By request: How to Earn a Career Exploration Credit for Homeschool Transcript.
How to Earn a Career Exploration Credit for Homeschool Transcript
One of my favorite questions about our Career Exploration Bundle is: “How long will it take to complete?”
Why is it a favorite question? Well, because it gives me an excuse to say our theme: “There’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school.” That really applies to Career Exploration. Homeschool high schoolers have varied in their interests, abilities, time limitations and more, so there’s not ONE right way to handle a Career Exploration elective credit.
With that in mind, 7Sisters Career Exploration textbook can be handled in several different ways:
- For 1/4 credit, divide the lessons in the Career Exploration Textbook into 30-45 hours of work (according to the number of hours needed for a credit in your state or umbrella school/supervising organization). Skip the more in-depth assignments.
- For 1/2 credit, follow the syllabus in this one semester Career Exploration program
- For full credit, follow the suggested syllabus but be sure to log hours until your teen earns the 120-180 hours needed for a credit in your state and/or umbrella school/supervising organization.
More resources
Many of our homeschooling families also do Financial Literacy and Apologetics along with Career Exploration. Did you know you can save a lot of money when you purchase all three together in the Curriculum Bundle to Prepare for Independence?
BTW- When your teens are ready to take a Career Exploration course, 7Sisters also has a:
If you would like to see how one homeschool mom and her teens handled 7Sisters Career Exploration curriculum, check out Susan Evan’s post.
Our friend, Sarah, at Freedom Homeschool has more ideas for Career Exploration you can add to the syllabus below.
Our friend, Betsy, at BJ’s Homeschool includes this review of 7Sisters’s curriculum in her Career Exploration post.
Suggested Syllabus for a Career Exploration Credit for Homeschool Transcript
This is a 1 credit, 30-32 week course.
Text
Career Exploration Textbook – 7Sisters Homeschool
Purpose of the course
This homeschool high school Career Exploration course is designed to give teens a life-skills elective that helps them discover their career interests, abilities and callings. Teens also learn job-hunt skills and have the opportunity to look for relevant apprenticeships, paid work or volunteer work.
Topics covered in Career Exploration Texbook
- Chapter 1: God and Career Exploration
- We will talk about the will of God and how it pertains to career exploration.
- Chapter 2: Role Model Questionnaire
- Chapter 3: My Experiences
- Take a look at the important experiences in your life.
- Chapter 4: Preliminary List of Jobs
- Start brainstorming a few job possibilities.
- Chapter 5: Recognizing Your Strengths, Gifts, and Talents
- You do have them. Let’s think about it!
- Chapter 6: Knowing Your Career Values
- Be sure you know what is important to you!
- Chapter 7: Clarifying Your Interests
- It helps to have a career that interests you!
- Chapter 8: Research Break: Do Some Assessments!
- Your personality matters in career choices, too!
- Chapter 9: Putting It Together
- Now you are going to connect what you have learned and make it real!
- Chapter 10: Investigating Some Careers
- This is fun! You will do some research of several career possibilities.
- Chapter 11: Trying on Career Hats with Interviews, Apprenticeships, or Internships
- You are wise to actually try some of your career ideas!
- Chapter 12: Job Hunting Skills
- Here are some extra skills to help you get started with job hunting!
- Supplemental Chapter A: Career Exploration in the Bible
- A short lesson that shares that you’ve got it EASY compared to the way people experience career exploration in the Bible
- Supplemental Chapter B: Write Your Personal Mission Statement
- This will help you refine your career search and even think about the best training for that career. Or, you might prefer to take the time to do this along with Chapter 4.
Goals: Give teens a solid Career Exploration experience so that they:
- Come to know themselves better
- Gain a sense of God’s callings, gifts and purposes for them
- Build experiences that help them gain confidence
- Build experiences that help them eliminate career choices or explore career choices (each is good)
- Are better prepared for life
Schedule:
Week 1 Chapter 1: God and Career Exploration
- We will talk about the will of God and how it pertains to career exploration.
Homework: Discuss or note (in writing or just think about) any of the five ways they have seen God work in your life.
Week 2 Chapter 2: Role Models
In class: Think about the role of role models in Career Exploration.
- Complete the questions.
Homework: Write a one-page reflection paper or create a 5-slide Powerpoint about important role models in your life.
Week 3 Chapter 3: My Experiences
- Take a look at the important experiences in your life.
Homework: Think about your answers to the questions. What have you learned from your life experiences so far?
Week 4 Chapter 4: Preliminary List of Jobs
- Start brainstorming a few job possibilities.
- For inspiration, watch a couple of videos on unusual careers. These are not job suggestions but are good ways to start teens thinking creatively about the many kinds of careers are out there.
- Check out a couple of videos from this site, for instance: Dialect Coach. Watch this short video about a dialect coach from Great Big Story.
- Follow NASA on Facebook. They often share video interviews with many different kinds of people who work there.
- Show some practical videos from CareerOneStop.org.
Homework: Make a list of careers that might be worth exploring on CareerOneStop.org.
Week 5 Chapter 5: Recognizing Your Strengths, Gifts, and Talents
- You do have them. Let’s think about it!
