A. PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Students will be knowledgeable about the world of work, explore career options, and relate personal skills, aptitudes, and abilities to future career decisions. To interact successfully with people and organizations students need to adapt to the changing nature of the workplace. Strong interpersonal, teamwork, leadership, and negotiation skills are essential for this success. Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
1. Demonstrate the leadership and membership skills necessary to succeed as a member of a team.
2. Analyze skills and abilities required in a variety of career options and relate them to their own skills and abilities.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the changing nature of work and educational requirements.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of basic business concepts such as profit and loss, the availability of skilled labor, market share, and customer service.
EXAMPLES
Prepare a personal balance sheet showing an inventory of acquired skills, qualities, and experiences needed for successful employment in a career option.
As a member of a team or club, analyze the importance of using collective abilities in achieving group goals and objectives.
Analyze and chart various aspects of personal work experiences.
B. EDUCATION/CAREER PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
Guided by self-assessment and personal career interests, students will integrate school- and work-based experiences to develop their career goals. Once career goals have been determined, students will evaluate continuously their progress and make necessary modifications. Students' success in the competitive world will depend on their ability to manage their own careers using job seeking, retention, and advancement skills. Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
1. Use a career planning process that includes self-assessment, personal development, and a career portfolio as a way to gain initial entry into the workplace.
2. Demonstrate job-seeking skills.
3. Assess personal, educational, and career skills that are transferable among various jobs.
4. Explain the problems and possible benefits of involuntary changes in employment, including information on what actions the employee can take to make it easier to find a new position or to become self-employed.
EXAMPLES
Complete the School-To-Work Individual Opportunity Plan leading to a portfolio that contains aptitude and employability assessments, interview and research methods, and a learning plan.
Develop a resume and model interviewing skills.
Interview professional employment counselors to determine the top ten skills individuals must demonstrate to get and retain a job.
Interview someone who has changed careers.
C. INTEGRATED AND APPLIED LEARNING
Students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings. Students will select and apply appropriate technological resources and problem-solving strategies to real life situations using problem solving strategies in purposeful ways. Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the integration and application of academic and occupational skills in school learning, work, and personal lives.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of customer satisfaction strategies.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of how humans change and adapt technology to their benefit.
4. Use mathematical, scientific, and technological tools to design and apply solutions to a community problem.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of workplace safety and human factors in the development of products, services or processes.
EXAMPLES
Identify and examine a problem in the community or school, evaluate technological resources or systems that might be used to solve the problem, justify the technological resources or systems selected, and present the results.
Work in a team to design and produce playground equipment for a local recreation site.
Work in teams to formulate an historical presentation on specific careers and to demonstrate how job requirements and training are changing due to new technology.
D. BALANCING RESPONSIBILITIES
Students will acquire and apply skills/concepts required to balance personal, family, community, and work responsibilities. The skills to manage work, family, and community responsibilities for the well-being of themselves and others are critical for personal success. Students will be able to:
SECONDARY GRADES
1. Illustrate how resources and support systems, available within a community, assist individuals in their roles as workers and family members.
2. Use knowledge and theories of growth and development to help balance multiple responsibilities.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of community involvement to family and community life.
4. Demonstrate an ability to manage personal resources.
EXAMPLES
Develop personal financial plans, justify the need for such plans, and explain their relationship to a career choice and desired lifestyle.
Document their current responsibilities; then, considering their own best interests and those of an elderly relative, decide whether nursing home or other types of care are indicated.
Create a community resource directory and put it on a web site.