What are some courses that count as Career Exploration for your homeschool high schoolers?
Courses that Count as Career Exploration
One of the most important courses your homeschoolers will experience in their high school year is Career Exploration. After all, you and your teens are working hard for four years to produce an awesome transcript. However, what is the use of all that hard work if they graduate without a clue about what comes next in their lives?
Career Exploration helps teens graduate with a plan about what to do with their lives…and how to get there!
Career Exploration can take place over all four years of high school. (In fact, it can even start in seventh or eighth grade.)
There are two parts to a good Career Exploration experience:
Many experiences work together to create solid Career Exploration for homeschool high schoolers. However, these experiences tend to fall into two categories.
- General Career Exploration course AND
- Exploration of specific careers
General Career Exploration course
A good Career Exploration course helps teens explore and define those things that should have an influence on career choices such as:
- Interests
- Gifts or Abilities
- Values
- How their experiences are shaping them
- The ways role models have influenced them
- For people of faith, God’s callings or leadings in their lives
With this in mind, 7Sisters Career Exploration Bundle includes all these and more, such as tips on finding and enhancing an internship.
BTW- When your teens are ready to take a Career Exploration course, 7Sisters also has a:
Specific Career Exploration experiences:
There are basically two kinds of homeschool high schoolers where it comes to Career Exploration. That is because one kind is not better than another because there’s not one kind of teen.
Also, there’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school (or do Career Exploration). Therefore, remember to take any ideas we offer and adapt them to fit your unique teens.
Teens who have a solid career idea they would like to explore try:
Some teens are born knowing the career they want. On the other hand, some teens are pretty sure but they need to explore the topic. With these teens it is wise to invest in.
Courses and textbooks in their interest and/or gifted areas:
Teens can often find textbooks or courses in career-interest areas. Here are a few ideas:
- For teens interested in families or counseling, invest in a course such as:
- Psychology (of course, we recommend 7Sisters no-busywork Introductions to Psychology textbook and asynchronous course)
- Human Development
- For teens interested in medical professions:
- Health
- Anatomy and Physiology
- For teens interested in careers that require speaking to others:
- Speech
- For teens interested in engineering:
Also look for special-interest courses on:
- Outschool
- FundaFunda Academy
- Blue Star Virtual Learning
- True North Academy
- Local community college (they often offer courses for credit, training for trades, and general community-interest, non-credit courses)
- First Aid, CPR and babysitting training online or in-person
- Google certification training
- EdX
OR your teens can earn credits by logging hours in an interest area (check this post on how-to earn credits through logging hours):
Homeschool high schoolers can explore their interests through many short-term experiences. Remember to log those hours so your teens get credit on their transcripts.
One way to start exploring a specific career interest is to attend short workshops.
Your homeschool high schoolers can attend online workshops from:
- Community organizations
- Local ministries
- Arts councils
- Nonprofits
- County and state administrations
- Local library
- County extension and other agricultural offices
- Community outreach workshops from local colleges
Another way to explore career interests is to do apprenticeships and internships:
- Internships
- Here are tips for recording internships on the homeschool transcript
- Check out this Homeschool Highschool Podcast interview on internships with Sherri Seligson
- Apprenticeships
BTW: What is the difference between an internship or an apprenticeship? At high school level, those terms are equivalent, although sometimes an apprenticeship may apply more to a trade.
Join extracurricular clubs, groups or service organizations
If your homeschool high schooler has an interest in an area, find an organization that helps build skills (and possibly connections):
- Missions trips
- Civil Air Patrol
- 4H
- Toastmasters
- Scouts
- Speech or Debate Teams
- Local ministries
- Choirs
- Hiking or other outdoors groups
- Habitat for Humanity
Start a business
For the entrepreneurial teen, starting some kind of small business is good experience. If your teen is interested in business, get excellent advice about entrepreneurship in this interview with our friend, Samantha Shank.
Listen to Homeschool Grad Becomes Entrepreneur, Interview with Suzanne Fitzgerald.
Movies and biographies
Next, you can log hours reading biographies or watching movies about people who have stood out in their field.
Here are just a few ideas: (Note: Parents should vet movies and books to make sure they are appropriate for their families.)
- For teens interested in law:
- Just Mercy
- Paper Chase
- Just Mercy
- Teens interested in astronomy:
- Hidden Figures
- October Sky
- The Right Stuff (Check out 7Sisters Literature Study Guide)
- For teens interested in construction:
- If You Build It
- For teens interested in teaching:
- Mr. Holland’s Opus (Check out 7Sisters’ Cinema Study Guide for Literature Learning)
- Stand and Deliver
- Lean on Me
- To Sir with Love
- For teens interested in careers requiring speaking:
Field trips
Any field trip will enrich your homeschool high schoolers’ experiences. Not only that but sometimes, field trips inspire teens to explore new career ideas.
Check out these posts for field trip ideas:
- Sparkle Your Homeschool Co-op with These Field Trip Ideas
- Homeschool Highschool Podcast episode: Field Trip Ideas
Is your teen clueless about what to do to get started in the career hunt?
Look over these career clusters, then take the free career interest survey at MyNextMove.org
Visit Career cluster / industry videos to learn about eighteen key industry/career cluster groups (keep in mind, there are other careers NOT in these groups, but it helps with ideas):
- Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources
- Think about joining 4H
- Architecture and Construction
- Arts, Audio/Video Technology and Communications
- Business Management and Administration
- Education and Training
- Energy
- Finance
- Government and Public Administration
- Health Science
- Hospitality and Tourism
- Human Services
- Information Technology
- Law, Public Safety, and Corrections
- Manufacturing
- Marketing
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
- Telecommunications
- Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics
You can get lots of Career Exploration ideas from:
- Our 7th Sisters in the 7SistersHomeschool Facebook group
- Melissa’s daughter wants to be a farmer, so she is studying:
- Financial Literacy
- Botany
- Accounting
- For apprenticeship, she is working at a local produce farm
- My son, who was interested in filmmaking:
- Took courses in video production at community college
- Did an apprenticeship at a local advertising agency
- Joined the local homeschool filmmaking club
- Melissa’s daughter wants to be a farmer, so she is studying:
- These Homeschool Highschool Podcast interviews about:
- Practical Credits for Reluctant with Carol Anne Swett
- Careers that Don’t Require College with Susan Stewart
- Career Pathways for the Homeschool Transcript
- You can find LOTS of good ideas in this post on Career Exploration Electives from our friend, Betsy at BJ’s Homeschool
- How to log credits over the summer with all kinds of courses
- More on careers that don’t require college
Check out this discussion about Career Exploration for non-college-bound teens.
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