STEP 4 -DESIGNING AND PRESENTING A PERSONAL CAREER ACTION PLAN
LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students will:
• • • • understand the relationship between career self-assessment, career selection and developing an action plan. set career and educational/training goals and learn decision making strategies. understand how to design a personal career action plan. design a culminating project and presentation that clearly reviews the student’s self-assessment results, career and training options, long and short term goals and resume.
MATERIALS
• • • • • • • Decision Making Confidence Survey Decision Making Tip Sheet Common Decision Making Mistakes worksheet Setting a S.M.A.R.T. Goal tip sheet Career Action Plan worksheet Career Planning Final Project worksheet Career Planning Final Project evaluation
INTRODUCTION TO DECISION MAKING
1. Discuss with the class the following: “Life’s journey has many crossroads, and many choices are required. Our lives are very much a result of the decisions we’ve made and the actions that were taken based on those decisions. By making new decisions, we can create new experiences in the future, which will create new results in our lives. It’s an exciting thought. An old saying sums it up: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” Getting on the road to completing a high school diploma or its equivalent, a college degree or a good job means facing essential choices such as these: Shall I choose to: major in business, engineering or creative writing? drop a very boring but required course or try to complete it? work part time, or not at all? buy a nicer car and have payments or keep my old jalopy?
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2. Have students complete Decision-Making Survey and tally up their results. Explain the results and discuss. Activity sheet – Decision Making Confidence Survey. 3. Discuss Decision Making Tip Sheet. Have students break into small groups and discuss the tip sheet. Have each group come up with a decision example to share with the group using the decision making model. The “D” and “E” steps of the DECIDE model are particularly valuable because they are often forgotten steps for crucial feedback. 4. Go over Common Decision Making Mistakes tip sheet. Have students share a good or bad decision and how it has impacted their life. Have students discuss the results of good and bad decisions.
INTRODUCTION TO GOAL SETTING
1. Discuss with students that after they have made a decision, the next step is to set achievable goals. Discuss with your students the need to make goals in one’s life. Why goals are important: People who don't realize the importance of goals usually haven't heard about a study done at Yale University. Researchers first asked members of the Yale class of 1953 if they had specific, unwritten, long-term goals. Only 3 percent did. Twenty years later, the researchers contacted these same Yale graduates to see what had happened to them. They found that the 3 percent with goals had lives that were measurably better than the 97 percent without goals. In one area in particular, the results were quite remarkable: The 3 percent who had set specific goals had accumulated more personal wealth than had the other 97 percent put together. When students are writing long and shortterm goals, remind them to keep in mind to use the SMART rule. 2. Review with your students the goal setting worksheet and have each student write a SMART goal. Break students into small groups and have them read their goal. Have them make sure that each goal is:
• • • • • •
S (Specific) M (Measurable) A (Achievable) R (Relevant) T (Time-Frame) Review Setting A SMART Goal tip sheet
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Step 4 Introduction
INTRODUCTION TO CAREER AND TRAINING ACTION PLAN
A Career & Training Action Plan is an important piece of the career planning process. It helps students to organize and prioritize activities, make decisions, not miss opportunities, manage their time and energy. Writing things down helps to give a sense of reality, direction and purpose. Use the Career & Training Action Plan to help your student plan and encourage them to regularly reexamined and evaluate the plan as time goes by and circumstances or goals change. Have them modify their plan whenever necessary and to SET THEIR GOALS HIGH! Use the Career & Training Action Plan worksheet as a guide to help your students. This worksheet can be modified to meet your class needs.
INTRODUCTION TO FINAL PROJECT
Helping your students pull all the information they have gathered about themselves, their career and training options and goals is an important piece to the career planning process. The Final Project Worksheet helps students design a culminating project that clearly reviews the students’ self-assessment results, their career and training options and the action steps they need to take to achieve their goals. It also helps students to build presentation and writing skills and to feel comfortable talking about themselves and the future. Make it a fun, creative and flexible project. Activities could include writing a paper, preparing a powerpoint, creating a collage or any other activity that helps them express their future plans. Use the Final Project Evaluation Worksheet for student feedback.
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Step 4 Introduction