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 Bundle can be handled in several different ways:
- For a quick, one-week intensive, have your homeschool high schooler simply complete the Career Exploration Workbook.
- For 1/4 credit, divide the lessons in the Career Exploration Bundle 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 Bundle – 7SistersHomeschool.com
Purpose of the course
This homeschool high school Health 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 Bundle
- Step by Step Through Career Exploration (providing a basic checklist of steps for you to follow)
- Career Exploration Questionnaire
- Career Exploration Workbook (31 pages)
- Successful Experiential Resume Writing (to create a resume that captures worthwhile experiences BEFORE that first paying job)
- Successful Cover Letters (a first impression is SO important)
- Introductory Interview Skills for Teens (a practical and empowering 9-page resource)
- Writing Your Personal Mission Statement (14 page workbook)
- Career Exploration in the Bible (a fun look at David, Joseph, Mary…and yourself!)
- Collected Posts on Career Exploration from 7Sisters’ extensive blog post archive
- Collected Posts on Financial Literacy (an important part of preparation for adulthood)
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: Career Exploration in the Bible In class: Discuss the short workbook, Career Exploration in the Bible.
- Answer the questions together.
Homework: None, enjoy the gentle startup.
Week 2: Role Models
In class: Think about the role of role models in Career Exploration.
- Complete the Career Exploration Questionnaire in the Career Exploration Bundle zip file.
Homework: Write a one-page reflection paper or create a 5-slide Powerpoint about important role models in your life.
Week 3: Build an Overview of the Facets of Career Exploration
Read the Collected Posts on Career Exploration. This will give you a head-start on what you will be working on.
Homework: Read 2 posts per day. Keep notes: Name 2 facts from each post that will be useful to you.
Week 4 – Finding the Will of God
Read the Introduction of Career Exploration Workbook (How to Use this Book) and Part 1: Finding the Will of God. If possible, this is a good discussion for you and a parent.
- Discuss or note (in writing or just think about) any of the five ways they have seen God work in your life.
- 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: Answer the questions in Part 1.
Week 5 – Describing Yourself
Read Career Exploration Workbook Part 2: Describing Yourself
Homework: Answer the questions in Part 2 of the workbook.
Week 6 – More Work on Describing Yourself
Download Personal Discovery Links freebie from Vicki Tillman Coaching, do the first test (Jung Typology Test).
Read the description of your results (4 letters) from Keirsey.com (type keirsey.com and your 4 letters into Google).
Homework:
Write a 100-300 word summary of your 4-letter score and interesting aspects of your personality description from Keirsey.com that seem to fit you best.
Week 7 – More Work on Describing Yourself
Do 2-5 of the other personality tests from the Personal Discovery Links.
Homework:
Write a one-page reflection paper about your personality or create a 5-slide Powerpoint about your personality based on the things you agree with from all of the personality tests.
Week 8 – What is Important to Me
Read Career Exploration Workbook Part 3: What is Important to Me (Values)
- Start by reading this short post on Values in Career Exploration. This will clarify what values are in Career Exploration.
- Work through the questions in the workbook together.
Homework:
Write a one-page reflection paper or create a 5-slide Powerpoint about your personality about your values.
Week 9 – Talents and Strengths
Read Part 4: Talents and Strengths
Homework:
Complete the sections in the Career Exploration workbook:
- Listing things you are good at
- Academic review (what you are good and not good academically)
- Strengths and weaknesses circle-off chart
- Make a talent list and a *nobody’s perfect list*.
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 11 – Investigate Some Careers
Read Part 5: 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 12 – Create an Experiential Resume
Part 6: Create Experiential Resume
Read Successful Experiential Resumes download. (You will find it in the Career Exploration Bundle zip file.)
Homework:
Create your experiential resume.
Week 13 – Write a Basic Cover Letter
Read Part 7: Write a Basic Cover Letter (in your Career Exploration Workbook)
Note that cover letters must be adjusted to each job setting.
Homework:
Create your basic cover letter.
Week 14 – Learn and Practice Interview Skills
Read Part 8 in Career Exploration Workbook: Learn and Practice Interview Skills
- Listen to this episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Preparing for Your First Interview.
- Practice in class by having teens ask 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.
Week 15 – Try On Some Hats – Apprenticeships
Read Part 6: Try on Some Hats – Apprenticeships
Read this quick post about apprenticeships.
Discuss with your parents the concept of apprenticeships. Brainstorm with them a list of apprenticeship possibilities.
Week 16 – Look for Apprenticeships
Homework:
Use the sample letter form in the Career Exploration Workbook, write a letter to three different apprenticeship possibilities.
Week 17 – More interview skills
Build more confidence skills that can help in interviews.
Homework:
Find someone to practice showing these skills with.
Week 18 – Phone Interview Skills
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 19 – Writing Your Personal Mission Statement
Read the download in your Career Exploration Bundle zip file: Writing Your Personal Mission Statement. Work through the download.
Homework:
Write your personal mission statement. This will help you refine your career search and even think about the best training for that career.
Week 20 – Clean up Your Social Media (Social Media Audit)
Step 1 on 5 Simple Steps to Prepare for Phone Interviews discusses two important tasks:
- Create a LinkedIn profile. This is not necessary for teens. Skip this project until you are in college.
- 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 21 – 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 22 – Planning Your High School Curriculum towards Career Exploration
Read Part 7 in Career Exploration Workbook: Planning Your High School Curriculum
- 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 – Apprenticeship-Hunting Skills
Get some experience to see if your areas of interests are truly a good fit. You will probably need to do some hunting. Here are ideas:
- Ask around at church or other organizations with which you are involved.
- Is anyone interested in a volunteer to help out doing simple tasks?
- Could you do some shadowing?
- Or perhaps it would simply be good to get some job experience in any field to help build your resume (and maybe weed out some career areas)?
Homework:
Get busy!
Weeks 24-31: 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 32 – Celebration and Presentations
Show presentations and eat cookies!
Not convinced you should take the time for career exploration? Read 3 reasons why it’s important!
Read more about career exploration in high school.
Career exploration as a part of teaching students independence – read more here.
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!
More ideas for career exploration in high school.
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