Homework: There are lots of questions and interviews to do in this chapter. Start early!
Week 6 Chapter 6: Knowing Your Career Values
- Be sure you know what is important to you!
Week 7 Chapter 7: Clarifying Your Interests
- It helps to have a career that interests you!
Homework: Explore interests as suggested in the chapter.
Week 8 Chapter 8: Research Break: Do Some Assessments!
- Your personality matters in career choices, too!
Homework: Complete the personality test activities. Optional: Write a 100-300 word summary of personality aspects that are interesting to you.
Additional optional: Download Personal Discovery Links freebie from Vicki Tillman Coaching for more personality tests.
Week 9 Chapter 9: Putting It Together
- Now you are going to connect what you have learned and make it real!
Homework: Spend some time on this chapter’s assignments. It might take a little extra time.
Week 10 – More on Talents and Strengths
Briefly interview teachers and other adults, family members and friends. You can do this by email or text.
Homework: Write a one-page refection paper that discusses your strengths and talents you see them. Include a section on what others see as your strengths.
Week 10 – Investigate Some Careers
One of the most important parts of Career Exploration is simply exploring. Even if you do not think you will like a career that you look at, the time is not wasted. It adds to your understanding of careers and opportunities.
Homework: Do career searches, fill out the chart for 5-10 careers. You can use CareerOneStop.org for ease of career searching.
Week 11 Chapter 11: Try On Some Hats – Apprenticeships
- You are wise to actually try some of your career ideas!
- Read this quick post about apprenticeships.
Homework: Discuss with your parents the concept of apprenticeships. Brainstorm with them a list of apprenticeship possibilities.
Week 12 Chapter 12: Job Hunting Skills sections 1 and 2, Experiential Resume
- Here are some extra skills to help you get started with job hunting!
Homework: Create an Experiential Resume
Week 13 Chapter 12: Job Hunting Skills section 3, Write a Basic Cover Letter
Homework: Write a Basic Cover Letter. Note that cover letters must be adjusted to each job setting.
Week 14 Chapter 12: Job Hunting Skills section 4, Learn and Practice Interview Skills
- Read Chapter 12 section 4: Learn and Practice Interview Skills
- This is a big section. It will take a little time.
- Listen to this episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Preparing for Your First Interview.
- If possible, practice with others by asking each other interview questions.
Homework: Prepare answers for basic interview questions. Research a favorite company’s website and have something interesting to share about it in an interview.
Optional: Download Confidence Building Skill for Meeting New People from VickiTillmanCoaching.com
Week 15 Phone Interview Skills
- This is optional but useful information. Learn some basics for phone interviews by reading this article at VickiTillmanCoaching.com.
Homework: Do Steps 2-5 from 5 Simple Steps to Prepare for Phone Interviews. (Concentrate on writing an answer to each common question for phone interviews.)
Week 16 Supplemental Chapter A: Career Exploration in the Bible
- A short lesson that shares that you’ve got it EASY compared to the way people experience career exploration in the Bible
Homework: Answer the questions in this optional section of the textbook.
Week 17 Supplemental Chapter B: Write Your Personal Mission Statement
- This will help you refine your career search and even think about the best training for that career.
Homework: Create your first personal mission statement. This will take a little time.
Week 18 Clean up Your Social Media (Social Media Audit)
Step 1 on 5 Simple Steps to Prepare for Phone Interviews discusses two important tasks:
- Clean up your social media by doing a social media audit (scroll through all your social media). This is important. Delete posts or photos that would be embarrassing for a boss or interviewer to see.
Homework: Clean up your social media accounts. If you have time, listen to this Homeschool Highschool Podcast episode about social media audits or check out LeahNieman.com for expert advice on social media auditing.
Week 19 Presentation or Paper
Put everything together by writing a paper or preparing a slide presentation.
Homework: Prepare a 2-5 page paper or 10-slide presentation the things you have learned about yourself and about Career Exploration skills.
Week 20 – Planning Your High School Curriculum towards Career Exploration
This is an optional activity but helps you build a transcript with a view towards developing your career choices.
- Listen to this episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast about planning curriculum towards a college major in Psychology.
- Read this post that explains using Language Arts as Career Exploration.
- Read this post from Ben and Me about choosing electives to help your Career Exploration program.
Homework: List ways to develop your career interests by courses, apprenticeships, volunteer work or extracurriculars. Write a list of ideas to discuss with your parents.
Week 23-28 Apprenticeships
- Log your hours for apprenticeship hunting and working the apprenticeships when you find them.
Homework: Write a 100-500 word summary of each week’s activities and things you have learned. Or prepare a 5-slide presentation for each week
Week 29 Celebration and Presentations
Review the papers and presentations during the course. Share presentations with friends, family or co-op…and eat cookies!
Here are some additional posts you can read for more information:
- Is your teen interested in podcasting? How about history or vikings in particular? Read this interview with Noah Tetzner sharing how he combined his interests – and ended up in business!
- Is your student interested in early childhood education or planning to have a family someday? Use this course in his/her life preparation.
- More ideas for career exploration in high school.
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