Career Studies - Grade 10
Personal Management
Overall Expectations Addressed:
· Use a self-assessment process to develop a personal profile for use in career development planning.
· Evaluate and apply the personal-management skills and characteristics needed for school success, document them in a portfolio, and demonstrate their use in a variety of settings.
Specific Expectations Addressed:
Developing Personal Knowledge
· Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of self-assessment and the use of standardized assessment tools (e.g., aptitude and interest tests, skills inventories, learning styles inventories).
· Use a variety of assessment tools to produce a personal profile that describes current interests, competencies, accomplishments, and characteristics, and identify occupations that are suited to the personal profile.
· Identify the essential skills (e.g., reading text, computer use, working with others, numeracy) developed through school, extracurricular, and/or community experiences and explain how these skills relate to career development.
Career Cruising Features
Career Cruising offers a variety of self-assessment options to students including Career Matchmaker, My Skills, Career Selector, and Xyting Insight.
Career Matchmaker requires that a student answers 39 questions based on his or her interests ranging from “Dislike Very Much” to “Like Very Much”. Once all the questions have been completed, the student is matched up with 40 career suggestions, ranked in order, that would be suitable based on how the questions were answered. When an occupation is clicked on, the student is able to see exactly why this occupation is suitable by viewing a list of the central, secondary, and other aspects of work related to this occupation. Each one of these aspects is represented by a question in Career Matchmaker. The student is also able to review their answers for all the questions. Students are able to generate similar information for occupations that have not been suggested for them. The transparent quality of Career Matchmaker makes it easy for a student to develop an understanding of self-assessments and their purpose.
My Skills is a clear and easy to use self-assessment tool that compliments Career Matchmaker. My Skills allows students to identify their skills and compare their skill level with the core skills required for each profession. This feature also includes any other desirable skills for each of their suggested occupations as well as any other occupation profiled within Career Cruising.
Career Selector allows students to identify the occupations that match their preferences by eliminating the careers that do not.
Xyting Insight provides the student with extensive feedback on his or her personality, strengths, learning style, preferred tasks, and working conditions.
The results of each of these assessments can be saved to the Portfolio Tool creating an accurate personal profile for use in career development planning.
Career Cruising Teaching Resources
Many classroom activities and worksheets guide students through the assessment process and have them reflect upon the results, including Using Career Matchmaker, Your Career Ideas & Career Matchmaker, Using Career Selector, People, Information, and Things, Independent Research Projects, and Ontario's Annual Education Plan & Career Cruising.
Finally, the Discovering Your Work Skills activity has been specifically designed to help students understand how the skills they use in all aspects of their lives (at school, while playing sports, at their part-time job, etc.) will provide them with employability skills that will help them succeed in the work world. The exercise accomplishes this by linking everyday student activities to concrete job skills and then showing the students occupations that make use of these skills.
Specific Expectations Addressed:
Applying Personal-Management Skills
· Describe and explain the importance of personal-management skills (e.g., organization skills, problem solving), habits (e.g., maintaining a personal planner), and characteristics (e.g., adaptability) for success in career development.
· Create a portfolio that documents personal information (e.g. interests, skills, talents, achievements, credentials) and career-related information.
Career Cruising Features
All of the 1,000+ people interviewed in Career Cruising answer the question, “What personal characteristics are required for someone to be successful in your job?” By reading the interviewees’ responses to this question, students can learn about the personal management skills, habits, and characteristics that are important in the work world. The Education section of the occupation profiles sets out not only formal educational requirements but also personal attributes required for success in the career in question. This can be seen in the section titled “Other Suggested Qualifications”. In addition, the Portfolio Tool provides an excellent framework for students who are organizing their education and career paths.
The Career Cruising portfolio documents both personal information such as personal-management skills and extracurricular or volunteer experiences and career related information such as assessment results and book marked occupation profiles.
Career Cruising Teaching Resources
Several activities have students read through and reflect on the multimedia interviews and/or the Education section, including the Career Interview Project and People, Information and Things. The Create a Personal Career Portfolio Activity guides students through the creation of their own online portfolio.
Teachers and counsellors are able to set standards, view, and manage their students’ portfolio work through Career Cruising’s administrative tools.
Exploration of Opportunities
Overall Expectations Addressed:
· Use a research process to locate and select relevant career information from a variety of sources for inclusion in a portfolio.
· Identify current trends in society and the economy and describe their effect on work opportunities and work environments.
· Identify a broad range of options for present and future learning, work, and community involvement.
Specific Expectations Addressed:
Accessing and Managing Information
· Identify and describe various fields of work that are of interest using an occupational classification system (e.g., National Occupation Classification).
· Demonstrate effective use of research skills to locate and select career-related information from a variety of sources (e.g., information interviews; print, video, and computer based resources).
· Using research skills, describe selected occupations or fields of work, using identified criteria (e.g., education, training, and skill requirements; duties; safety issues; employment prospects; security and benefits; knowledge and skills valued by the employer), and describe the ways in which secondary school students can prepare for those occupations.
· Organize and integrate selected career information into a portfolio.
Career Cruising Features
Career Cruising uses several different systems for classifying occupations. Some of the ways occupations are grouped include: by industry or economic sector, by most relevant school subject, and by core work tasks. Students can use these classification systems individually or in combination with other systems (see Career Selector). In addition, NOC numbers are provided in the Job Description section of each occupation profile, and direct links to Job Futures outlook information and employment prospects are provided in the Other Resources section.
Each occupation profile includes information such as a job description, working conditions, earnings, education and training requirements and recommendations, a typical career path, a list of related jobs, and other resources including contact information and web links to do further research using other sources. There are also two interviews with people working in the occupation included. These interviews give students first-hand insight into areas such as job security, opportunities, and where to get started. These profiles contain extensive sound, video, photographs, and text.
