Career Exploration

Career awareness encourages you to learn about the world of work.

You might naturally learn about jobs that adults in your life are doing or about other jobs in your community. Career awareness also provides exposure to a variety of careers that exist outside your immediate surroundings.  You can also learn about tasks related to different types of jobs. 

Career awareness is also a time for you to learn about yourself and what you enjoy doing (interests), what you can do particularly well (abilities), and learn what’s important to you (values or beliefs).

In career exploration, you begin to investigate the careers that are of interest to you.

You can learn what skills that are required and how to develop your knowledge, skills, and abilities to enter a career field that appeals to you.

Career exploration is the time that you can explore your talents and determine how others are using similar skills and abilities in their careers. It’s important that you actively engage in work-based learning opportunities such as attending career camps or job shadowing. 

In the career preparation stage, you apply learning through experiences with business and industry in careers that interest you.

You may participate in capstone experiences: service learning, youth internships, youth apprenticeship, entrepreneurship experience, or service learning, or engage in a volunteer experience, or student-run enterprise. 

Through engagement at school and activities in the community, you develop skills that will transfer to future work environments and prepare you for future careers.