Looking for ways to use workplace scenarios for students in your Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes? These scenarios can help students develop important career soft skills. Additionally, the scenarios are more relevant to students when they’re specific to situations they may encounter in the workplace. Read on to learn ways you can use these scenarios in your CTE classes and even create your own scenarios!
Creating Your Own Scenarios
Creating your own workplace scenarios for students can seem like a daunting task. You likely have many questions as you begin crafting your scenarios.
What Elements Should I Include in My Scenarios?
Context
Every good workplace scenario for students needs the right amount of context. Context adds the details the students need to understand the scenario. Providing the right amount of context in scenarios is a balancing act. If you don’t have enough, students won’t understand what is being asked of them. If you have too much, students will get lost in the details. To ensure your scenario has the right amount of context, ask one of your fellow teachers to work through your scenario and provide feedback.
Decision-Making Points and Clear Learning Outcomes
It’s important that workplace scenarios for students require them to make decisions. Without this piece, the scenario is ineffective, and students will lose interest. Clear learning outcomes are also needed to keep your class/students moving in the right direction and ensure your scenario aligns with the goals of your program.
When Should I Use Scenarios?
You should use workplace scenarios for students after foundational knowledge is established. Students need a basic understanding of your scenario topic before they can fully understand its context. Scenarios are best used when you want to test your students’ decision-making skills. They give students practice verbalizing why they make certain choices and allow you to reinforce the right decisions as well as redirect when needed.
5 Tips for Creating Scenarios
Good workplace scenarios for students are relevant and engaging. Keep them short to allow for debriefing and discussion afterwards.
- Define intended outcomes. Students need to understand their role, be able to communicate, and use critical thinking skills. If key steps are missed, you might need to stop the scenario for adjustments. You want problem-solving skills to happen at the right time.
- Make a critical action checklist. Make a list of key scenario components, so students understand the critical actions needed for the scenario.
- Define the details. Determine when the scenario will start, formulate key points, and assign roles. Decide at what point the scenario will end. Collect all hands-on equipment and supplies for scenarios, include best practices information, and make it as realistic as possible.
- Build case narratives. Be sure to use real-life scenarios or even past student examples. This helps facilitate real, memorable experiences.
- Keep instructor notes. Maintain a list of tips you want to remember for next time. Noteworthy items can include suggestions for students in the room or thoughts on what to do differently for struggling versus advanced students.
Ready-To-Use Scenarios
If you don’t want to come up with your own workplace scenarios for students, you can purchase ready-made scenario cards! From trade skills to health science, we offer scenario card sets for over 15 different careers. Each card focuses on a specific soft skill and includes key questions on the back. You can see a full list of careers our cards cover below.
Trade Skills
Agriculture
Family and Consumer Sciences
- Childcare
- Culinary
- Textiles and Fashion Apparel
- Interior Design
- Food Processing, Production, and Safety
Health Science
Enter our back-to-school giveaway for a chance to win your own workplace scenario cards!
How to Use Workplace Scenarios in Your Classroom
Now that you have some resources to find or create scenarios, let’s look at how you can use them in your classroom.
1. 5-Minute Icebreaker
One way to use workplace scenarios for students is to begin your class with a quick, five-minute challenge. Get students into small groups and share a scenario with the class. Have students discuss the scenario, key questions, and various points of view. Then, have the class come back together and share answers to the key questions.
2. Journaling
For this activity, share a scenario with the class and have students use it as a journaling prompt. Have students answer key questions about the scenario in writing.
3. Pre- and Post-Assessment
If you’re teaching a complete lesson on a soft skill, you can have students answer key questions for a scenario that relates to that skill in writing. After you teach the lesson, have students revisit the scenario and answer the key questions again using the new skills they’ve learned.
4. Wrong Way/Right Way Skits
Divide students into small groups, each group with their own scenario. Have students define the skill addressed in the scenario and share examples of when they’ve used this skill. Then, have students role-play the scenario the “wrong way,” in which they model what you shouldn’t do in that situation. Finally, have students role-play the skit again, demonstrating the right way to handle it this time.
Additional Resources
Looking for more resources involving soft skills and workplace scenarios for students?
- Watch our free, on-demand webinar, Teaching Soft Skills Through Scenario-Based Learning
- Explore all our tools for teaching soft skills here
- Enter our back-to-school giveaway for a chance to win our workplace scenario cards, posters, and a $100 Amazon gift card
