career research worksheet for high school students

Career Exploration for Students and Kids (19 Free Resources)

By: Author Amanda L. Grossman

Posted on Last updated: December 29, 2023

Teach students and kids about careers with these 19 free worksheets and lesson plans. Career exploration for students to do.

One of the most important reasons behind a formal education – besides teaching your students how to think for themselves – is to get kids ready to take on an engaging and exciting career.

And a career? Well, that’s the foundation to any person being able financially provide for themselves – what we call, financial independence.

That’s why I take a real interest in helping kids, tweens, and teens get the best fun career exploration activities resources out there.

So that one day, they can find a fulfilling job and be able to earn enough money to not only survive, but thrive.

Career Exploration for Students

What all is involved in career exploration for students?

To be honest, there’s a lot to cover here.

You want to provide fun and engaging activities for topics like:

• Understanding Careers : The foundational blocks of understanding how a person earns money, having a job versus working on a career, how to develop your career, etc.
• Career Interest Assessments : Which careers intersect a child’s natural abilities and a child’s interests?
• Career Investigation : What does a day look like when holding down a job in one of those career fields that interests a student? What’s the salary like? This can include activities in the classroom, research, and also shadowing.
• Skill Identification and Development : What skills do they need to pursue a job that interests them? What level of education would they need?
• Understanding How to Get Hired : Things like interviews, creating a resume, job searches, etc. are critical for students to know how to do.
• Career Stepping Stones : What steps can the student take right now (and before they graduate high school) in order to set themselves just a few steps closer to getting into that career field (i.e. internships, volunteer activities, writing a first resume (here are free teen resume templates ), type of afterschool/weekend jobs)?
• Income and Paycheck Management : Discussing how to not only manage a paycheck from a real-job, but also how to manage your career so that your income more than matches current cost of living needs. Also, going over paycheck taxes, pay type (salary, hourly, commissions), insurance, workplace retirement contributions, and other deductions.

Whew – that list wasn’t meant to overwhelm you.

Rather, I wanted to inspire you with what an important and life-changing topic you’re covering with your students and kids.

Plus, to outline some of the areas you can cover with these fun career activities and resources I’ve found for you, below.

Career Exploration for Kids – Free Career Assessments

First up, let’s talk about how to get your kids and students actually interested in career exploration activities.

There’s no better way to pique a student’s interest than to find out what THEY are most interested in learning about.

One way to do this is to start off your unit of study with free career assessments.

1. Truity.com Career Assessment

I spoke with the people at Truity.com, and they said a good age minimum to take their free career assessment is 14/15 years of age.

The test is free to take, plus you get a basic report with results. You don’t even need to have a student register for them to do this!

However, if you want to be able to view each of your student’s results, you’d have to sign up for a Pro account.

2. CareerOneStop’s Career Assessment

This free, 30-question career quiz from the U.S. Department of Labor will help a student figure out some possible career choices.

3. O*NET Interest Profiler

Another career assessment test sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor is O*NET’s interest profiler. There are 60 questions in total.

Psst: want even more career websites for students? Here's 14 career websites for high school students .

4. CommonLit Career Day at Pixie Academy

Age: 4th Grade

Here's a reading passage that's centered around some great career and job terms. The theme of the story is Pixie finding a new job.

Assessment questions and a teacher's guide are included.

Career Exploration Worksheets for Students

While I don’t recommend you center your entire career unit around career exploration worksheets, the ones below can definitely add to students discovering jobs, industries, etc.

1. Find Your “Right Now” Job

Suggested Grades: 6-8

Scholastic has some fantastic worksheets and lesson plans to help with career exploration for students.

In the “ Find Your Right Now Job ” worksheet, students will research jobs and apprenticeships around their area of interests to find two jobs that they could apply to (when they're a bit older).

2. Career Research Worksheet

Here’s a simple, one-page worksheet you can get for free with a free account on Teachers Pay Teachers.

It will help focus your student’s career research.

3. Career Family Tree

This free worksheet of fun career activities has an idea that I love – for students to create a family career tree. They’ll need to ask family members and do the research, which of course is a great way for kids to understand their loved ones even better (plus to learn a thing or two).

4. Classroom Job Application

With a free Teachers Pay Teachers account, get this simple classroom job application your students can fill out to “apply” for classroom jobs.

5. Earning Income Career Earning Worksheet

BizWorld has this free, simple worksheet to help your students research a career and salary information.

6. Collection of Career Exploration Worksheets (9-12 grades)

Here’s a bunch of different career activities and worksheets for grades 9-12 .

Worksheets include:

• Reality Check Worksheet
• Networking Bingo
• Speed Interviewing

Career Lesson Plans

Looking for more than just career preparedness worksheets?

Check out these enter career lesson plans, available for free.

Hint: many of them include both worksheets and videos.

1. National Retail Federation's Library

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has a program called RISE Up , a certifying program with curriculum that helps students and young adults get hired in the retail industry.

Check out the RISE Up classroom activities section to find lots of short videos from people actually in the retail industry, answering questions students might have and teaching students about their industry. It also includes a worksheet for each video.

2. PWC’s Earn Your Future Digital Classroom

Check out Level 3 (for Grades 9 – 12), Module Chart Your Course . It talks about:

• The relationship between education and careers
• The opportunity cost of pursuing additional education
• The importance of monetary and nonmonetary compensation when selecting a job

3. BizKid’s It’s a Job to Get a Job

Download an entire lesson plan for high schoolers that include topics like:

• Job search techniques
• Interviewing
• Adding value as an employee

4. NGPF's Career Unit

This is a full-year course, with the following units:

• Unit Plan & Assessments
• Career Basics
• Choosing a Career
• Workplace Skills
• Finding a Job
• Your LinkedIn Profile
• Resumes & Cover Letters
• Interviewing for a Job
• Outcomes of a Job Interview
• Starting a New Job
• Career Sucesss

5. Louisiana Department of Education's Virtual Workplace Experience

The state of Louisiana has come up with these free resources to help students explore careers in LA's highest-demand industries. These are project-based learning activities.

Honestly, there's a ton here.

They've broken it down into the following units:

• General Resources
• Portfolio Projects Resources
• Getting Started
• Healthcare and Pharmacy
• Automotive Service & Repair
• Construction Crafts/Skilled Trades
• Information Technology
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Transportation and Logistics
• Business Management and Finance
• Sales and Customer Service

Career Games for Kids

These career games for kids and teens create an engaging way to teach career awareness.

1. Career Charades

Age: 7-9 years

Students are asked to brainstorm lots of different careers (it's suggested that they can ask parents, grandparents, and others to come up with ideas ahead of time).

Each student writes these ideas onto a piece of paper, and everyone takes turns acting out a career while others try to guess what they're doing.

Great for better awareness about career options!

2. Claim Your Future

Students select different career paths, are given a typical salary, and then are given various spending choices. The amount of money they spend throughout the game is tracked so that they can see, and make any adjustments as needed.

3. The Payoff

Suggested Age Range: 14 years and older

Practical Money Skills has come up with another free online career game, and this time it's all about two teenagers trying to start up a business in a competitive atmosphere.

Students will have to evaluate business deals, learn how to grow their business, and how to overcome financial challenges in business and in life.

4. Auction Adventures – Auctioneer Career Game for Kids

Suggested Age Range: Grades 3-5

Being paid by commission is wayyyyy different than getting a salary (or, even, being paid hourly). You have to actually sell something to make any money!

This game has your students calculate their commission rates while, at the same time, learning about how auctioneers work in a variety of different places.

Here's a set of worksheets to go along with this game.

5. The Uber Game

Like it or not, the “gig economy” where people are not full employees of companies, but still accept gigs from them and earn a small or substantial amount of money on the side, seems to be here to stay.

