Career Ideas: Getting Students Enthusiastic About Career Planning
Figuring out what you want to do for the rest of your life is not a quick process. Over your childhood, young adulthood, and even early adulthood, you will explore many different career ideas and learn what types of skills you enjoy implementing. One of the most important aspects of career exploration is ensuring that opportunities are built into a young person’s education to brainstorm possible career pathways and explore how they can implement their passions into a career plan. If you’re an educator, parent, or have young people in your life, there are many different ways you can implement career exploration into learning and development.
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Career Exploration 101
Regarding career exploration, you should implement two major components in the process. The first of these is exploring a student’s individual and unique passions and strengths. This exploration includes what school subjects a young person enjoys and excels in, what hobbies and activities they enjoy, and what activities give them satisfaction.
The next aspect of career exploration includes learning about different subjects and occupations that exist in the world. Learning more about a field of employment includes understanding working conditions, salary, qualifications, educational requirements, and how different careers are interconnected. An example of this last concept is how a tech company includes marketing employees, salespeople, tech developers, and project managers.
How Career Exploration Can Help Students
One of the most valuable parts of career exploration for young people is learning how to research, outline achievable goals, and make connections. Students learn how to develop action plans for themselves and work towards long-term aspirations with small steps. This long-term goal planning is crucial for many aspects of life, from purchasing a home to mastering a skill. Big goals require realistic pathways, and career planning helps young people figure out how to do their research and plan for the future.
Tools for Career Exploration
Luckily, many different tools are available to get a young person thinking about different career paths. These range from personality tests online, to freely available career exploration lesson plans, to programs facilitated by non-profits like the Boys & Girls Club, where career experts can deliver workshops in the classroom or over the internet. If you’re looking to encourage career exploration with young people, make sure you take the time to do some research yourself to find tools that might be a good fit.
Implementing Career Exploration in Schools
One of the best ways to begin career exploration is by making sure you have some age-appropriate resources and materials to encourage this learning and planning. Below are some ideas for activities broken down into different age categories.
Elementary School
Children are ready to learn about all the different jobs that might exist in the world starting in elementary school. This learning can be facilitated by having community members discuss the different jobs they have with young people and even using educational games like ‘Career Town’ to help them explore different possibilities. Ask young people to explore what makes them excited through projects and arts-based activities and encourage questions about jobs on field trips to places like theatres, science centers, museums, and zoos.
Middle School
Middle school age is a very important time for career exploration. In middle school, students are old enough to be more self-aware of their skill set and are planning their educational future for high school. Getting students to brainstorm possible careers they find exciting and list out pathways to get there, such as through educational goals, is a great way to introduce action planning for the future.
High School
During high school, young people will have a deeper understanding of their interests. They become aware of many jobs, such as working in human resources or forensic science, for example, that are off the beaten path. It is also a great time to challenge any misconceptions or biases they have around trade or apprenticeship programs. The high school era of career exploration involves digging deeper into some broad areas of interest or schools and exploring all of the different possibilities that fall under that umbrella. For example, if you like taking things apart and building things, your pathway could involve anything from an engineer to an architect to an electrician.
Regardless of a young person’s age, there are tons of opportunities that exist out there for them to learn, explore, and find the perfect job for their future!