Engaging High School Students in Career Exploration
Helping high school students narrow their career options is an important life skill. At this stage, they need guidance to explore different careers, understand their strengths, and make informed decisions. Here are some practical strategies to make career exploration an engaging and insightful experience for your high schoolers:
1- Kick Off with Career Assessments-
When you are a teenager, it can be challenging to understand your strengths at such a young age. It helps teenagers take career assessments and even tests about personality traits to help them identify their strengths. This information can be helpful to them throughout their lives. I remember taking one in high school, and it suggested teaching as a career. It gave me a little more confidence to pursue a job in education, knowing that it could be a strength of mine.
These are a great way to help students identify their career goals. A career assessment is usually fun for young people because it is about them and their identity and can give them valuable insights into who they are.
Download this free personality test for career exploration!
2- Bell Ringer Journal Prompts
Bell Ringers are a great way to start off each class and our Career Exploration bell ringers include information about specific careers as well as prompts to get students thinking about their career goals. We love bell ringers because they are bite-sized pieces of information to start off class and can be a great resource for classroom management and creating a positive classroom culture.
Allowing students to discuss their answers each day builds rapport and helps them to see different career options that other students may be knowledgeable about. The “Career Exploration Worksheets & Bell Ringer Journal” is a resource designed to help high school students explore various career paths. It includes a variety of worksheets and journal prompts that encourage students to think critically about their interests, skills, and potential careers.
This resource provides structured activities to guide students through career exploration, making it an invaluable tool for any high school teacher aiming to prepare their students for the future.
Check out our free Career Exploration Bell Ringers to see how you like them!
3- Career Exploration Games
Even high school and middle school students love games! They are a fun way to get students talking about potential career paths without even realizing they are learning!
We have a free resource that can be a great addition to your career exploration curriculum…the Career Exploration Vocabulary Bingo Game. Students complete a BINGO board with terms provided, and when you read the descriptions, they will cross out the term. The first student to get 4 across wins. You can also break students up into groups and have them play that way. This is a fun activity to use as review and even for school counselors.
Teaching about career clusters is another important beginning step to teaching about career choices. We have a fun Career Clusters Digital Escape Room with students moving through clues about the different career clusters and recording their answers in a Google Form to move to the next clue. These make great sub plans or a fun way to introduce the career clusters covering some of the clusters:
- Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources
- Architecture & Construction
- Arts, A/V Technology & Communications
- Business Management & Administration
- Education & Training
- Finance
- Government & Public Administration
- Health Science
- Hospitality & Tourism
- Human Services
- Information Technology
- Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security
- Manufacturing
- Marketing
- Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM)
- Transportation, Distribution & Logistics
Students read information and sort what they learned, they answer questions based on links to websites and watch a video about career clusters to determine an answer to a clue and more!
Another fun way to teach career vocabulary is with a board game. This career exploration board game can be played in small groups after reviewing a slideshow of terms. Students move through a game board while answering questions about vocabulary terms such as:
- What is a legal document that allows a minor to hold a job?
- Work without pay that can benefit you in your job search is known as _____.
- If you work 40 hours per week, you are working _______.
- A one-page letter a job seeker sends along with a resume telling who he or she is and why he or she is sending a resume is called a ________.
- and more!
Vocabulary games like this equip students with terms that can help them when they attend career fairs and internships with local businesses. It will also help them better understand soft skills needed for volunteer work and job interviews. Career education is an essential life skill that all teenagers should learn!
4- Guest Speaker Sessions
Invite professionals from various fields to speak to your class. Many professionals are happy to share their experiences and insights at no cost. These sessions can provide firsthand knowledge of different careers and inspire students to consider new opportunities.
Hearing real-life stories and advice from people working in various industries can help students better understand what different jobs entail. Have students create questions to ask the speakers before they enter the classroom, including questions about what higher education or technical education was needed to acquire the job, what interview questions they were asked, and what is expected of them daily.
Even questions about salary ranges if the speaker is comfortable sharing them. Showing students that people in their community have jobs in different fields can make a big impact. If you can’t have people in person, you can even have Zoom speaker sessions, which can be an excellent way to see possible careers that may not be local. Allowing teens to ask real people with different professions real questions can be an important step in understanding their career opportunities.
5- Career Research Projects
Assign students a career research project. Have them choose a career that interests them and research the required education, skills, job outlook, and potential earnings. Presenting their findings to the class can help students learn from each other and discover various career options.
This exercise encourages critical thinking and allows students to practice presentation skills. You can even have students pair up and present a mock interview for the career they are presenting on. Students will become experts in careers they may not have generally learned about. I love putting the teaching into my student’s hands, and your students will appreciate the chance to take on a project!
Helping high school students explore careers is essential for their future success. Career assessments, engaging journal prompts, fun games, guest speaker sessions, and research projects can make career exploration both informative and exciting. These activities help your students understand their strengths, discover new interests, and prepare for real-world opportunities.
Teaching life skills to teens is one of the best gifts you can give them. They may not realize it yet, but you are equipping them with skills that will impact them for years and help them on their way to successful careers. Start incorporating these strategies in your classroom to guide your students toward fulfilling careers. For more resources and tips, visit Twins and Teaching. Happy teaching!