So, kids should understand how this can fit into their career and money plans!

The Uber Game gives your teen a scenario, such as they have a $1,000 mortgage payment due in a week, and then asks them to try and earn enough money through accepting gigs in order to pay that bill.

Can they do it? Is it hard or easy? Can they sustain themselves on a gig job?

Psst: You’ll want to check out my 31 free personal finance homeschool curriculum , as some of the resources also have free career resources.

Career Research for Students

When students research a career, they need to look at it from several different angles before deciding if it’s possibly on their “Career Hitlist”.

Here are the different things to research for a career:

• Find Income information : Salary, or hourly pay? What’s the range? Do people have this as their only job, or do they need to supplement with a second job to “make ends meet” (i.e. pay all their bills plus save money each month)?
• Ask People and Watch Interviews : Your student will want to make sure a day in the life of a potential profession is something they’d actually be interested in. Interviewing current employees in a profession, or even watching videos where professionals are interviewed can be really helpful.
• Find Shadow Opportunities : Students can go shadow a job within your school district, or with a family/friend. Or, they can take part in a Take Your Child to Work day at their parent’s/aunt’s employer. 

Psst: Have you ever heard of CareerVillage ? Students can ask career-related questions and get them answered by professionals, for free! Students of all ages are accepted, and they’ll need to create an account (for free) to ask a question.

1. How to Research a “Day in the Life”

You want your students to feel what it’s like to be on the job in a career path they’re researching.

Help them to do this by:

• Career Biographies : There are a vast number of what I like to call career biographies that help a child understand what it’s actually like to pursue a certain career field. I’ve got an article on 22 career books for kids , broken down by age and profession type.
• Career Videos : These can be really helpful, particularly when funds don’t allow for school field trips. MyAmericanFarm.org has a great collection of 3 to 26-minute videos on all different types of agricultural careers . PathSource has an impressive collection of career interview videos. Kids Work! Has a nice collection of ca r eer videos for kids (Grades 3-8). You can also search YouTube for “Day in the Life of _______”.
• Career Shadowing : Career shadowing was quite cool when I was in high school. Students should be encouraged to shadow someone at their job, whether it’s a parent/family member, or even someone within the school district. Reach out to your principal, vice principal, administrative assistants, and anyone else working at your school district to see if you can set up some job shadowing to go along with your career unit.
• Career Interviewing : You could have your students brainstorm a list of interview questions for someone in a job they’re curious about, and then actually help them find a person to interview either by email or in person. Imagine what they could learn from the experience!
• Take Your Child to Work Day : My sister and I both took turns taking the train to Washington D.C. to my aunt’s, and then she would take us into her job at NBC for a “Take Your Child to Work Day”. It was SO neat! It’s really a perfect way to get a taste for what a day in a job looks like (not to mention, motivate a child to want to do better at school so they can get some of the cool positions they get to see). Here's how you can do take your child to work day activities .
• Career Videos : These can be really helpful, particularly when funds don’t allow for school field trips. MyAmericanFarm.org has a great collection of 3 to 26-minute videos on all different types of agricultural careers . PathSource has an impressive collection of career interview videos. Kids Work! Has a nice collection of ca r eer videos for kids (Grades 3-8).
• Career Articles : CommonLit has some Day in the Life career articles, such as A Day in the Life of an Astronaut . Also, ReadWorks has some of these articles.

2. How to Research Income Information

While it used to be difficult to figure out income averages for a career or job type, it’s quite simple nowadays thanks to some seriously great, free, resources provided by the Department of Labor.

Here’s a one-stop salary finder , where you enter the occupation and your location to get an idea of the average pay.

It also offers a listing of professions, so students can click around by career cluster (or category) and just explore.

Psst: another important thing to make students aware of through research? Are career projections. In other words, is an industry or job path they want to pursue growing, or are the jobs getting scarcer? Here’s a great resource from Workforce Solutions (for just the Houston-Galveston area, though it still drives the point home about the importance of this question) that shares percentages for various careers.

3. Lessons to Understand Paycheck Taxes and Deductions

EverFI has free financial literacy lessons for kids and students, and Lesson 3 is on income and taxes .

Students will be given different ideas about careers, as well as the pros and cons to each.

Career Projects for Middle School Students

Looking for a career project your middle school students will enjoy?

1. Middle School Exploratory Tasks

Kentucky's Department of Education has a really cool resource – a group of middle school career projects, broken down by 16 different career clusters (and 80 different career pathways within those clusters).

Not only that, but they have student work samples for each one!

There are projects and exploratory tasks for careers in:

• Agriculture
• Human Services
• … and ten others
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The Complete Guide to Career Exploration for Teens and Their Teachers

Students have a lot to consider as they make plans for life after high school. Career exploration can help students make, and feel confident about, their next steps. Download this resource to refer back to or share. 

How can we expect students to choose a career path that doesn't exist yet?

We may not be able to tell them what jobs will exist in the future, but we can help students make logical, informed decisions. We do this by inviting them to engage in career exploration. Exploring a variety of career paths and occupations, as well as relevant labor market information, helps students become equipped to make informed decisions that they feel good about. 

To skip straight to a section, click on the topic in the table of contents

Want to save or share? Fill out the form to download this page as a pdf.

What is career exploration.

Career exploration is “the exploration of the environment and the self with the aim of gathering career-related information.” It is a vital step in the career development process that students often first encounter as they begin to plan for life after high school. Although students need to engage in career exploration to make informed decisions regarding their post-secondary path, career exploration is not limited to this time of life. Instead, it is a continual process that individuals participate in as they progress through life.

Sometimes career exploration arises from necessity, as with students nearing graduation who must choose between different post-secondary education programs or when adults experience restructuring and subsequent job loss. Other times career exploration results from an internal desire to seek new opportunities. Whatever the case, it is becoming increasingly relevant for students to learn how to engage in career exploration since research shows that, on average, people now have five to seven careers in their lifetime. Career exploration is the key to equipping students not only for post-secondary success but for life-long professional adaptability.

Career Exploration is a cyclical, reflective, hands-on, trial and error process.

The career exploration process requires research and experimentation by the individual. This is the time for students to take an inventory of what they know about themselves and to begin looking for potential careers that interest them. But beyond just researching, they also need to explore through hands-on experiences in the classroom or through work and volunteer opportunities. Even investing in their hobbies is a valuable part of the exploration process. Like any good scientist, once students have completed their experiment, they need to reflect and draw their conclusions. Did they actually like the kind of work they completed? Is the career they were exploring compatible with their interests, skills, and values? Depending on how they answer these questions and others, they will either research new career options or they will research the next steps as they draw up a plan.

Why is Career Exploration Important for Students?

Career exploration is important for students because it helps them set informed goals and motivates them to achieve those goals. Let’s take a look at how career exploration accomplishes this. 

1. Career exploration exposes students to the myriad of career pathways that exist. 

Did you know that the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) includes 867 detailed occupations? Or that Canada’s National Occupational Classification (NOC) lists approximately 30,000 different job titles? That said, neither the SOC nor the NOC “attempt to provide an exhaustive list of job titles.” Instead, these lists aim “to cover the most commonly used and universally understood labels that identify work” in their respective labor markets. In other words, a list of 30,000 occupations does not cover all the jobs that exist in a single country. Given the tremendous number of job titles and opportunities, it is impossible for students to be aware of all their options without dedicating time and attention to career exploration. 

Discover how ChatterHigh personalizes career exploration for students.

