It can be difficult for teachers to know where to begin when providing career advice to students. Here are some of our favorite resources on the subject.
Every school has a responsibility to provide students with career guidance. However, with teachers juggling heavy workloads and specializing in their respective subjects and professions, it can be difficult for them to know where to look for information about the broader job market.
Choosing a career can be difficult for students because not everyone knows what they want to do with their lives, especially at such a young age.
We have a variety of resources to assist teachers in guiding their students and ensuring that they have access to the best information available to make informed decisions about their future.
The first three are from icould, a small charity that provides free access to video stories, detailed job descriptions, and practical tips designed to inform and inspire young people considering careers. Choosing your options is for students choosing their subjects, and Getting to grips with decisions is for young people figuring out what they really want. Weighing your options also includes decision-making advice.
You might want to have students try classifying subjects based on what they are good at, interested in, or enjoy. Make a short list of subject options to help you identify any that aren't quite right. Listing the benefits and drawbacks of various careers and thoroughly researching a small number of jobs before sharing this information with peers is a great way to get your class thinking.
This activity by Teaching Resources Support is another enjoyable way for students in year 9 to explore their subject options. Pupils research the qualifications required for various jobs before selecting their own subjects from a deck of cards. The goal is to demonstrate why core subjects like math and English are important as well as obligatory
Finding a suitable career requires students to identify their skills. With this resource from the Western Vocational Progression Consortium, key stage 3 students can create their own profile and then match it to a job role. There’s also a quiz that will help pupils analyze the strength of their decision-making skills, and a lesson plan about researching different jobs. Ideas include interviewing an adult or older sibling about their career path. These resources are supported by Careerpilot, a careers website aimed at 13- to 19-year-olds.
My World of Work is another useful website. This site's lesson plan and PowerPoint presentation are intended to assist students in identifying their strengths so that they can make more informed decisions about school subjects, courses, and careers. Students compare how their body language changes when they talk about something they enjoy doing versus something they dislike. The resource is accompanied by a fact sheet. As a homework assignment, assign students the task of creating a personal statement for a CV that highlights their strengths and skills.
It's critical to increase students' awareness of available jobs, so check out this key stage 4 careers research resource. Students begin by evaluating the usefulness of various sources of career information, such as websites, prospectuses, and industry materials. They then work in groups to research the required skills and entry requirements for their desired career. Ask students to write a day-in-the-life piece about a job they are interested in as a follow-up activity. They could also look into apprenticeships and vocational training.
Encourage students to learn more about the various careers available by providing them with job guides for the digital industry, engineering, the music industry, green employment, and STEM careers. Ask students to conduct a survey in groups to determine the most popular career options in their year group. They could write letters to local businesses inviting them to speak at the school about what it's like to work in their industry. They could also make presentations about jobs that interest them, including details about any subject requirements. All of this work could be displayed at a careers fair organized by the students.
We have a selection of sample lesson plans from Axis Education for young people preparing for work experience placements. Job skills are concerned with how to find and keep a job. Thinking skills for work look at strategies for dealing with customers, colleagues, and working life, while basic skills for work look at the habits, behaviors, and attitudes required to keep a job. Role-playing a staff meeting, practicing how to make a formal phone call, editing an application form, and planning what to wear to an interview are all activities. The emphasis is on increasing students' employability.
We have a selection of sample lesson plans from Axis Education for young people preparing for work experience placements. Job skills are concerned with how to find and keep a job. Thinking skills for work look at strategies for dealing with customers, colleagues, and working life, while basic skills for work look at the habits, behaviors, and attitudes required to keep a job. Role-playing a staff meeting, practicing how to make a formal phone call, editing an application form, and planning what to wear to an interview are all activities. The emphasis is on increasing students' employability.
Finally, Seeme Resources has created a set of materials to get primary students thinking about what they want to be when they grow up. These include a PowerPoint presentation.
