Career Exploration

Middle school is a prime opportunity to engage students in focused career exploration. Students are empowered with a growing sense of self-awareness and exposure to a variety of careers is crucial at this time. During middle school, students develop opinions that will shape the classes they select in high school and the careers they pursue after graduation. Exposing middle-grade students to STEM careers may encourage more students to pursue jobs in computer science and math. This exposure can help to attract greater diversity to a growing field of in-demand jobs (Boyington, 2018). Successful career exploration experiences builds self-efficacy in middle school students and could encourage students to graduate high school and remain focused on achieving career goals (Glessner et al., 2017). 

Career Exploration Supports SEL

In June 2019, the Department of Education and Workforce adopted the Social and Emotional Learning Standards. These include standards that encourage the development of self-awareness, a trait that can help students accomplish personal goals and explore career paths. Through self-assessment of personal interests, strengths, and skills, and reflection on preferences for work environments, middle-grade students can build awareness to help them prepare for their future. Next, students can explore the education and training required using ODE&W's Career Connections Frameworks. To learn more about how INFOhio resources can support social and emotional learning for students in grades 6-8, read this Teach With INFOhio Blog post.

What can grade 6-8 teachers do?

Supported by the Department of Education and Workforce, the Career Connections Framework is a planning tool for districts to provide students with opportunities to develop realistic future plans. Below is a list of suggested career activities for Grades 6-8 classrooms.

• Guide career research projects.
• Have students explore careers and create backpacks on OhioMeansJobs K-12.
• Teach students about the various aspects of the workplace.
• Familiarize yourself with your school's career advising policy.
• Refer to the Ohio Career Advising Toolkit for engagement activities for strategizing and developing comprehensive career advising plans.
• Seek professional development to understand educators' role and purpose in making students aware of available career pathways.
• Connect to and consider establishing career-tech student organizations.
• Facilitate a shadow-an-adult-to-work day.
• Organize workplace visits with career interviews.

Implementing Career Exploration in the Classroom with INFOhio

Wondering where to start with career research projects? Don't have the time to curate career resources for your students? Pique career curiosity among your students with INFOhio resources. INFOhio has quality, vetted resources available at no cost to support career research and inquiry projects, with access to meaningful assessments to cultivate self-awareness and librarian-approved web resources about careers from accountant to zookeeper.

Visit INFOhio Campus, and explore the IWonder Class to learn how to incorporate Genius Hour activities into the classroom. Genius Hour can be customized to provide students an opportunity to engage in meaningful career exploration activities. 

INFOhio's IWonder

Inspire career curiosity with IWonder, a collection of age-appropriate, librarian-selected websites on a range of topics about career exploration. Students can explore eBooks and videos about different career fields. Begin with the category, Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? Seven new subcategories have been added.

Click on a subcategory and select a career cluster. 

Career cluster choice boards include eBooks and videos about a career field. Click or tap the image to open the eBook or video. 

Students can continue to build self-awareness through a variety of skills and interest assessments with My Next Move. Ready for the next step? Students can explore websites to learn more about different jobs, how to plan for the future, and careers in the growing field of information technology. NASA Career Corner is designed for students in grades 5-8 to highlight the career opportunities at NASA for artists, writers, and educators.

ScienceFlix: Careers in Science

STEM is one of the fastest-growing career fields. Experts estimate that careers in STEM will grow more than 11% over the next 10 years. Bridge the gap between literacy and career exploration and use Careers in Science articles with free read Friday. Devote one Friday each month to foster an interest in STEM careers and ask students to select a career article from the alphabetized list from Careers in Science in ScienceFlix. Each article provides an overview of the career along with quick facts providing entry-level education requirements, job outlook, and median pay. 

Educator Tools

Use Educator Tools to search INFOhio's collection of eBooks from one search bar. Educator Tools includes more than 850 career education eBooks. Middle school is an ideal time to engage students in self-awareness activities. Check out the eBook titles below to consider using to help students imagine future career opportunities and chart a course to accomplish their career goals. 

• Could I Do That?
• Planning for Success: Goal Setting
• Career Match: Connecting Who You Are With What You'll Love To Do

Engage students as they read each eBook with reflection questions and activities. Use the Gale eBooks Independent Book Study document to implement eBooks in your classroom. 

Looking for Career Exploration Lesson Plans?

Open Space: Career Connections Collection

Discover freely available lesson plans, tools, and resources for bringing career exploration into the classroom with the Career Connections Collection from INFOhio's Open Space. The resources in this collection encourage students to research careers, develop employability skills, enlist in the service, or develop a plan for post-secondary employment. The learning material in this collection has been reviewed by the Ohio Department of Education's Office of Graduate Success and supports career-connected education for K-12 students. These resources have been grouped to help educators locate materials for instruction, but this collection does not constitute an endorsement by the Ohio Department of Education. 

Conclusion

Middle school can be challenging for students as new learning environments and changes in relationships with peers can leave many feeling isolated, frustrated, and disengaged. However, with focused career exploration, instruction, and intervention, students can become empowered and connected to their learning experience. A growing sense of empowerment builds self-awareness and confidence to pursue career goals in high school.