2. Career exploration introduces students to labor market realities. 

Exposing students to the plethora of occupations within the labor market is a vital piece of career exploration. However, to help youth make informed career choices, it’s important to also teach them about a couple of fundamental economic principles: supply and demand. Of course, the economy is ever-evolving as technology continues to transform how people work and what kinds of jobs exist. So it’s impossible to tell your students exactly what the job market will look like by the time they are ready to enter the workforce. It’s possible that the jobs your students will one day have don’t exist yet. It’s also possible the jobs they’re dreaming of will change. However, by introducing them to trends in the economy and relevant labor market information, you can help your students gain insight into what areas of study will prepare them for tomorrow’s economy.

Check out “NOC, SOC, and Roll: How ChatterHigh Connects Students to Labor Market Information.”

3. Career exploration helps students make informed decisions and plans for their future. 

According to Sareena Hopkins, Executive Director at Canadian Career Development Foundation, an informed decision is based on self-awareness and opportunity awareness. So, to make an informed decision, students must learn about themselves and the different options available to them. And this is precisely where career exploration comes into play. Career exploration is the vehicle for building opportunity awareness. Active career exploration does more than simply list a number of post-secondary pathways available to students. Instead, it allows students to discover the skills, knowledge, and values involved in different jobs. Through exploring occupations, students gain relevant knowledge concerning job responsibilities, work environment, training requirements, remuneration, and more. As a result, they are equipped to make informed decisions. 

ChatterHigh fills an important gap in supporting opportunity awareness. It exposes individuals to a wide range of post-secondary options, industry sectors and occupations. This is vital for anyone, but particularly critical for young people who may have had limited access to social capital and limited exposure to the range of possibilities that exist in post-secondary and labor market systems. - Sareena Hopkins, Executive Director, Canadian Career Development Foundation

4. Career exploration helps students evaluate career pathways according to their values, skills, and interests. 

Since career exploration involves exploring the environment and the self, it requires students to reflect on themselves and the variety of job opportunities they’ve discovered. Since this exploration is not simply a mental exercise but requires hands-on experience, students will be able to test their hypotheses. That is, students can try out their career of choice through job shadowing, work or volunteer experience, or developing a new hobby. Then they can decide whether this career pathway is truly compatible with their values, skills, and interests. Considering the role that intrinsic motivation plays in job satisfaction , it’s important that we help students discover careers that interest them and allow them to use their skills. And career exploration is one key way we can do this.

5. Career exploration can help cultivate hope in students.  

Hope can be defined as the cognitive combination of agency and pathways. In other words, hope is where “goal-directed determination” and the “planning of ways to meet goals” intersect. That’s because knowing what our goal is, believing we can achieve it, and having a plan to achieve it shows us that our goal is attainable. And that’s precisely what career exploration does for students. Not every student who dreams of travelling to the moon is going to become an astronaut, but career exploration shows them that there is a path that leads to that outcome. It may be hard. It may not be the right fit for the student. They may even discover something better for them along the way. The beauty of career exploration is that it can help students feel more confident as they begin their post-secondary education. And if they do discover their original goal isn’t right for them, they can pursue a new interest and set a different goal. 

Interested in finding a way to help foster hope in your students? Check out ChatterHigh’s gamified platform that uses inquiry-based learning to expose students to a variety of career and post-secondary options. ChatterHigh’s approach has been proven to produce a wide range of positive outcomes, including making students feel more hopeful about their future. Ready to start exploring? Create your account now or book a demo .

When to Introduce Your Students to Career Exploration

It’s never too early to begin career exploration, especially when it’s engaging. In fact, to equip students to make informed decisions with minimal stress, we should begin career exploration by middle school.

Why Middle School is the Perfect Time for Students to Explore Careers

Middle school is the ideal time to introduce your students to career exploration for three main reasons. First, middle school students want to engage in career exploration. Second, middle school students benefit more from career intervention than their high school peers. Third, in high school, students are choosing courses that form their educational pathway and determine their post-secondary opportunities. 

>> Learn more about the benefits of early career exploration <<

Because career exploration is a continual process, there are benefits to bringing it into the classroom well before high school and it should be worked into all subject areas. Research shows that higher levels of career planfulness can result in heightened school engagement. Highlighting future career relevancy can also help to answer the age-old question, “When will I ever use this stuff?!” In a world where the average worker will have five to seven different careers during their lifetime, it is valuable to practice career exploration as an ongoing activity. So let’s take a look at exactly how we can get our students engaged in this exploratory process. 

How to Bring Career Exploration into the Classroom

There are a variety of ways to successfully bring career exploration into your classroom, no matter the age of your students.

"Career development is a lifelong process. At the elementary level, students are already making choices that will impact their future. It is important to expose students to these key career concepts early in their school careers. Having students reflect on their learning, choices, and who they are as individuals, students and learners will impact their social, emotional, academic, and career growth and development throughout school." - Newfoundland and Labrador Career Development Elementary Curriculum Guide , 2017

Regardless of whether or not career education is a separate subject in your region’s curriculum, you can use some of the following ideas to bring career exploration into your classroom. These activities can be integrated into different subjects, from language arts to math, and are a great way to help engage your students.

1. Take Our Kids to Work Day

Encourage your students to participate in Take Our Kids to Work Day. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to experience a day in the life of a professional. If your school isn’t participating in this day, consider implementing it yourself. To make the most of this event, you might consider creating a reflection assignment or a presentation. Sharing what they’ve learned in front of their class not only gets students thinking, but it also gets them educating one other.

2. Guest Speakers

Consider inviting professionals into your classroom as well. Bringing in guest speakers from the field is a great way to show students the relevance of what they’re learning in your classroom, while also helping them discover and learn more about potential careers. This is an especially great way to do career exploration with elementary students. 

If you want to find speakers from specific fields that interest your students, consider having your students (from Grades 6 to 12) complete the ChatterHigh Daily Quiz . As students quiz, they rate their interest in the programs of study and jobs that they encounter during the quiz. As their teacher, you can see a classwide summary of all their interests and select a speaker accordingly. (Find out more here .)

3. Brochures

Encourage your students to swing by your school’s guidance office to check out some of the brochures for different colleges and universities in your area. There are so many resources online, but a physical booklet can help guide students to the information they need.

4. Skilled Trades Competitions

Take a field trip, virtually or in-person, to a skilled trades competition. Skills Compétences Canada and WorldSkills USA both host competitions that showcase a variety of skilled trades. You can even find regional competitions closer to your school. This is a great way to introduce your students to the world of trades. 

5. Career Exploration Worksheets

Take advantage of free resources such as the When I Grow Up: Career Lessons and Activities for Grades 9-12 booklet. This downloadable PDF covers skills identification and career exploration, while also including resources so your students can refine their job search and employability skills.

6. Job Fairs

Organizing a job fair at your school is a great way to introduce your students to a variety of job opportunities in one place.

7. Online Skills and Personality Assessments

There are lots of free skill and personality assessments students can explore. However, there is one assessment in particular that Grade 12 students may benefit from completing — a Plum Profile . Plum is a company that specializes in categorizing and measuring people’s recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours — what they call “talents.” By creating their own account and completing the assessment, students can learn about their preferences and strengths so they have a better understanding of the kinds of jobs and work environments that would suit them best.

8. Gamified Career Exploration 

The ChatterHigh Daily Quiz is a great bellringer activity that allows students to regularly engage in career exploration. With the ability to earn points that can be used to win prizes or donate to charity, students are motivated to complete the research activity that will expose them to all the general areas of study and help them discover interesting occupations. As a teacher, you can even access lesson plans for your region that show you how the Daily Quiz aligns with your curriculum and how you can easily incorporate it into your classroom. To learn more about the quiz, see the section "How the ChatterHigh Career Exploration Activity Works."  Or check out our blog to learn how you can get started with career exploration in your classroom in five easy steps.

How Career Exploration Complements College and Career Readiness Standards and Programs

College and career readiness is a top priority across the country. In fact, the Common Core Standards were developed to ensure that every student who graduates from high school is equipped with the fundamental skills and knowledge needed to succeed in post-secondary studies or in the workforce. However, these standards emphasize academic measures, specifically literacy and numeracy. While it is vital for students to possess these aptitudes, to truly be college- or career-ready, students must expand their awareness of opportunities in post-secondary and labor market systems. 

“Career readiness becomes refined through systematic career exploration that includes an intentional process of reality-testing career preferences. Such reality-testing occurs along a continuum ranging from personalized research, information interviews/observations, externships, internships, curricular and co-curricular experiences.” -Spencer Niles, Professor and Co-Director, THRIVE Research & Intervention Center and Editor, Counselor Education and Supervision 

Therefore, career exploration is a necessary complement to the standards.

It is worth noting that while most states adopted the Common Core Standards, a few did not. Instead, these states (Alaska, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Indiana, Virginia, and South Carolina) created their own state-specific standards , while Minnesota opted for a hybrid of state-developed standards and the Common Core Standards. 

>>Click here for a map showing college- and career-readiness policies by state.<<

Unlike the Common Core Standards, some of the state-developed standards address college and career readiness through specific courses and curricula. For example, the Texas curriculum includes courses such as Investigating Careers and College and Career Readiness , while Minnesota's state-specific standards dictate that school districts are responsible for helping students “ explore their educational, college, and career interests, aptitudes, and aspirations and develop a plan for a smooth and successful transition to postsecondary education or employment .”

Regardless of whether a state’s standards explicitly address post-secondary planning or career exploration, states can further promote college and career readiness through adopting other programs and initiatives, such as dual enrollment opportunities, Career Technical Education (CTE), Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), and more. To learn more about these programs, click on the tabs below.

" Dual enrollment " is a term referring to any program that allows high school students to complete college courses. Most often, a student who participates in a dual enrollment opportunity will receive a credit at both the high school and college levels. While these dual credit opportunities are common throughout the country, they are not all identical. In some cases, a student will complete a dual enrollment course at their high school, while in other cases they will attend a local college or complete it online. Regardless of the format, dual enrollment opportunities allow students to take advantage of more subject-specific courses that align with their interests. If a student is considering a certain career path, participating in a dual enrollment program can allow them to get a taste of that field to see if they want to continue down that path, before they’ve officially enrolled in a college or university program.

To learn about the dual enrollment programs in your state, click here .

Career Technical Education (CTE) refers to “ education that combines academic and technical skills with the knowledge and training needed to succeed in today’s labor market.” Unlike traditional vocational education, CTE is not designed for a narrow segment of the student population. Rather, CTE derives its structure from the 16 Career Clusters in the National Career Clusters Framework, which include jobs from a wide variety of industries, such as manufacturing, agriculture, business, health care, and more. In this way, students with various vocational goals can benefit from CTE. Furthermore, CTE can help expose students to career possibilities. To discover what CTE students have to say about it, watch the video below.

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) are federal grant programs designed to help students from low-income families enter and succeed in post-secondary education. One way grants can do this is through supporting programs that focus on making students college- and career-ready. For example, Desoto Independent School District created its college and career readiness program, NXT Generation GEAR UP , with the aim of building an academic community that will foster student success in post-secondary education.

AVID is an organization that provides a specialized curriculum that schools can purchase to prepare students for life after high school. Through access to professional development, resources, and support, AVID equips teachers and students all for the benefit of students. AVID partners with both primary and secondary schools so that students receive the education they need to prepare them for college and career success. In fact, the “college-going culture of an AVID Elementary campus encourages students to think about their college and career plans .” In this way, not only does AVID help equip students with the skills needed for academic success, but it also creates the perfect environment for meaningful career exploration. 

How the ChatterHigh Career Exploration Activity Works

ChatterHigh offers students a divergent career exploration experience through our 10-question Daily Quiz. The powerful algorithm behind the quiz allows students to discover countless post-secondary programs and career pathways, while also offering personalization as students progress through the activity. Here’s how it works.

Book a demo to learn more about ChatterHigh career exploration activities. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(8361206, '31fefa79-0b9e-4921-839b-7b2bad56de22', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"});

Students receive questions relating to post-secondary education and career paths, as well as health, financial literacy, and labor market resources. After reading their question, students click “Research.”

Step 2 

Students are taken to the webpage containing the answer. Once they’ve found the answer, they return to the ChatterHigh site where they submit their response.

Students complete the Interest and Awareness Survey for the question they’ve just answered.

After answering a question about a post-secondary program or a career, students receive an Interest and Awareness Survey, which is a brief, 4-question survey. The first two questions are about the organization, while the last two are about the program or job. Indicating their level of interest allows the platform to learn what kinds of questions to tailor to the students after the students have answered 100 questions. The first 100 questions are dedicated to divergent exploration so that students are exposed to all the general areas of study. After answering 100 questions, a couple of questions in each quiz are personalized to the student based on the interests they’ve previously indicated in their surveys. (To learn more about the benefits of ChatterHigh’s personalized career exploration activity, check out this blog .)

Students review and reflect on their exploration by clicking on “Interests” at the top of their screen. 

Thanks to the Interest and Awareness Survey, everything that catches a student’s attention while they quiz (that is, anything they rank as “Interesting” or “Very Interesting”) is recorded in their Interests Profile. The more they quiz, the more interests they accumulate and the more reports they unlock! There are a number of helpful reports available to students within the Interests Profile. In particular, the Top 5 Interest Report allows students to compare their top five colleges and universities, programs of study, and jobs and careers. (Click here to learn about how the Top 5 Interest Report can help your students reflect on their post-secondary options.)

Students use the points they’ve earned from quizzing to enter prize draws or to donate to charity. 

The chance to win prizes and donate to charity motivates students to engage in career exploration, particularly during a competition. (Click here to find out when our next national competition is happening.)

Have a Question or Want a Closer Look at ChatterHigh's Career Exploration Activity?

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Consider this a post-secondary survival kit.

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB ) Career Exploration Program (CEP) provides no-cost planning tools designed to help students in 10th grade and above make informed career decisions based on their skills and interests. The ASVAB is more than just a military test. It is an aptitude test that helps facilitate career exploration and predict future occupational success.  Bring it to your school!

Success looks different for every person. You can help your high schoolers figure out where to find career satisfaction by getting them the facts on the world of work, their post-secondary options, and their own skills and interests. It’s all about making informed decisions, but you need resources for that. Enter: these awesome career exploration worksheets.

What’s in the career exploration worksheets bundle?

• Career Exploration Note-Taking Sheet: Use a tool like the ASVAB CEP’s OCCU-Find to research different careers. Our worksheet includes space for students to take notes on three different careers. It includes spaces for how it fits their interests, how it aligns with their workplace preferences, average salary, and more.
• Comparing Post-Secondary Paths Tool: For this activity, students will research the cost of pursuing two different paths for a career, taking into consideration several different paths available to them. We recommend they select one of the careers they researched on the prior worksheet to outline two paths. (For example: If a student wants to be a medical assistant, they might go to training school or complete a one-year certificate at a community college.)
• Post-Secondary Planning Checklist: This list is divided by grade (9-12) and has important steps for students to take for whatever their post-secondary plans are. It covers academics, self-discovery, career exploration, and college/career planning.
• Résumé Tip Sheet: This isn’t your grandparents’ résumé. We’ve got up-to-date dos and don’ts for students to create a résumé that will really stand out.

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High school students often tire of being asked, “What are your career plans?” Some students have no idea how to answer the question. Others may give a rote answer just to stop the questions. There are actually so many career choices available that high school students can pursue that they need direction in order to discover their own interests and skills. They may discover that opportunities are available they never even thought of before. Here are just a few suggestions that may help in career research for high school students.

Brainstorming

This may seem like a simple suggestion, but it is a good first step. Students should make a list of things they like and do not like to do and classes they like and do not like. For example, do they like history class but hate math class or vice versa? Do they like to work in groups or do they prefer to work alone? Do they like to work indoors or outdoors?

Assessment tests

There a variety of assessment tests that may be administered at high schools. If not, they can be found online. Some examples are:

• Myer-Briggs Test:  This analyzes personality characteristics and how a person interacts with people or if they prefer not to interact with people at all.
• Strong Interest Inventory:  This helps students who are having trouble identifying their interests and helps focus on what a student truly enjoys doing.
• Self-Directed Search:  This test focuses on identifying skills and interests.
• Skill Scan Test:  This focuses on seven specific skills and assists a student in determining which skills they have or want to develop.

Assessment tests are just stepping stones to identifying potential careers. Results should not be used to direct a person to or away from a specific career but should be used only as tools to help identify career choices.

Research potential careers

A few specific careers can be identified in order to pursue career research for high school students. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes an Occupational Outlook Handbook which provides detailed information for every possible job including:

• Job description
• Specific employers or types of employers
• Salary ranges
• Expected job growth over the next few years
• Educational requirements
• Where the jobs are located

Informational interviews

Students may know or can be introduced to someone who works in a job the student is interested in pursuing as a career. Guiding the student to develop interview questions of the professional person can be helpful. Students can get real answers to their career questions from people who actually work every day in the career of interest. Students can be guided to ask questions such as:

• How did the person train for the job?
• What does the person like best about the job?
• What does the person dislike about the job?
• What has the person learned that they wish they had known before pursuing the career?
• What advice does the professional have concerning what the student should and should not do in pursuit of the career?

Job shadowing

Some schools have job shadowing programs that give students the opportunity of actually working with a professional in the career of the student’s choice. The student arranges to spend several hours with the professional to “shadow” them and see exactly what they do on a daily basis.

If the school does not have a shadowing program established students can contact the local Chamber of Commerce for business directories and suggestions of professionals who may be contacted. Students can then set up individual job shadowing experiences.

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Tagged as: Career and Technical Education ,  High School (Grades: 9-12)

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7 Career Exploration Activities For High School Students

High school students, at their age, have acquired a lot of knowledge. They still wonder what they are going to do with the knowledge attained or in which job they will ‘fit in’. If you are also going through the same fix, take a more cognitive approach to find where your future lies. 

We bring you here some of the career exploration activities that help you find your calling after completing high school or levels beyond that. You can do these activities along with your friends or may take the help of a teacher or placement cells in colleges wherever external support is required.

Interesting career exploration activities 

• Interview a successful CEO 

Interviewing is an art that can help you get the facts right from the horse’s mouth. The students can request CEOs or key executives of companies operating in your city to visit your high school as guests. It requires: 

• Make a list of companies or offices in your city
• Sending a formal invitation letter to the guest CEO
• Preparing a questionnaire with the help of friends
• Organizing a session for Q & As.

It is an activity that may require you to reach out to the school management or teacher to help you get the CEO for the session. 

A quick tip: Refer to the alumni list of your own school; the successful alumni will love to come down to help you and revisit their high school time. 

• Live a day in the shoes of…

How about knowing firsthand the job responsibilities, challenges, and rewards that come with any job profile? Organize a day visit to the companies and let the high schooler spend it in the company of the professional that he/she wants to become. 

High schoolers may be selected based on the interest they show and match with the profiles where their interests are utilized the best. 

Some of the job profiles that usually get the attention of high schoolers are:

• Physical Training Expert
• Veterinary Doctor
• Public Relations Officer
• Air Traffic Controller
• Marine Biologist

Try to include the job profiles which are not usually known. It may help high schoolers get an idea of the jobs that they may not hear about from family or friends.

• Take Surveys

Career exploration surveys are designed to explore the interests of the students. The main motive of these surveys is to prepare the profile of the students and match them with the opportunities available.

Students want to take up careers that are likely to fill them with monetary as well as emotional satisfaction. For that correct profiling of aptitude and the areas where that bend of mind is utilized the best, the surveys are designed. 

• Chalk out career pathways in different fields

What does reaching the dream career look like? Having an idea about it beforehand helps you know how to prepare for different phases and milestones. We all have readily available information sources – working parents, elder siblings, teachers – who can share their journey. 

Using their experiences, you can draw a flow chart that tells about the courses to join, the entry levels in various fields, the experience required to move to higher positions, etc. Thus, you get in front of you a visual presentation of the career graph in the desired field. For example, you can make a career path for becoming a surgeon . That will help you know classes to join, how to apply, entry-level jobs, etc.

This simple activity can help students stay focused on their path to reaching their career goals and make efforts in the correct direction.

• Brainstorming career ideas with friends

Tweak the career aspect in your ‘Know your friends’ activity and you will get an interesting career exploration activity to do with your friends. As you grow and reach the high school level, you get a vague idea of your areas of interest, aptitude, and life you want to live as an adult. 

With all this information stuffed inside, you can find an outlet in your friends with whom you can sit and brainstorm ideas. Brainstorming serves two ways. First, you get to know about various fields available for making a career. Second, you find friends who share your aspirations. Thus, you find the company that is likely to stay with you in life beyond high school.

• Career assessment charts

These are similar to surveys, but offer a peek into the level of liking the high school students have in different areas of work. The list of the jobs is added in the rightmost column and the degree of liking – least liked to most liked columns are to be ticked in front of every job. It helps the students discover their strengths, likes, and aptitudes for various job profiles.

These charts are available in the form of free interests profiler and personality profiler too. 

• Career exploration worksheets

These worksheets are designed keeping various purposes in mind. The students can fill these worksheets by doing research or using their literary skills. A few examples of free worksheets for career exploration are:

• Find your Right Job Worksheet: It is a research-oriented resource to help understand find the opportunities available after completing college. To fill out this worksheet, the students may go through the employment news, career portals, ‘Careers’ section of the business websites, etc., and shortlist the jobs that they find appealing. Also, they will fill out the details like qualifications required for the job, job responsibilities, and growth possibilities of the job. 
• Career research worksheet: It is a part of life skill activity too. The students can fill out the worksheet stating the scope of the job, how it serves the community, how it offers stability in life, and what factors of the job match their personal aspirations. 
• Income from career worksheet: It is again an exploratory activity where high schoolers note down the job profiles and find the salary packages and perks offered to the candidates. 

Free sites where you can find these career exploration activities

Wondering where you can get the ready-to-use support for carrying out career exploration activities? Worry no further! Listed here are some of the best sites that provide you the free resources to help you with career exploration.

• Career Research Handout at Teachers Pay Teachers
• Interest profiler at My Next Move
• Career Assessment Questionnaire at Truity
• Career Exploration Worksheets and Activities at Workforce Solutions
• Career Planning Resource by Biz world

Summing up,

To become successful in life, planning from an early stage helps a lot. Career planning and exploration as a part of the high school curriculum make complete sense as it helps students understand their skill set and go for jobs where they are happy and actively contributing.

By taking cognizance of the courses required to do and jobs that offer good salaries, experience required for growth, etc., the students can be clear in their minds about the future. It will help them have an action plan that yields positive results. 

Sananda Bhattacharya, Chief Editor of TheHighSchooler, is dedicated to enhancing operations and growth. With degrees in Literature and Asian Studies from Presidency University, Kolkata, she leverages her educational and innovative background to shape TheHighSchooler into a pivotal resource hub. Providing valuable insights, practical activities, and guidance on school life, graduation, scholarships, and more, Sananda’s leadership enriches the journey of high school students.

