students research a career of interest and report on it: responsibilities, environment, requirements, salary, values, career growth, and career progress. Best preceded by activities about how to use career databases for research. - PROJECT: How Can I Get To My Dream Job?
Assessment for career research and planning; students analyze famous career paths and then plan their own. Best preceded by activities about how to use career databases for research. - Finding a Job Student Activity Packet
Covers different kinds of job boards, websites, and postings and how to closely read job postings; also recommends Linkedin and face-to-face networking to increase exposure. - Self-Employment Student Activity Packet
Covers vocabulary and modern examples of self-employment and assesses the advantages and disadvantages of self-employment. - COMPARE: Choosing Between Job Offers
Compare the different aspects of jobs – salary, responsibilities, reputation, location, security – and personally evaluate which fits needs and wants. - PROJECT: You Decide! Who Gets the Job?
Identify key skills in a job posting, evaluate candidates’ resumes and cover letters against those skills, and practice writing e-mails to accept and decline candidates. - INTERACTIVE: What is the Most Common Job in Each State?
Compare United States data with individual state data about most common jobs and analyze job availability in those industries.
Resources
- O*NET
Database of occupations, searchable by name, job duties, ability, interest, knowledge, skills, context, styles, and values - Career One Stop
Collection of short, informational videos about hundreds of careers. - Occupational Outlook Handbook
Database of careers, searchable by pay, fastest growing, most new jobs, field of degree, and occupational groups.
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