Students can use to these interviews to identify relevant questions for their own information interviews. The questions answered by interviewees are time-tested, useful, general questions that can lead to revealing and insightful answers. Experience with the multimedia interviews also helps students become comfortable with the process of going out into the community to meet and interview people from various occupations.
Students are able to prepare for occupations through the Education section included in each occupation profile and note the “Suggested High School Subjects.” They can take those recommendations and use them to help prepare for an occupation or for any post-secondary education and training required to enter an occupation.
Students are able to save a broad range of occupation profiles to their portfolio. These occupations can be reviewed and revised at any time while students are considering present and future learning, work, and community involvement options in order to achieve lifelong learning. The Portfolio Tool provides an excellent information management software resource for students to effectively organize career information. It also assists them in linking their career goals to appropriate education and training paths.
Career Cruising Teaching Resources
Classroom Activities are available to guide students through each of the above features. Relevant resources include: Career Clusters Research Project, Using Career Selector, People, Information and Things, Career Interview Project, Career Portfolio Activites, and Independent Research Projects.
Teachers and counsellors are able to set standards, view, and manage their students’ portfolio work through Career Cruising’s administrative tools.
Specific Expectations Addressed:
Identifying Trends and Opportunities
· Identify economic and social trends (e.g., globalization, developments in information technology, the changing role of unions and professional organizations, outsourcing or “contracting out”, emerging work-style alternatives, self-employment, entrepreneurship, changing demographics) and explain how they influence available job opportunities and work environments.
· Identify a broad range of local and regional work opportunities, including self-employment and entrepreneurship using a variety of resources (e.g., Internet websites, field trips, guest speakers, employment centres).
Career Cruising Features
The 1,000+ Canadians interviewed as part of the occupation profiles identify and describe economic and social trends in society as a whole and their field.
The Education and Training section offers comprehensive information on university, college and apprenticeship programs in Ontario and across Canada. Contact information and links to universities, colleges and apprenticeship offices are also provided.
In the Explore Careers section, students can learn about a variety of occupations in which self-employment is an option, including “Entrepreneur.” The Earnings section describes forms of payment, including self-employed contract work. In the multimedia interviews, people discuss the advantages and disadvantages of their work, including many aspects related to self-employment (see “Likes” and “Dislikes”).
Career Cruising Teaching Resources
Every single one of the 13 Classroom Activities, 5 Independent Research Projects and 5 Annual Education Plan Activities address these expectations, as do the Career Portfolio Activities and Exploring Apprenticeship Training..
Specific Expectations Addressed:
Identifying Personal Options
· Compare a variety of postsecondary learning options (e.g., apprenticeship, college, distance education, on-the-job training, private training, university) and identify the most suited to them based on their personal interests, competencies and aspirations.
Career Cruising Features
The Education section of each occupation profile lists any apprenticeship, college, and university programs available in Canada related to this occupation. These sections allow students to directly link to the Explore Education and Training section of Career Cruising where students can explore apprenticeship, college, and university profiles in order to determine how they can achieve the training for occupations as well as identify the programs best suited for them based on their personal interests, competencies, and aspirations. Program details include information on distance education, on-the-job training, and work placements.
Career Cruising Teaching Resources
The Post-Secondary Research Exercise and Exploring Apprenticeship Training activities assist students in researching post-secondary options.
Preparation for Transitions and Change
Overall Expectation Addressed:
· Use appropriate decision-making and planning processes to set goals and develop a career plan.
· Demonstrate an understanding of, and the ability to prepare for, the job search process.
Specific Expectations Addressed:
Developing a Career Plan
· Articulate personal, learning, community, and occupational goals, taking into consideration the results from the personal profile and exploration of selected occupations.
· Produce a preliminary career plan that identifies secondary school courses, activities in the school and community, and postsecondary education options that will help to achieve set goals.
Career Cruising Features
The Career Cruising Portfolio Tool helps students translate their career and education exploration into achievable goals and concrete plans for success.
Students are able to set both short term and long term goals and record any plans and preparations they intend to carry out in order to achieve these goals. As students participate in activities within their community to help them achieve their goals they can be recorded in the Extracurricular Activities, Volunteer Experience, and Work Experience sections of the portfolio.
The Education Plan section of the portfolio allows students to map out their secondary school career by choosing the courses they plan to take in subsequent years and recording the marks they receive once they have taken these courses. Teachers and counsellors are able to add course information, for their students to choose from, through Career Cruising’s administrative tools.
Students are also able to use their portfolio to create a Post-Secondary Plan and bookmark any colleges or universities of interest along with comments or thoughts the student may have throughout their decision making process.
Career Cruising Teaching Resources
The Career Portfolio Activities guide students through the portfolio building process. Teachers and counsellors are able to set standards, view, and manage their students’ portfolio work through Career Cruising’s administrative tools.
Specific Expectations Addressed:
Searching for Work
· Create effective resumes and cover letters for the work-search process, using word-processing software and appropriate formatting, vocabulary and conventions.
Career Cruising Features
The Career Cruising Resume Builder uses information stored in the portfolio such as a student’s personal profile, work experience, volunteer experience, awards and certificates, extracurricular activities, and skills and abilities as well as a career objective, education, and references to format an effective resume to be used as a framework or first draft before a student adds his or her own personal touches. Final drafts, cover letters, and thank you letters can all be uploaded into the student’s portfolio and stored in the Your Files section.
Career Cruising Teaching Resources
The Career Portfolio Activities contain a specific Using the Resume Builder activity. Teachers and counsellors are able to set standards, view, and manage their students’ portfolio and resume work through Career Cruising’s administrative tools.