Explore a plethora of invaluable resources and insights tailored for high schoolers at TheHighSchooler, under the guidance of Sananda Bhattacharya’s expertise. You can follow her on Linkedin

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Kami Blog > Career Exploration Activities for High School Students

Career Exploration Activities for High School Students

Career exploration and discussions are a key part of a high school student’s experience, and for many, it’s their “why”; why they’re at school, why they chose certain subjects, and why they’re aiming for high grades. However, it’s a turbulent time in our world, and many of our students feel overwhelmed about their futures – with climate change and Covid only two of many concerns keeping them up at night.

With that in mind, here are some career activities and ideas to help you approach career education in a mindful but effective way.

1. It’s all about soft skills!

Start your careers exploration unit by defining “ soft skills ” and getting students to list all of the qualities and personality traits they’re proud of. Students can brainstorm skills such as being punctual, open-minded, having a sense of humor, being patient, or even just being good at talking to people. Give students ideas about what qualities you think they have and encourage peers to give some positive ideas too – a nice moment for everyone to value their self-worth and uniqueness.

From their brainstorming, ask them to consider how they developed these skills; what was it in their life that helped them get so good at being organized and always on time? Was it involvement in a sports team? Are they a good communicator because, as an older sibling, they’ve helped to mediate younger sibling arguments? Explain how these simple things can be their key selling points for future careers – all of the soft skills that employers may want but don’t necessarily want to spend time or money training people in.

Starting with “soft skills” helps ease students’ anxiety stemming from the big decision of deciding on a career path or even the cost/pressure of getting into college. It’s also a way for students to think about building a curriculum vitae as they go for part-time employment.

During their next lesson, define “ hard skills ” and get them to consider all of the skills they have that they’ve had to learn or are specialized in, such as using certain computer programs or speaking multiple languages. This then naturally flows into chats about qualifications, internships, and career goals, in a supported way. Planting these seeds helps students see themselves on a career pathway rather than believe that careers are a whole new—and at times scary—journey they’re yet to start. By having students engage in critical thinking about soft and hard skills, it’s a positive way to start the unit, and they get to see their own career readiness as competent, skilled young adults.

2. Share career pathways and experiences

To help students understand career planning and pathways further, why not get some helpful friends and family members to record mini videos about their jobs. Keep these short, only up to five minutes. Within the video, have them cover their current career, the soft and hard skills they need, if they’ve had a different career, and what they like or dislike about their job. Students can use these videos to continue thinking about soft and hard skills and understand how often people’s career pathways are non-linear. The latter is really refreshing for students and often a good reminder that, over time, your career goals and career interests change. It also lets them relax and remember that the world won’t end if they don’t commit to a career decision this very second! Use these videos as a starter or “do now” task in my lesson plan.

Now, they might not always show it, but teenagers do like hearing about a person’s career journey – especially how they got to that career, why they chose that path, and other opportunities, such as travel. You could have students interview a family friend or member of their choice, focusing interview questions on soft skills, career development, and changes. This fun activity allows students to see how people may start in a part-time job flipping burgers before making more permanent career decisions.

When looking at different types of careers, have students complete mix and match quizzes about employment keywords, such as full/part-time, fixed-term, seasonal, etc. As these are often words that students have heard of but might not know. This is a quick task but builds good base knowledge and build confidence.

3. Thinking about the future

It’s important to realize that, for a lot of students, their career options and path will look very different from our own. Covid has kick-started it all by introducing more remote and flexible working . Try running an activity around the gig economy and flexibility, getting students to define each, look for some examples, and use critical thinking to evaluate their findings. This lesson helps get students excited about the future while giving them an opportunity to weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of things like the gig economy, so they feel informed. It allows for discussion around any concerns they have and to problem solve what this might look like for them personally. Another fun activity for students is doing mini research tasks or a “Google Race” to find out about jobs that once existed but now don’t, e.g. chimney sweeping, manual switchboard operators, or lamp-lighters. Students find some of the past occupations funny, and it reminds them that change is a constant.

4. Finding the sweet spot

To support students in thinking about their career choices, make a worksheet for them to complete, either using keywords or images. On the worksheet, have a Venn diagram for students to record what they’re good at, what they enjoy, and what kind of lifestyle they imagine for themselves. The latter is always fun, as students consider if they want to travel, buy a first home, or have time to pursue and master a hobby. In the middle, I have students consider all three sections and record what they want from a job to utilize their strengths and achieve their lifestyle. Students may record whether they want to work with people, alone, or with animals; if they wish to work indoors or outdoors; if they want a creative career. This supports students’ initial career research into either specific careers or broader career fields. From here, they can then access support from the school careers team or CTE.

See your role in career exploration from a mentoring point of view, where you focus on the possibilities of careers as well as the variety of careers. The last thing you want is for your students to feel locked into a five-year plan! Instead, show them that getting clued-up about careers now makes way for further productive discussion, planning, and opportunity down the track.

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Teaching by Topic: Career Prep

Here are a bunch of tips, learning objectives, worksheets, and pre-built lesson plans to help you build your curriculum to teach students all about career prep!

The benefit of money education for your students is to prepare them for future careers and how they handle the income they’ll receive. They need to learn good financial habits, organization, and how to maximize their skills to find their ideal career.

You can find the materials you need to teach student career prep, regardless of your students’ levels. Here are budgeting lessons, worksheets, activities and games, and some essential tips –  by grade. We also include student career learning objectives for each grade, which are pulled straight from the National Standards for Personal Finance Education.

National Standards for Personal Finance Education

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Our free cheat sheet covers every learning objective in the National Standards for Personal Finance Education and the corresponding Kids' Money Lesson Plans - we cover each and every standard!

Your pre-K students are introduced to careers and jobs but still need to build the foundation to gain progress towards more advanced learning objectives. They can work on money awareness, gain organizational skills, and learn how to find information. Here are some activities to develop their skill sets.

• Money Name Matching
• Color the Money
• Money Value Match
• Make Your Own Play Money

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to Pre-K Students

• Focus on organizing materials.
• Practice sorting and counting money.
• Show them different uniforms and tools people use in various professions.

For more resources on other topics, check out our Pre-K Money Lesson Plans Center .

Kindergarten

Learning objectives.

Your kindergarteners begin to see different professions and the skills and tools they may use. They should be able to:

• List different types of jobs.

Kindergarten Career Prep Lesson Plans

• KMLP Kindergarten – Services : Students see several jobs, particularly those that revolve around services. They read a book, complete an activity, and learn about the specific requirements of doctors, police officers, and others.

Kindergarten Career Prep Worksheets

• Counting Money
• Identify Coins and Their Value
• Draw a Line to Match
• Piggy Bank Worksheet
• Goods and Services Sort

Kindergarten Career Prep Games and Activities

• When I Grow Up
• Savings Match Game
• The Perfect Pet
• Savings Spree
• Renegade Bunnies

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to Kindergarten Students

• Differentiate between goods and services.
• Use role-play and acting often.
• Introduce the idea of earning income.

For more resources on other topics, check out our Kindergarten Money Lesson Plans Center .

1st-graders see how to earn income and that people make different amounts. They should be able to:

• Give examples of how an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience could affect their ability to earn income.

1st Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• KMLP 1st Grade – Earning : In this lesson, students watch a video about jobs and read a book about careers. They learn about clothes and uniforms that accompany various professions and the training involved.

1st Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Job Descriptions
• Would You Rather
• Career Interest Survey

1st Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• I’m In Charge of Me
• Career Day!

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 1st Graders

• Have students continue to look at careers through uniforms and tools.
• Show them that some jobs provide a service.
• Have kids act out more careers and start to pay them with play money.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 1st Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

2nd-grade students see more extensive careers and learn how to earn income. They should be able to:

• Explain why employers pay people for their labor.

2nd Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• KMLP 2nd Grade – Income : Students see different ways people can earn income. They see the many career paths they can take in the future.

