Career Awareness (Elem) – Counselor1Stop

BRIEF SUMMARY

As it applies to School Counseling, Career Awareness is a recommended stage in the Career Development process for Elementary level students. The focus of Career Awareness is to introduce K-5 students to the many types of careers that exist, different working environments, foster a positive attitude toward work and to help students understand the connection between academics and their future career . Career Awareness also introduces the idea that a career is more than a job. Career Awareness is usually taught through guidance lessons, classroom or school speakers and activities where students can learn more about different types of tasks related to careers and expand their knowledge of different types of careers.

KEY POINTS

Most often applies to Elementary Level (K-5) students.
Self-Knowledge as it relates to career choices is a component of Career Awareness, i.e., identifying interests that relate to careers.
At this level, students should have knowledge of how habits such as attendance, punctuality, and completing schoolwork on time transfer to the workforce.

SHARED WISDOM

To build a college and career ready culture in schools, you must minimally begin with career awareness at the elementary level.
From Counselortalk, April 2018: When I was looking into career topic lessons, I stumbled upon this on a counselor’s page. Click on the first link (towards the bottom of the page) and you can have access to Jobland. Really happy I found this so I could explore it myself! https://www.greensburgsalem.org/Page/3134
Lesson idea: On or around President’s Day (3rd Monday of February), I hosted a group of five presidents (local bank, local community college, non-profit, Springfield Thunderbirds (local American Hockey league) and the Big E (New England’s State Fair) who spoke to the entire 5th grade at an assembly in the auditorium about what it is like to be a president of something. When we hear the word president, most of us go to the President of the country but there are plenty of other types of presidents out there. The panelists were awesome and did a fabulous job talking to the 5th graders about how they became a president of a business, something they never thought would have been possible when they were in 5th grade. They also shared the attributes that the students would need to become a president of something someday. It was the perfect age group – old enough to appreciate the conversation and begin to think about their futures but not too old. Confession – I got this idea from an ASCA conference two years ago. (from ASCA Scene, July 2020)

RESOURCES

NCDA Free Resources for Career Development (by level): http://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/6237/_self/layout_details/true
ASCA College and Career Readiness in Elementary School: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/school-counselors-members/professional-development/2015-webinar-series/webinar-learn-more-pages/college-and-career-readiness-in-elementary-school
ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors for Student Success: http://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/home/MindsetsBehaviors.pdf
Indiana Student Standards for Guidance, see K-2 and 3-5 Career Development Standards: http://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/standards/guidance/09-01-2003-Guidance.pdf
Indiana Universal Student Indicators for Guidance, see K-12 and 3-5 Career Development Standards: http://www.indianaschoolcounselor.org/Resources/Documents/INUniversalStudentIndicators.pdf
Indiana Career Explorer
14 Career Resources from Indiana School Counselor Survey 1-10-14
Ready Up Career Assessments and Interest Inventories used in IN
National Center for Women In Information Technology (NCWIT) – The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) is the only national non-profit focused on women’s participation in computing across the entire ecosystem, helping more than 1,100 organizations recruit, retain, and advance women from K-12 and higher education through industry and entrepreneurial careers by providing support, evidence, and action. NCWIT is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, chartered in 2004 by the National Science Foundation. The following are resources NCWIT developed in collaboration with their social science team and are based on research: