Career Day/Career Fairs

BRIEF SUMMARY

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Career Fairs/Events are a great way to introduce our students to a variety of options they might not have previously considered. It can be the first step in empowering a student to visualize a positive future for themselves. A variety of set ups work for Career Fairs, from tables in gymnasium with one employer/occupation per table (like a College Fair set- up), to a rotation of different career speakers in classes.  Career Days are typically more of the latter, with students going from room to room to hear different speakers or students following their regular schedule and having different speakers in each classroom.  Some Career Events in schools are a combination of a “fair-style” event and different classroom speakers.  Career Fairs have traditionally been held at the high school level, but are now being held in middle schools and elementary schools with more frequency.

KEY POINTS

• Be sure to include careers from all the clusters and a variety of levels of required education.
• Be mindful of including people who have chosen non-traditional jobs related to gender.

SHARED WISDOM

• Prepare the students ahead of time by generating a list of questions they might ask the visitors (What is your favorite part of your job? Biggest challenge? How do you dress? What kind of training or education? Do you need a license or certification?  How do you advance in your career? What do you wish you knew before becoming a ____?).
• Hands-on activities go a long way in holding students’ attention and engaging them in the activity.
• Prepare signs for each employer so they can easily find their table when setting up and be sure to send a “thank you” note to your employers and speakers, after the event.
• Provide students with a map with employer/occupation tables marked by name if you have a lot of tables.  If your students don’t have a lot of time to spend in the fair, they can easily find who they most want to speak to.
• Be sure to invite parents, too!

RESOURCES

• Oklahoma Career Day guidance
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