Career Exploration (Middle)

Research has identified middle school as a time when students can benefit the most from career exploration, a process of building self-awareness, learning about potential careers, and developing a plan for reaching future goals.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Research has identified middle school as a time when students can benefit the most from career exploration, a process of building self-awareness, learning about potential careers, and developing a plan for reaching future goals. Career exploration engages middle school students at a time when they are at a higher risk for disengaging from learning due to challenges in forming identity, coping with puberty and navigating new environments. It also capitalizes on their developing abilities to think abstractly, and their preferences for teamwork and active learning through relevant real-life scenarios. These preferences make middle school a natural time for students to learn about careers and develop skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork through career exploration activities.

KEY POINTS

  • Incorporate career-related project-based learning in the classroom.
  • Design projects and activities to develop employability skills

RESOURCES

SHARED WISDOM

  • Facilitate academic and career planning with scalable online tools
  • Enable short-term interactions with business and community leaders
  • Q: I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions concerning virtual career planning for middle schoolers.
    • A: I have also been thinking about how to convert my career day to virtual. I was thinking of using a program like Flipgrid and asking my career presenter volunteers to record their video presentations and then I will push those out to students to watch in their classrooms. Students can then choose to watch the presentations they are interested in. I was also thinking of collecting questions from students early and asking the presenters to answer some of the questions in their presentation.
    • A: I brainstormed a few quick ideas of how you can use Indiana Career Explorer (INCE) to host a virtual career fair for middle school (or high school) students, either in conjunction with other resources, or alone:
      • Step 1:  Have students make INCE accounts (free and available for 6-12 grade students
      • Step 2:  Students take the Kuder Career Interest Assessment (9 minutes)
      • Step 3:  Students explore their Kuder Career Interest Assessment results and watch one occupational description video from each of their 5 top career interest pathways (5 videos)
      • Step 4: Students read the Person Match informational interviews on the “Person Match” tab in their Kuder Career Interest Assessment report
      • Step 5: Students use the “Search for Occupations by Title” tool to enter the occupations of their Person Matches and watch the video on the occupation description page for each occupation.

To assist students in navigating the virtual career fair through Indiana Career Explorer, you could record a short video of each step and tell them when to “stop” and go into the INCE system to follow the instructions you just demonstrated.

We have several fillable PDF lesson plans that might be helpful if you plan to use Indiana Career Explorer for something like this: https://www.kuder.com/webres/File/Landing%20Pages/ADMS_LessonPlans_fillable.pdf.

I could see the CTE lesson plans being something you could use in this capacity. There are four CTE lesson plans and they are close to the top of the page- the lessons are in alphabetical order by subject area.Regarding the expectations for 8th grade career planning for 2019-2020 from Ben Carter with Indiana Department of Education

  • Senate Enrolled Act 297 states that beginning July 1, 2019 each school in a school corporation and each charter school must include for all students in grade 8 use of either Indiana Career Explorer or an alternative internet based system that provides students with college and career planning resources. The alternative internet based system must be approved by the State Board of Education.
    • Currently, there are three systems that are approved. Information about these systems (including memos sent to the field) can be found athttps://www.doe.in.gov/wf-stem/college-and-career-navigation.
    • The IDOE is  in the process of adding it to the School Improvement Plan requirements for schools containing grade 8. Indiana has also partnered with Kuder to offer different  types of Webex trainings on Indiana Career Explorer through this school year. Those trainings have been messaged through Counselor Talk and on DOE site.

CONTENT FEEDBACK

If you have suggestions, feedback, or resources, please email counselor1stop@inspiresuccess.org and let us know.