|
Career
Exploration
Overview:
This
is a two-week unit plan designed to increase the awareness of the number
and assortment of career opportunities.
Students will have practical career exploration activities that
will introduce them to community resources—people, places, and agencies
that offer career guidance. Students discover employment outlooks and
trends, take an interest/aptitude test, and visit a site of employment.
In addition, students will learn how individual values affect
career decisions.
Objectives:
To
facilitate career awareness of the great number of career opportunities
and help students identify and explore career interests. Throughout the
unit students will strengthen their interviewing and observation skills as
well as critical thinking and observation techniques.
The lessons in this unit will help students with their career
decisions and their steps to answer the question:
“What do I want to be when I grow up?”
Resources/Materials:
-
Access
to Computers
-
Large
Post-it Notes, or Sheets of Paper
-
Markers
-
Telephone
Book or Local Employment Database from School to Work Coordinator
-
School
Interest Inventory Tests or Interest/Aptitude Software Programs that
helps pinpoint career interests.
Examples: Career
Scope, Career Guidance Inventory, CIS
Teaching/Learning Activities:
How
Many Jobs Are There? Students learn about
how many jobs there are and become familiar with Occupational Clusters.
Students learn about careers in Health, Business & Management, Natural
Resources, Human Resources, and Arts & Communication, Industrial &
Engineering.
A
Connected
Economy. Students
also learn about the interrelatedness of jobs and the people who do them.
Where
the Jobs Are. Students learn bout the
resources available to help them with job search and making informed
career decisions. Or, have a
guest speaker come into the classroom to speak about employment trends,
and the labor market.
Work
Values. Students identify work place
values. Students research
their personal values and how this affects work decisions.
Career
Decisions: Self-Assessment.
Students take a career
interest inventory and aptitude assessment to help determine career
interests.
Selecting
a Career Exploration Site. Students select a place where
they would like to go and conduct their informational interview based on
their career interests.
Get
Ready, Get Set….
Students
prepare for their on-site career interviews.
Informational
Interview. Student
site visitations.
Presentation
Planning. Write thank you letters
to their informational interview contact person.
Begin developing a presentation to deliver to the class.
Student
Presentations. Students give a presentation
for evaluation.
|