researching careers in HS

<p>I am on a High School committee that is researching ways to motivate students. One option that interested all of us was focusing on careers in 9th grade but also having follow up classes in 10th to 12th grades. We generally feel that students that aren't living up to their potential are like that because they just can't conceive what they will do in four years. Or maybe they can't figure out the steps to get from a HS student to become an engineer. We want to have a truly meaningful career exploration class. </p>

<p>Currently there is an elective class in this but it's not very popular. In eighth grade there is a long section on career exploration but for some reason that also seems to miss the mark - partly I think because part of the focus is a pretend job interview that they won't need for several years. The kids create a fake resume (graduated with honors from Harvard, etc) and are interviewed by a parent who is pretending to be an employer. </p>

<p>In 10th grade as part of technology class the students do more research into colleges.</p>

<p>What I'm looking for is information about other schools that have a career exploration class and the syllabus that is used. </p>

<p>I would also be interested in hearing other idea's to motivate large groups of students. We have about 250 students per grade.</p>

<p>C’mon there’s got to be a couple of schools out there that do a career exploration class. Anyone?</p>

<p>No career exploration class at Happykid’s school, but lots of opportunities and encouragement (as well as academic credit) for internships, independent Senior projects, and classroom/other school volunteer work.</p>

<p>I’m not aware of a good one. My D’s school (rigorous college-prep) provides a few hours soph and jr years to go on the Career Cruising website, but that’s about it.</p>

<p>I’ll tell you what I think would be WAY more useful than some of the activities you mentioned (simulated interview, resume writing, etc.). I think kids need ways to discover the huge breadth of careers that exist. They know about teachers, cops, lawyers, nurses, but what kid has ever heard of a corporate training instructional designer? Or knows what a product manager in a pharma marketing dept does? Or has ever heard of a print designer? Or a post-surgical care coordinator?</p>

<p>There are so many careers beyond butcher, baker, candlestick maker, and. Kids need help exploring them and their educational requirements.</p>

<p>My two cents.</p>

<p>Okay - I’ll pitch in - </p>

<p>A HS by where I work had a job shadowing program where they got area businesses to allow groups of students to shadow various employees for a few hours. The students received an overview of the type of business it was, each of them interviewed the employee they were shadowing to find out what the job was like, the education required, rough salary potential, travel opportunity, daily tasks, etc. and they also went along with the employee to some meetings, etc. Prior to showing up to shadow they already picked a business by major category - health care, computer business, etc.</p>

<p>I think the students had their eyes opened a bit. I’ve also personally taken other kids to where I work (computer engineering type business) and shown them around. Most of them had no idea what an engineer actually did, no idea about large computer equipment, no idea about the variety of jobs at a firm like a computer firm - i.e. jobs other than the engineers (managers, tech writers, teachers for teaching the equipment, support personnel, admins, etc.), no idea about business travel, no idea about different salary levels, etc. so it was an eye opener for some. They also usually had no idea of the effort required to attain an engineering degree and that things like math, physics, writing skills, etc. were all important not just at the HS level but also at college (for an engineering degree) and in business once they’re done with school.</p>

<p>The students made sure they dressed ‘business-like’ (i.e. an attempt at least at business casual) and I think they had a higher interest level than a presentation at school because they went off-campus, were one on one with the person they were shadowing, and were treated respectfully by the employees. It was completely interactive.</p>

<p>To do the above takes some effort and coordination in getting businesses signed up to permit the shadowing but I think most of the business participants enjoyed it as did the students. Probably raising it at a PTA meeting or something can get it going including using the contacts of all the parents and the businesses/jobs they’re in to sign up to permit the shadowing.</p>

<p>I tried taking a carreer exploration class at the HS level over the summer, but frankly the tests & the class were rather useless for me. (The carreer suggestions ranged from “I already was considering that” to “Why on earth should I be a minister?”) I’m now a senior, and will be an entering freshman as “undeclared”, heh.</p>

<p>However, try asking at the local community college. They usually have those classes available.</p>

<p>At our kids private, they have some degree of career exploration for four years in a row in a course called “planning” that is required as part of the curriculum for the state, along with required volunteer or paid work hours, and the research and production of a career plan (that includes having extensively researched themselves, career possibilities and worked out the post-highschool plan for work, apprenticeship or formal education of some kind). Each year varies in terms of the requirements but they start with an internet search using particular programs, and eventually in the higher years, develop a portfolio and specific educational plans). Along the way they do practical things like job searched, writing letters to employers, developing a resume. </p>

<p>The school itself also has an extensive ‘career library’, they have guest speakers from different areas and professions, and a dedicated person who serves as a ‘career center’: connects them with volunteer or paid work that is related to their career interests. </p>

<p>Of course so much easier in this case because a) the govt sets a lot of the requirements and resources in place and its part of the diploma process b) it’s a private school with mucho resources, and c) the homogeneity across the kids is very high (all are college bound, with largely professional aspirations in HS).</p>

<p>Starbright, what your school is doing is along the lines of what our group is looking for. Some of the things are in place already but we are looking for a way to make career goals meaningful for the kids that are not planning on college and the ones that assume that they will go to a college because their parents did and they’re coasting by with B’s and C’s with no real goal.</p>

<p>With the drop out rate at colleges so high, we want our students prepared and motivated. The majority of our kids do go to college but we don’t really know how many stay there and we’d like them to succeed at both.</p>

<p>I love the idea of taking groups of them to a large company to see the different job positions. It’s hard to envision those jobs just from textbooks but the logistics of individual job shadowing seems like a nightmare.</p>