Activities that offer career exploration for students bring many benefits. They help students gain a better understanding of what career paths they’re interested in while introducing important and fun learning opportunities to your classroom. In a recent webinar, we discussed the importance of career exploration and shared ideas for exploring careers with middle and high school students. Read on to discover free career exploration activities you can implement right away.
Why Is Career Exploration Important?
Career exploration for students is the process of discovering, learning about, and evaluating career opportunities based on students’ interests and values. These should be fun, informative experiences as students learn more about themselves and get excited about what their futures hold.
Exploring future employment options in middle and high school helps students make connections between the skills they’re learning in school and careers they may pursue in the future. Career exploration also exposes students to a variety of potential job opportunities, giving them a better understanding of what’s available to them and what career path makes the most sense for their specific skills and interests.
Where Is Career Exploration Taught?
Career exploration can be taught in both middle and high school as part of career exploration classes, Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs), and Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes. Starting in middle school can set students up for success in high school by helping them decide which CTE classes to take and identify potential jobs that relate to the careers they’re interested in. In high school, students can continue to grow their knowledge about their chosen career path with part-time jobs, internships, and apprenticeships.
5 Career Exploration Activities To Get Started
1. Take Time To Research
Research projects give students the opportunity to learn where to find information on various careers while learning about those careers. What’s more, research skills are important. Being able to identify, collect, and evaluate information will benefit students in school, college, and the workplace. Create a list of careers for students to choose from by looking at industry in your area, your high school’s CTE options, and what careers your local post-secondary school prepares students for. You can also ask your high school counselor for a list or search for a trending careers list online.
Specify the information your students need to find for their chosen careers. You can have them look up the wage, typical job tasks, education requirements, job outlook, and key skills needed. Be sure to suggest a few valuable resources, like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Once students finish researching, have them present their findings to the class.
2. Use Your Community
Turning to your community for career exploration activities gives students the chance to learn more about their local industry and available jobs. Company tours and interviews with local professionals get students out of the classroom and into local businesses. Individual or group guest speakers offer options for engaging classroom presentations of various industry opportunities. You could even invite a group of post-secondary instructors to discuss their courses. Encourage engagement by having students prepare questions ahead of time.
3. Incorporate Soft Skills
From teamwork to self-confidence, workers with soft skills help to create an effective and peaceful work environment. These are excellent skills to teach alongside career exploration for students as these skills are necessary to obtain and keep a job in any career path. Assign group work, reflection activities, and roleplay projects to build students’ skills in teamwork, critical thinking, and self-confidence.
Check out our soft skills implementation page for an implementation guide, free posters, and information on the tools you can use to bring soft skills to your classroom.
4. Create CTSO Connections
CTSO programs, such as BPA and DECA, help students develop interpersonal relationships, build teamwork and leadership skills, and set goals. Students who participate in CTSOs have higher levels of academic engagement and motivation, civic engagement, career self-efficacy, and employability skills. CTSOs feature career exploration lessons and handouts as well as competitive events that incorporate this topic, such as FCCLA’s Career Investigation STAR Event and HOSA’s Health Career Exploration Event.
5. Work With Hands-On Learning Tools
Hands-on learning tools attract and keep students’ attention. These tools let students experience the job in the classroom. We offer a variety of experiential learning aids that are excellent for career exploration for students, such as our Childcare Center Design Kit, RealCare™ Geriatric Simulator, Swine Litter Processing Simulators, Measurement Math Training Kit, and more.
Career exploration packages
Looking to start or refresh a career exploration program? Featuring hands-on learning aids and lessons curated specifically for career exploration, our career exploration packages address a variety of jobs within agriculture, health science, and skilled trades.
Learn More
Looking for more resources on teaching career exploration for students? We recommend:
- Visiting our career exploration implementation page for free career exploration lesson plans, blogs about teaching, access to downloadable career posters, and more
- Checking out the Association for Career and Technical Education’s paper on middle school career exploration
- Watching our on-demand webinar, “Career Exploration Activities for Middle and High School Classrooms“
