CAREER ORIENTATION ACTIVITIES GUIDE
Compiled by
Susan Prater, Public School Program Advisor
Office of Career Exploration and Preparation
Arkansas Department of Workforce Education
Funded by the
Office of Career Opportunities, Technical Preparation, and Special Projects
Arkansas Department of Workforce Education
July 2002
Acknowledgements
A lot of changes have occurred in the world of work since the last Career Orientation
Supplementary Activities Guide was published. Some things remain the same. Above
all, Career Orientation remains a course in which students explore the world of work and
the sixteen occupational clusters through hands-on activities. These experiences provide
students with the knowledge and skills they need to make sound decisions about their
educational and occupational futures.
This Career Orientation Activities Guide is intended to be a resource, not a replacement
for the framework or for the many activities teachers are integrating into the CO
classroom. Activities are included for each unit and each task in the framework, with
emphasis being given to activities that integrate basic academic skills, SCANS
competencies, technology learning, and non-traditional exposure.
During the 2001-2002 school year, regional workshops were held for all CO teachers at
the educational service cooperatives across the state. The teachers who attended these
sessions contributed many of the activities that are included in this guide. Many more
were contributed by teachers who did not indicate their names on the activities they
submitted. We extend our thanks to all the teachers who attended the workshops, the
teachers who submitted activities for us to include, and the teachers who gave us their
encouragement and suggestions during the compilation of this resource guide.
The following individuals contributed their time and assistance to the development of this
guide. Without their help, it would never have been completed.
Chris Nichols, Program Manager
Office of Career Exploration and Preparation
Arkansas Department of Workforce Education
Nancy Morris, Secretary
Office of Career Exploration and Preparation
Arkansas Department of Workforce Education
Marie Bruno, Communications Manager
Communications Office
Arkansas Department of Workforce Education
A special thanks goes to all the Workforce Education Career and Technical Coordinators
for hosting the workshops for CO teachers.
In particular, we want to thank the Office of Career Opportunities, Tech. Prep, and
Special Projects for the support they have given to Career Orientation teachers statewide.
Because of their financial assistance, this project will be distributed to CO teachers
throughout Arkansas.
Instructions for Using the
Career Orientation Activities Guide
We hope you enjoy using this guide. We have chosen to distribute the guide on a CD as
a way to allow you, the teacher, to make changes and additions easily.
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You may choose to use the activities directly from the CD. Simply insert the disc in
your CD drive and run it from there. You will not be able to make any changes or
additions to the CD if you work directly from the disc.

Copy the CD, using the “Save As…” command, to your hard drive. You may then
make changes or additions as you desire.
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Copy the CD to your hard drive and print the guide to place in a binder.
The guide is set up in a very simple-to-use folder system. Simply locate the folder that
contains the information you want and open it as you do any folder on your computer.
The content of the guide is outlined on the following page.
CONTENTS
CO Activities Guide
*This folder contains acknowledgements, contents, instructions, and other
miscellaneous information.
Supplemental Guide
*This folder contains templates, planning aids, and useful web sites.
Unit One–Introduction to the World of Work
*This folder contains the prompts and activities for each framework task in Unit
One.
Unit Two–Self-Awareness
*This folder contains the prompts and activities for each framework task in Unit
Two.
Unit Three–Making Decisions
*This folder contains the prompts and activities for each framework task in Unit
Three.
Unit Four–How to Research Careers
*This folder contains the prompts and activities for each framework task in Unit
Four.
Unit Five–Exploring the Sixteen Occupational Clusters
*This folder contains the prompts for Unit Five and separate folders with the
activities for each of the sixteen clusters.
Unit Six–Employment Skills
*This folder contains the prompts and activities for each framework task in Unit
Six.
Unit Seven–Starting Your Own Business
*This folder contains the prompts and activities for each framework task in Unit
Seven.
Unit Eight–Education and Training
*This folder contains the prompts and activities for each framework task in Unit
Eight.
Unit Nine–Planning Your Future
*This folder contains the prompts and activities for each framework task in Unit
One.
ACTIVITY SUMMARIES
ACTIVITIES FOR INTEGRATION OF CAREERS AND ACADEMICS
In 1990, the federal government mandated the integration of vocational and academic
education through amendments to the Carl Perkins Act. Most teachers already
understood the importance of academic integration and were already practicing this
strategy before it was federally mandated. The advantages of career and academic
integration are well documented.