2nd Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Kindness and Leadership
• Something Fishy
• Family Tree

2nd Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• Career Focused Reading Comprehension
• Exploration Research Prompts
• Jobs and Occupations
• Career Scavenger Hunt
• Career Day Packet

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 2nd Graders

• It’s not too early to start researching careers.
• Begin giving interest inventories to see what kind of work settings they prefer.
• Build leadership skills for career prep.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 2nd Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

In 3rd grade, students dive into career research to get an idea of what they want to do for work. They should be able to:

• Brainstorm ways to improve one’s ability to earn income.

3rd Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• KMLP 3rd Grade – Employment and Specialization : This lesson plan teaches students about various jobs. They also participate in a career center where they research different professions.

3rd Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Sort Leadership
• Career Day Research
• Career Recording Sheet
• College Pennant
• Career Day Writing Paper

3rd Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• Career Bingo
• I Spy Careers
• Elementary Career Challenge
• Career Workbook
• Exploring STEM Careers

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 3rd Graders

• Focus on teaching teamwork.
• Have students look into income differences based on training and education.
• Have students reflect on their learning frequently.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 3rd Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

4th-graders break down income earning and which careers pay in certain formats. They should be able to:

• Describe the difference between wages, salaries, commissions, and tips.

4th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• KMLP 4th Grade – Earning Income : Students learn that people earn income by working, which can look different based on the job. They role-play a game that shows how various jobs work.

4th Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Career Cluster
• Career vs. Job
• Career Research
• Explore Careers
• Researching a Career

4th Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• Career Exploration
• My Future Career
• Career Art Project
• Professionalism

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 4th Graders

• Have kids use multiplication and division to calculate monthly salaries based on annual amounts.
• Continue to act out different professions.
• Research and report often.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 4th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

5th-graders learn about personal habits and interests and how they relate to career choices. They should be able to:

• Assess personal skills and interests and match them to various career options.

5th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• 5th Grade – Career Readiness: In this lesson plan from mckasd.net, students take a career interest survey. They also write a letter to a future employer.

5th Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Facebook Student Profile Form
• Life Skills, Study Skills
• My College Application
• Leadership Sort
• What is Leadership?

5th Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• Auction Adventure
• Career Coloring and Information Book

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 5th Graders

• Students should begin to focus on specific industries.
• Introduce the idea of taxes and how they impact career earnings.
• Explain the pros and cons of entrepreneurship.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 5th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

6th-grade students see how to find the specifics of different careers. They should be able to:

• Conduct research on a specific career field.

6th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• 6th Grade – College and Career Readiness: This lesson from lubbockisd.org has students perform various career prep activities. They play a game, complete worksheets, watch a video, and take notes on how to reach certain careers.

6th Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Career Exploration Graphic Organizer
• Career Cluster Match
• College, Career, and Readiness Comic
• Holland Code Career Test

6th Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• ID That Career
• Middle Galaxy
• Corporations Project
• Career in Forensics
• Careers in Science

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 6th Graders

• Use group work often to show the importance of collaboration.
• Link the ideas of college and careers.
• Mesh career prep into other subjects such as Social Studies.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 6th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

7th-grade students focus on learning life skills related to career prep. They should be able to:

• Discuss how specific skills training can improve a young person’s human capital, productivity, and income-earning potential.

7th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• 7th Grade – Career Readiness: This extensive lesson plan set from exploring.org offers a wide variety of activities. It goes over basics like professional behavior, how to dress, and how to interview for a job.

7th Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Career Research Handout
• Escape the Job Expo
• Career Planning List

7th Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• College and Career Bingo
• College Pennant Activity
• Our Future’s Looking Bright
• College Bound Research Project
• College and Career WebQuest

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 7th Graders

• Continue to role-play job-based scenarios.
• Work on interview skills and fill out job applications.
• Focus on emotional support and keeping kids prepared for adult life.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 7th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

8th-grade students start to hone in on careers, looking into the specific requirements of each. They should be able to:

• Compare the education and training requirements, income potential, and primary duties of at least two jobs available to high school students.

8th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• 8th Grade – Career Exploration: This lesson plan from bizworld.org has students research 3-5 specific careers and find information. They find personal interests, see aligned careers, and learn the incomes involved.

8th Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Leadership and Communication
• Career Research Worksheet
• Job Interview Questions
• Career Exploration Worksheet
• Waiters and Waitresses

8th Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• Needs and Wants Game
• Food Tycoon
• How College Relates to Career Earnings
• College, Trade School, and the Military
• My Next Move Profiler

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 8th Graders

• Talk with individuals about the pros and cons of their career choices.
• Remind them to be flexible and research often.
• Focus on leadership, communication, and collaboration.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 8th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

In 9th grade, students take a realistic and authentic approach to career prep. They should be able to:

• Identify different types of jobs and careers where wages and salaries depend on a worker’s productivity and skills.

9th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• 9th Grade – Career Exploration and Planning: In this lesson plan from ptech.org, students learn hands-on skills like how to build a professional social media presence. They also see the many career exploration sites and tools available.

9th Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Applying For a Job
• Tap Into Your WIFI
• Self-Assessment
• Employment Vocabulary
• Career Handout

9th Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• Top 20 High School Jobs
• Real-World Application
• Real People, Real Pathways
• LinkedIn for Students

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 9th Graders

• Have students reflect on their learning styles as well as career interests.
• Have students build online portfolios (safely and responsibly, of course).
• Include practical information like how to read a pay stub.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 9th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

10th-graders learn how to align values with career options, such as working outside, working with their hands, solving puzzles, and more. They should be able to:

• Evaluate the tradeoffs between income and non-income factors when making career or job choices.

10th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• 10th Grade – What Matters to Me?: In this lesson from californiacareers.info, students identify work values and which careers are a match. They see why their habits and principles matter for their career choice.

10th Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Networking BINGO
• Interview Planning Sheet
• 16 Career Clusters

10th Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• Career Technical Education
• Career Test
• Resource Network Activity
• Work Importance Profiler
• Make Money Choices

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 10th Graders

• Focus on public speaking and presentation.
• Research, research, research.
• Use current events to show various careers in action.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 10th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

In 11th grade, students look inward to see the best fit for their future, not only for income but also to find something they will enjoy doing. They should be able to:

• Discuss the pros and cons of small business ownership as their primary source of income.

11th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• 11th Grade – Career Awareness: In this lesson from mckasd.net, students complete self-analyses of their skills and abilities. They learn about current trends in their career area of focus.

11th Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Develop a Career Plan
• An Effective Resume
• Assess Your Skills and Interests
• College Prep Checklist
• Communication Skills

11th Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• Career Quiz
• College and Career Readiness
• Select a College for Future Career
• Career Clusters Activity
• Career Search

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 11th Graders

• Every student is unique, so ensure they take many self-reflective tests.
• Have students create detailed reports linking college aspirations to their intended careers.
• Go over the costs of reaching the job goals for each student.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 11th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

12th-graders are in full preparation mode for their future lives, researching daily and creating reports to gather and clarify information. They should be able to:

• Evaluate the costs and benefits of investing in additional education or training.

12th Grade Career Prep Lesson Plans

• 12th Grade – Introduction to Career Preparation: In this lesson from txcte.org, students analyze future outlooks in their intended occupation. They also describe entrepreneurial opportunities in the field and research rewards and demands in their career.

12th Grade Career Prep Worksheets

• Letter to Your Future Self
• Interview Prep
• Resume Building Worksheet
• The Path to Success
• First Day on the Job Checklist

12th Grade Career Prep Games and Activities

• Career Aptitude Test
• Speed Interviewing
• Education Planner
• Career OneStop
• 2-5-8 Projects

Tips for Teaching Career Prep to 12th Graders

• Research every day.
• Form small-group cohorts to encourage and work together.
• Have guest speakers and have students attend college and career fairs.

