Career Cruising Support for Grade 11 & 12
Guidance and Career Curriculum
Career Cruising also helps support Ontario’s Grade 11 and Grade 12 Guidance and
Career Curriculum. Below we have briefly described how the features and functionality
of Career Cruising help to support the Grade 11 and 12 curriculums:
1. Designing Your Future - Grade 11
The many tools within Career Cruising can be integral in allowing students to meet the
expectations of the Designing Your Future course.
Career Cruising allows students to analyse their interests, skills, and personal
characteristics through assessments such as Career Matchmaker, My Skills, and Xyting
Insight. These assessments connect students with the occupation profiles for those
careers which are suitable for them based on interests, employability skills, and
personality. Each occupation profile within Career Cruising provides an abundance of
information including an Education section which will connect students with related
apprenticeship, college, and university programs. Two information interviews with real
people working in these occupations are also included in each profile. These interviews
give students a glimpse of the realities and opportunities in the workplace and factors that
can affect success.
Throughout the career and education exploration process students are able to save
occupation and school profiles that interest them, as well as assessment results, goals, and
plans and preparations to their Career Cruising portfolio. Each student’s portfolio also
contains a resume builder where they can create an effective resume highlighting
education, work and volunteer experience, and employability skills and attributes. The
Portfolio Tool provides an ideal framework for students developing an action plan that
describes how they will accomplish their work, education and training, leisure, and
community involvement goals.
2. Leadership and Peer Support - Grade 11
Career Cruising contains many features to help students prepare to act in leadership and
peer support roles.
Students are able to use tools such as Career Selector and Career Matchmaker to identify
the range of occupations requiring skills in leadership and peer support as well as identify
the leadership roles to which they are most suited. Once they have identified these
careers they are able to do further research by exploring a range of occupation profiles.
Students can use the information interviews included in each occupation profile to help
them identify the characteristics of an effective leader and the personal management
skills required to succeed in leadership.
The Career Cruising Portfolio Tool allows students to keep an ongoing record of
leadership roles which interest them as well as record personal characteristics, skills, and
any comments or thoughts they have on how these characteristics and skills may affect
their interactions with others.
Many of Career Cruising’s Classroom Activities involve group work and interpersonal
skills which can also be helpful in developing skills for both leadership and peer support.
3. Advanced Learning Strategies: Skills for Success After Secondary
School - Grade 12
Career Cruising enables students to develop and improve upon learning and personalmanagement skills as well as assisting students in choosing the right post-secondary
destinations by providing seamless links between interests, occupation information, and
specific education and training opportunities.
Many components within Career Cruising such as the Independent Research Project
activities help students evaluate their learning skills. Students are able to develop and
improve upon literacy skills, such as reading, while navigating through the different
occupation, school, and apprenticeship profiles. The Portfolio Tool and Resume Builder
help to improve writing and personal-management skills as well as prepare for the worksearch process.
The My Skills assessment allows students to self-assess and identify their employability
skills. Any assessment results, skills, and attributes can be saved to a student’s portfolio.
Goals, plans, and strategies for improvement can also be recorded within the Portfolio
Tool. Maintaining a portfolio is an ongoing process that promotes the continuation of
lifelong learning.
In preparation for making their post-secondary decisions students are able to investigate
workplace trends by exploring the information interviews included in each occupation
profile as well as the Other Resources section where contact information and web links to
do further research are available.
4. Navigating the Workplace - Grade 12
Career Cruising can be an important part of completing the expectations for Navigating
the Workplace.
Before students begin their participation in real work experiences, they are able to
explore the occupation profiles and interviews provided in Career Cruising, for the jobs
they will be participating in.
Any essential skills gained through students’ workplace experiences can be planned for,
and documented in the Portfolio Tool as well as any interests, strengths, and needs.
Students can also use their Career Cruising portfolio to reflect on each workplace
experience. Each student’s Ontario Skills Passport plan can be saved to the Your Files
section of the Portfolio in order to keep all career and education planning documents and
ideas in one place. Each section of the portfolio has space to record any comments or
thoughts a student may have such as how their interests, strengths, and needs, affect their
post-secondary plans.
Students are able to use the Career Matchmaker assessment in order to determine which
occupations match up with their interests. Each occupation profile provided contains the
specific education and training program information required to enter these occupations.
The occupation profiles also contain two information interviews that will give students an
understanding of the nature of work and workplace expectations and issues. A Working
Conditions section which explains any health and safety issues is also a part of each
occupation profile.
Any plans or preparations students make to ensure a smooth transition from secondary
school to their post-secondary destination can be recorded in their portfolio. The Career
Cruising Resume Builder uses information stored in the portfolio such as a student’s
personal contact information, work experience, volunteer experience, awards and
certificates received, in order to format an effective resume. Final drafts, cover letters,
and thank you letters can all be uploaded into the student’s portfolio and stored in the
Your Files section.