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Integrated curriculum promotes and provides more challenging coursework to a larger
number of students.
Integrated curriculum motivates students to learn by providing them with a practical
and applied understanding of academic concepts and theories.
Integrated curriculum increases the collaboration among teachers.
Integrated curriculum emphasizes the skills and knowledge that students need to
make the transitions from school to school and work.
Every activity that is a part of career exploration should integrate or reinforce
academic skills being taught in other classrooms. If teachers are collaborating
effectively, the integrated activities included in this guide could be team-taught projects.
TECHNOLOGY ACTIVITIES
In an age of rapidly expanding knowledge and technology, it becomes increasingly
important for educators to provide opportunities for students to learn effective use of
information and technology resources. Successful employees in the technical workplace
must be able to use the power of the Internet and other technology in productive and
efficient ways.
The activities included in this guide are designed to provide teachers with activities that
use technology as an instructional resource and tool as well as to help prepare students
for the Information Age. There are additional web sites listed to assist teachers in
designing customized activities for the cyberspace classroom.
Be aware that web sites do come and go and that, before using any web site for
instructional purposes, the instructor should review and be familiar with its
content.
“SCANS” ACTIVITIES
Almost all activities in this guide are appropriate for the SCANS (Secretary’s
Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills for the workplace) skills reinforcement.
Teaching these skills is a must in every class from English to athletics. Can students
learn these skills from a book? Will a worksheet do the trick? The only way to make
sure that students have the skills necessary for succeeding in the world of work is to make
sure they have a chance to develop and practice the skills through applied activities.
Instructional methods and curriculum must prepare students to succeed in the high
performance workplace. Because these skills are fundamental to success in the
workplace, they are included here for your personal reference and convenience.
A THREE PART FOUNDATION
 Basic Skills-Reads, writes, performs arithmetic and mathematical operations, listens
and speaks
 Thinking Skills-Thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes,
knows how to learn, and reasons
 Personal Qualities-Displays responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, selfmanagement, and integrity and honesty
FIVE WORKPLACE COMPETENCIES
 Resources-Identifies, organizes, plans, and allocates resources
 Time
 Money
 Material and Facilities
 Human resources
 Interpersonal-Works with others
 Participates as Member of a Team
 Teaches Others New Skills
 Serves Clients/Customers
 Exercises Leadership
 Negotiates
 Works with Diversity
 Information-Acquires and uses information
 Acquires and Evaluates Information
 Organizes and Maintains Information
 Interprets and Communicates Information
 Uses Computers to Process Information
 Systems-Understands complex inter relationships
 Understands systems
 Monitors and Corrects Performance
 Improves or Designs Systems
 Technology
 Selects Technology
 Applies Technology to Task
 Maintains and Troubleshoots Equipment
NON-TRADITIONAL/MULTICULTURAL ACTIVITIES
The inclusion of non-traditional and multicultural activities in this guide is to help
teachers develop ways to emphasize the world outside of the classroom. Career
exploration teachers understand the need for students to discover the opportunities they
will have when they enter the workforce. Although classroom activities can be beneficial
in the instruction of non-traditional opportunities and multicultural issues in the
workplace, these activities only touch the tip of the many activities that can be
implemented to emphasize the diversity in the global workplace.
One of the most effective ways to show students that the doors of opportunity are wideopen and that the workplace is a place of diversity is to allow them to see it for
themselves. Successful teachers recognize the importance of providing positive role
models for students through guest speaker invitations, field trips, job shadowing, and
mentoring.
JOURNAL PROMPTS
Many teachers who use journal writing notice an improvement in the writing skills of
their students by the end of the year. Writing in response to a prompt is a skill that
involves critical or high-level thinking. Journal writing is also a very effective and
efficient way of integrating academics in Career Orientation. All students will need to
know how to write effectively in the high performance workplace. Journal entries may be
graded for accuracy of sentence content, spelling, etc. Eighth grade students should be
able to write a (minimum) five-sentence paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting
elements, and a conclusion. They should be able to use expository, narrative, persuasive,
and descriptive writing styles and determine which style best fits the purpose of their
writing.
Some teachers use writing prompts as a focus activity, some use them for review at the
end of the period. The guide contains some writing prompts that you might consider
using in your class.