Career Day Planning - Let's Get Started!
By Lisa Frederiksen
It seems the majority of schools have their Career Day in the spring, commonly coinciding around the time of Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day®, but we’ve found a great deal of interest in getting an early start on planning – especially when it comes to arranging for speakers and planning classroom activities to spark student interest.
Garnering Student Interest
Career Scavenger Hunt
Here’s a twist on an old-time favorite – the scavenger hunt. Instead of the hunt being for odds and ends around the neighborhood, this one is for careers on the Internet. It’s the brainchild of Penn State College of Technology Outreach K-12 as part of their Career Day efforts and sounds like great fun.
- Divide your students into groups (or they can do it on their own).
- Have them use a reference book appropriate for their age level, such as the Careers for Me Junior Reference Book (grades K-3), the Occupations Outlook (grades 4-9) or the Occupational Outlook Handbook (grades 8-adult, which is also available online at http://www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm)
- Have them find an occupation that is of interest.
And, then, the hunt begins. [You may want to pick out some key terms to have the students define and discuss before the hunt – e.g., occupational outlook, skills or education required.] You can use the questions listed below (which are those used by Penn State College of Technology Outreach K-12) or make up your own. Of course, you’ll have to adapt the questions based on the reference source and their grade:
1. What is the occupational outlook for the career? Is it a growing field or are there going to be fewer jobs in the future?
2. What and where are the opportunities for this career?
3. What kind of educational preparation does this career require for entry?
4. What technical skills does this career require? Be specific.
5. What kind of experience is required for entry into this career?
6. What is the salary range for this career?
7. List two related occupations to your career.
8. List one address to find additional information about your career.
9. What level math skills does this career require, i.e. algebra, calculus? (HINT: you may have to find this answer in another place. Try asking someone in the occupation)
Additional Materials
We get many calls from corporations, non-profits, as well as schools, asking for materials for Career Day. Career Kids has numerous products to help with your student career studies, as well as planning for a Career Day. Here are just a few popular choices, but please contact us if you want more suggestions:
Careers for Me Interest Inventories
Careers Video Tour, 2nd Edition (Elementary Grades)
Career Camp (this publication can also be ordered at a deep discount as an eBook)
As for speakers, here are a few suggestions:
Parents
Kids love to hear about the career paths chosen by the adults they know (or know as “John’s dad” or “Sarah’s mom”). To give parents a road map for what you’d like them to talk about, have your students brainstorm the kinds of questions they’d like answered. Here are some thoughts to jump-start the discussion with your students:
- What do you do? What did you do before this?
- What kinds of things do you do at your job?
- Did you have to go to school after high school?
- What kinds of subjects did you like to study in school?
- What kinds of subjects were important for you to know in order to be able to do your job?
- Do you like your job?
- What kinds of things do you do to help around the house with the kids and household work before and after work and on the week-ends, in addition to your job outside the home?
- Did you always know you wanted to do what you do? If not, how’d you start out?
Be sure to include stay-at-home parents. You might ask them:
- What kinds of jobs do you do everyday?
- Do you volunteer? If so, for what group? What do you do for them?
- Did/do you work outside the home before / now?
- What kinds of subjects do you think are important to know in order to do what you do?
- What was your favorite job in high school (or college/vocational school)? Why?
Community Leaders
There are many resources for finding local community and professional leaders to come and speak to your students. These could be local elected officials, your Charter School board President, the high school district administrator, a local contractor or electrician or a local policeperson or firefighter. Great resources for speakers include:
Chamber of Commerce Roster – Look at your city’s Chamber of Commerce website. Generally there is a Membership Business Directory. Distribute copies of the membership roster to your students and discuss with them the various businesses represented, and then ask your students which ones they’d like to learn more about.
Trade and Professional Associations - There is a group for just about every profession and trade. Think of the job (e.g., REALTOR®, lawyer, plumber) and then do an Internet search to find the applicable professional or trade association. You can then either pursue it through the Internet or look through your local phone book yellow pages under “Associations.” Under “Associations,” for example, you’ll also find a referral to these other yellow page headings: athletic organizations, business & trade organizations, clubs, fraternal organizations, fraternities and sororities, labor organizations, political organizations, professional organizations, religious organizations, veterans and military organizations and youth organizations and centers.
The Invitation/Scheduling
Once you’ve decide on whom to invite, you can make this process a class project, with various groups of students handling various stages of the process:
- Verify the correct spelling of the name of the person you want to invite, along with their title and address. You may consider sending the invitation to both their mailing and their email addresses. Generally, you’ll want to give at least a three month lead time so they can schedule it within their work loads. [Many of my speaking engagements are contracted 7 months out, for example.]
- Write the invitation letter. Be sure it includes what they’re being asked to do (perhaps an enclosure of possible questions the students would like answered), date and time (and how long they will be asked to speak and answer questions). Also, you will want to mention whether they need to check in at the attendance desk (perhaps have two students meet them there to great them and show them the way to the classroom) and/or pick up a parking permit.
- Ask if they’ll need any equipment (white boards, microphone, podium, computer – some of these will depend on the size of the student group, of course) or technology set-up (LCD projector, wireless internet connection).
- Send the letter and mark in the calendar when to follow up with a phone call.
- Confirm their attendance 1-2 weeks in advance.
- Make all set-up arrangements. Be sure to test the equipment the day before, if not two days before.
- Plan for a student to take photos (perhaps even write up a short story about the visit and include it with the photo for the school newspaper). For older student groups, you may want them to pursue getting local newspaper coverage of the event, as well. If the speaker is going to be presenting to the entire student body, you will also want to have a group write up and give the student announcement of upcoming activities – perhaps prepare a poster or flier to announce and promote the event.
- Send a thank you letter – be sure to enclose a copy of the photo.