The learning activities have been written as stand-alone lesson plans. If you are teaching a career development
class, you may want to use selected units in an order that supports the educational planning process. Below we
have suggested a sequence of activities that will accomplish many of the learning objectives of a career
education class. In some cases, we have listed options. The red highlights indicate the focus you will want to
use in presenting the unit to create a smooth transition.
Suggested Activities for an 18-week Career Class
(approximately 54 class sessions of 50 minutes)
Self Knowledge
1
Learning about Ourselves
1 session
2
A Piece of the Puzzle
1 session
3
The Party
2 sessions
4
Skills Match
3 sessions
Students identify their own and one another's unique and shared
characteristics. They give and receive positive peer feedback.
Sets tone for course - self-exploration, involvement,
individualized
Students put together a puzzle containing words that relate to
career self-knowledge, such as interests, values, and skills. When
the puzzle is completed, they discuss reasons for considering all
these factors when making career and educational choices.
Following this, they take the IDEAS (TM) Assessment.
Introduces career assessment, particularly formal
instruments. If your site does not license IDEAS, skip those
steps and/or use an instrument you have.
Students participate in interview groups to determine one another's
three-letter Holland codes.
Introduces informal career assessment, in this case a tool that
acquaints students with the Holland codes.
Students complete the SKILLS self-assessment worksheet and
enter their results into the SKILLS self-assessment in CIS. They
print copies of their SKILLS information.
Completes the initial self knowledge activities with the SKILLS
component of CIS.
Research
5
Rainbow of Roles
2 sessions
6
Occupations for Terry
1 session
7
Comparing Resources
OR
Television Jobs Match
3 sessions
Students use career concepts, interviews, and CIS Occupations
information to understand that career development is a continuous
process that is unique to each person's lifestyle and life role.
Introduces some tools of research while stressing the
individual nature of career planning.
Students demonstrate attitudes, behaviors, and skills that may
contribute to gender bias and stereotyping by reviewing a fictional
student's profile and recommending occupations.
Asks students to look at their own possible gender barriers
before researching occupational categories for themselves.
Students will research occupations of choice using different career
information resources. Students will complete worksheets
analyzing how well the resources met their criteria. Students will
"sell" their resource to the rest of the class, and the class will select
their "resource of choice."
Students complete an activity matching television characters with
their occupations. They then list some of a selected character’s
duties and responsibilities, based on what they see on television.
Following this, students use CIS Occupations, CIS Military
Employment, and other resources to obtain current and accurate
occupation descriptions. They write a brief paper comparing and
contrasting the information obtained from different sources.
Introduces students to the types of resources and topics of
information available to them.
8
Experts Tell All
5 sessions
Students research occupational information and make group
presentations using media-style interviews, panel presentations or
another format specified by the teacher.
Provides opportunity for broad exploration of a variety of
fields through the class presentations. Could be done in
conjunction with informational interviews or job shadows.
Decision-Making
9
Work, Family, and Lifestyle
3 sessions
10
Bobilator 2
OR
11
Getting What I Want
OR
Introducing Career Focus
1 - 2 sessions
12
Prospective Hindsight
1 session
Students learn about different theories (models) of work, family and
lifestyles. Working groups, formed around each of the three
models, research and defend their model. Class discussions focus
on how individual perspectives on the roles of work and family
affect lifestyles, thus learning that careers influence lifestyles.
Opens the decision-making units with a view of some of the
important influences in one's career choices.
Students rank six occupation titles (fictional titles; real occupations)
having no information about the occupation. They discuss the need
for additional data. Pieces of information are given, and the
students rank the titles again with each new information set. After
learning the actual occupation titles and discussing the impact of
current decisions on future choices, students complete an analysis
of what they learned from the activity.
Students use Career Focus to determine which labor market
characteristics are important to them and to learn how their career
preferences are influenced by the nature of an occupation.
Students use Career Focus to determine which labor market
characteristics are important to them and learn how characteristics
influence career goals.
Provides an opportunity to look at the labor market in relation
to personal preferences.
Students use forecast and hindsight as two decision-making
methods to develop possibilities for their future. Students gain a
greater understanding of the continuous changes in male or female
roles.
Introduces two decision-making methods for students to use
in considering their career goals.
Educational Planning
13
14
15
Relating Education to Careers
Students research knowledge, skills and abilities, and preparation
required for five occupations from their SKILLS Top 30
Occupations list. They identify recommended high school classes
2 sessions
and create diagrams to portray how their school classes contribute
to preparation for each career.
Returning to their SKILLS results, or any other occupation list,
asks students to look carefully at the connection between their
career options and high school classes.
16 Keys to Self-Employment
Students review CIS Self-Employment, take the Interactive CIS
Entrepreneurial Career Assessment, and then interview someone
who is self-employed. They write a report summarizing specific
4 sessions
characteristics necessary for successful self-employment and
include a personal statement reflecting whether or not they see
self-employment in their future.
Considers if self-employment is a career option and provides
opportunity to link educational plans to the skills required.
Know What You Want . . . or You Students develop and use a decision-making grid for selecting
May Get What You Don't
postsecondary schools.
Teaches the use of spreadsheets to evaluate options using
criteria set by the students.
1 session
16
Managing Resources
2 sessions
Students discuss relocation and living on their own in relation to
going to school or finding a job. Students compare budgets (income
and expenses) for at least three postsecondary education options
over the period it would take them to complete the programs. They
also prepare a budget for living on their own after completion of
their education or training. A discussion is held on the long-term
advantages of completing a postsecondary program versus not
completing one.
Has students look at the costs and outcomes of
postsecondary educational options. Consider using Financial
Aid Sort (including tutorial) after this lesson.
Job Search
17
Where Do I Go from Here?
3 sessions
18
Presenting Yourself Well on
Paper
3 sessions
19
Presenting Yourself in Person
4 sessions
20
Positive Interactions
Students use a variety of resources to find information about job
opportunities. Student groups report their findings to the class. A
panel of guest speakers from employment services, the military,
and college career/counseling services speak to the class
describing their services to culminate the activity.
Overviews job search skills and resources.
Students research and practice skills for completing applications
and resumes. Students learn the different types of resume formats,
the advantages and disadvantages of each, and develop a resume
of their own using the resume content and style studied.
Teaches resume writing.
Students learn and practice proper interviewing behaviors.
Students work in groups to conduct and record mock interviews
using a video recorder. Review of recorded interviews help
students learn and practice proper interview behaviors and style.
Develops interview skills and behaviors.
Students work in groups to role-play employer-employee conflict
situations. They give feedback on other groups' presentations.
OR
The Fishbowl
2 sessions
Students role-play an on-the-job conflict while being observed and
videotaped. They discuss their own and others' behavior in these
role-plays.
Provides practice in job-keeping skills.
Evaluation & Management
21
Lifelong Learning and Change
2 sessions
22
Designing Me
5 sessions
Students hypothesize how their own lifelong learning plan might
look by comparing occupations and educational options and
interviewing a working person.
Reinforces the need to continue education throughout one's
life.
Students complete statements about themselves in several
different ways. Using these statements and a chosen media, they
create depictions of themselves and share them with the group.
They identify some short-term goals from these depictions.
Concludes class with an activity that allows creativity and selfexpression. Targets short-term goals.