Resources

Career Exploration for Students

Elementary School

• Pay attention to the activities your child likes, books read, shows watched, or how he or she spends free time. Talk about related careers.
• When your child says, “I want to be a _____when I grow upâ€, ask them to describe that career. Help them to think of related careers.
• Use clip art to create career coloring pages for your child.
• Ask your child to define success. Ask what are ways to be successful.
• Purchase coloring books that highlight career areas.
• Starts a discussion with the statement: “What’s more valuable – time or money?â€
• Discuss what activities your child likes or dislikes and why.
• Talk about your job(s).
• Talk about the jobs of relatives and family friends.
• Create a family career tree together.
• Have your child compare skill learned to chores done at home. How do they relate? How are they different?
• While paying bills, explain the jobs/services associated with various companies.
• Explain budgeting, and help your child create a budget.
• Create a daily activities time chart. How does that compare to a work day?
• As you watch TV with your child discuss the jobs/careers the characters have.
• Take your child to your work site.
• Research careers together on the internet.
• Visit college campuses on family vacations.
• Take field trips to companies or organizations that promote tours of their facilities.
• Encourage your child to create career posters or poems to enter into the NCDA Poster and Poem Contest. See www.ncda.org.

Middle Grades

• Create a career Scavenger Hunt.
• Ask students to draw a family career tree.
• Review a newspaper and identify 10 careers without using the classified job ads.
• Have students write a description of their ideal job.
• Make or purchase career posters to hang in the classrooms or hallways.
• Have a career hat day. Students wear the hat of a specific career field and are ready to describe that career if asked.
• Cut out career-related words from newspapers or magazines and discuss them.
• Conduct a "what do you wear to work" activity to explore clothes, uniforms and equipment required for different careers.
• Have available various career magazines, books and articles for students to review.
• Use the comics to identify 10 different career areas.
• Create a display of tools for a variety of careers.
• Make a collage of pictures of things the student is interested in.
• Highlight a different pathway and career each week following the guidelines of Career Clusters.
• Schedule Lunch and Learn sessions. Invite speakers in during lunch to talk with students about their career field.
• Make a Career Pathway Bulletin Board using enlarged copies of the Career Pathway icons (Career Clusters) and place them on the board. Talk about a career each day and have students guess which pathway it belongs to.
• Introduce students to web-based career resources. Caution students these are only tools to help them organize information. The final decision about what career to choose is up to them.
• Have students watch Career Pathways Advertisements created by high school students.
• Conduct a Labor Market Scavenger Hunt, looking for anything that might indicate a change in employment, such as help wanted signs, store closing, store opening, etc.
• Create a career corner in the classroom or school media center.
• Assist with Career Day by either speaking or finding volunteers from the community who will participate.
• Talk to students about your career path.
• During field trips, have students keep a list of jobs they notice people doing.
• Have students choose one career area they are interested in and then research at least three other related career areas.
• Watch career focused presentations, followed by discussion.
• When students talk about the latest blockbuster movie, ask them to watch the credits at the end. What jobs are listed? Which ones sound interesting?
• Create career posters and poems and enter the NCDA Poster and Poem Contest. www.ncda.org.
• Visit college campuses.
• Discuss the future.

Secondary Grades

• Pick a theme of the month or use the NCDA theme for this year. Identify the tools related to a verity of careers and create a display.
• Have students compare today's careers with those they think may occur in the future, or those from the past.
• Use the comics to identify 10 different career areas.
• Have students interview parents, teachers, business people, and other adults to learn more about how they found their careers.
• Ask students to write about the education and skills needed to achieve different career goals.
• Conduct Lunch and Learn sessions. Invite speakers in during lunchtime to talk with students about their career field.
• Pick a broad topic area such as "water" and identify careers related to the topic.
• Select a product such as "milk" and identify careers related to the product.
• Categorize the classified ads into the Career Pathways (Career Clusters).
• Prepare a cost analysis of the training required to enter different careers.
• Have students research a favorite subject area that relates to their career interests.
• Ask student to describe, in writing, what they don't want to do and why.
• Introduce students to the Occupational Outlook Handbook and other free online resources for research.
• Review the newspaper classified job ads and discuss the technology required for each job.
• Have students write a description of their ideal job and share with the class.
• Make a list of the top 10 job skills needed if students were participating in "Survivor".
• Identify 10 unusual or unique careers.
• Ask students to draw their Career Pathway logo.
• Create and video tape a Career Pathway Advertisement to be viewed by younger students.
• Post previous student career success stories around the room or building.
• Give "career highlights" during the morning announcements.
• List"Hot Jobs" and "Jobs on the Decline". Ask students why this might be so.
• Bring in a college catalog and have students review the course selections, titles and career fields.
• Discuss various quotes from a career focus. Example: "Go confidently in the directions of your dreams. Life the life you have imagined." Henry David Thoreau.
• When students talk about the latest blockbuster movie, ask them to watch the credits at the end. What jobs are listed? Which ones sound interesting?
• Have students create career posters and poems and enter the NCDA Poster and Poetry Contest. www.ncda.org.