For more resources on other topics, check out our 12th Grade Money Lesson Plans Center .

More Resources

• Career Planning Worksheets for High School Students
• Career Research Projects for High School Students
• Career Exploration Worksheets
• Career Day Ideas
• Job Readiness Worksheets
• “When I Grow Up” Worksheets

High School Students Thrive as Researchers

Authentic exploratory research hones students’ investigation and analysis skills..

Posted April 1, 2024 | Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer

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This post is Part I in a series.

I got to speak with students at Laguna Beach High School (LBHS) recently when giving a career talk there. They kept asking me advanced questions about conducting studies, writing, and science, and they spoke with passion about their own research projects. I was taken aback by how much these high school teens sounded like my adult college students and peers. They kept mentioning “AER”, and I had to learn more.

LBHS’s Authentic Exploratory Research (AER) Program is an independent research course inspired by Palo Alto Unified School District’s Advanced Authentic Research Program. In AER, students are paired with adult mentors (such as LBUSD staff, industry experts, and academics) who assist the teens in researching their own big questions in fields of their choice. Students spend about 60 hours per semester on coursework that includes both instruction and working on each project itself.

No such courses were offered at LBHS when I graduated there back in 1990, and I wonder how much sooner I could have enjoyed my career as a researcher if I had gotten to participate in AER as a youth. Though the program was introduced in 2019 by Laguna Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) Superintendent Jason Viloria, Ed.D., Jun Shen is the passionate teacher and edtech coordinator who runs it. I had the pleasure of partnering with Shen for an interview series where we’ll first explore how AER works before hearing from students about their experiences with AER honing skills for future success. Students’ feedback (in interviews to follow) and Shen’s answers (which follow each question below) can help others implement such a program.

Jenny Grant Rankin: What were the biggest challenges to implementing a successful AER program, and how did you tackle them?

Jun Shen: The biggest ongoing challenge is to find the balance between respecting the students’ individual freedom in their projects on one hand, and on the other, closely managing the students so they’d make adequate progress. Tackling this is an iterative process. Through the last four years, I have tried many different methods like online journaling, different grading rubrics and requirements, different communication protocols, and it seems to be steadily getting better.

JGR: When pairing students with adult mentors, how do you find and secure mentors who are appropriate for students' different interests?

JS: We have a dedicated Mentor Coordinator for AER, at first the ASB Director Jennifer Lundblad, then our District’s Career Education Coordinator Kellee Shearer. After students register for AER in March, we interview them in April and May to get a good feel for their field of interest, and Kellee spends the summer finding them mentors.

JGR: When speaking to your students about AER, I was impressed by the sophistication with which they discussed their studies. What was the most powerful strategy you used to help high schoolers understand research concepts that are hard for even college students to grasp?

JS: Most AER students are definitely wise beyond their years but I can’t claim credit for this one. It’s definitely a team effort, with a splash of selection bias thrown in. Most (though not all) students who take on the challenge of AER are already high-performing and highly-motivated students; thus, they’ve already learned a lot of the research and analysis skills in some of their other upper-level classes. In addition to that, we have a full-time Library Media Specialist, first Stephanie Gamache then Glen Warren, who works with the students to help them find what they need. Their mentor is another obviously valuable asset. As for me, I do very little whole-group, one-size-fits-all instruction about research and data analysis. Most of the students’ research methodologies are created individually with my advice.

JGR: What can you tell educators who are nervous about giving students so much independence and freedom in a course?

JS: First, be curious. If you love learning new things, then you’ll have a great time with your students as you explore some obscure topics together. The more you communicate that you’re personally invested in their study, the harder they will work with you. Second, it won’t be perfect your first year and that’s OK. Looking back, my first year running AER was rather lackluster, with a sizable portion of students dropping out or barely finishing their projects. Every year we learn our lessons and improve the course for the following year. Third, don’t reinvent the wheel. We based our program on Palo Alto USD’s program and, year after year, have modified it to suit our culture and needs. Start with their or our curriculum and see where it leads you.

JGR: What else should readers know about AER?

JS: It’s one of the highlights of my career. I’ve always been that kid who watched as many Discovery Channel Documentaries as I could because I loved learning about everything. I never thought that I’d get to geek out with kids about Aerospace Engineering and Fashion Design in a high school teaching job!

I’ve always been that kid, too. It’s heartwarming to learn how AER can be as rewarding for staff as it is for students, who we’ll hear from next. To continue reading, look for Part II.

Jenny Grant Rankin, Ph.D., is a Fulbright Specialist for the U.S. Department of State.

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Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

At michigan state university, frib professorial assistant earns goldwater scholarship.

Aaron Philip, a professorial assistant at FRIB, has earned a  Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship , becoming Michigan State University’s fifty-fifth Goldwater Scholar.

The Goldwater Foundation seeks sophomores and juniors committed to a research career in STEM fields with the potential for significant future contribution in their chosen field. The award provides $7,500 per year in funding for 51 students for undergraduate tuition and living expenses.

For the 2024 Goldwater Scholarship competition, 1,353 undergraduates were nominated by 446 institutions. Philip was among 438 scholars selected. The funding for the award is a collaboration between the U.S. Congress and the Department of Defense’s National Defense Education Program.

Philip is a second-year Michigan State University student from Los Alamos, New Mexico studying Physics and Advanced Mathematics in the College of Natural Science. He is also a member of the Honors College.

“I am honored and humbled to join the ranks of Spartan Goldwater Scholars. I share this recognition with my professors, research mentors, fellow students, and family who have all supported me and cultivated my passion to pursue a career in physics research,” Philip said. “Specifically, I would like to thank my research mentors over the past few years for their guidance, encouragement, and mentorship: Drs. Pablo Giuliani, Kyle Godbey, Witek Nazarewicz, Odelia Schwartz, Jianliang Qian, and Benjamin Nebgen.”

Philip is passionate about pursuing a career in research addressing micro-scale physics problems using analytic approaches, high performance computing, and AI. He has contributed to diverse research projects through his roles as a professorial assistant at FRIB, a Discovering America researcher with MSU’s Math Department, a student intern at the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and as a Computer Science Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student at the University of Miami.

“Aaron joined our nuclear theory research group at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University in August 2022 as an undergraduate research assistant. An incoming first-year undergraduate student, he came extremely well prepared to directly work in forefront research and quickly managed to get acquainted with the necessary tools and background knowledge,” Kyle Godbey, a research assistant professor at FRIB, and Witold Nazarewicz, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Physics and chief scientist at FRIB, said.

“During the course of his work, Aaron was able to reach a level of mastery of theoretical and computational methods on par with the current experts in the field. We consider ourselves to be incredibly lucky to have Aaron as a member of our research group and we have no doubt that he will go on to have a successful research career,” Godbey and Nazarewicz said.

“Aaron’s research at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams has been exemplary, and his mentorship activities embody the values of care and support that empower excellence at the MSU Honors College. We congratulate Aaron on being named a Goldwater Scholar,” Long said.

Philip has written two papers and presented at various conferences, including MSU’s Mathematics and Data Science Conferences, the University of Miami’s Computer Science REU Poster Presentation, and a LANL Lab Directed Research and Development Review. He also serves as a student tutor through the Mathematics Learning Center and at East Lansing High School.

“Congratulations to Aaron on this esteemed achievement,” said FRIB Laboratory Director Thomas Glasmacher. “Being named a Goldwater Scholar is a testament to Aaron’s dedication and outstanding efforts. We are so proud he is furthering his research pursuits at FRIB and honored to be part of his journey as he prepares to become a leader in our field.”

Read the original article on the  MSUToday website .

Michigan State University operates the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams as a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC), supporting the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics.