Standard A1

A1: Develop Career Awareness

1. Develop skills to locate, evaluate and interpret career information
   Students:

• Use taking The Career Key® as an example of one way to locate information about the careers they are considering. Discuss other methods of doing this.
• Discuss how to evaluate the career information found using The Career Key.
• Purchase a license to print multiple copies of the paper-pencil version of The Career Key® (English or Spanish) at the Career Key eBookStore for the activities above.
• Review the methods recommended in "Learn More about the Jobs that Interest Me".
  What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
  How would you do each in your own life?
  How would you evaluate the information you received?

2. Learn about the variety of traditional and nontraditional occupations
   Students:

• Browse through the Occupational Outlook Handbook to identify these.
• Take the Career Key. Click on each of those you identified for your Personal Job Options list and write down the interesting things you learn about them.

3. Develop an awareness of personal abilities, skills, interests and motivations
   Students:

• Take The Career Key and discuss the results.
• Read and discuss Holland's Theory of Career Choice and You.
• Make multiple copies of "What Color are Your Feathers? for the students and have them read and discuss how Holland's theory relates to them. Order from the Career Key eBookStore.
• Do one of the activities listed under Learn about Yourself and share with each other in group discussion.

4. Learn how to interact and work cooperatively in teams
   Students:

• Do one of the group activities described in this module to learn this skill under the guidance of a counselor or teacher.

5. Learn to make decisions
   Students:

• Study Decision Making Process
• Learn the ACIP method and how to apply it to an important decision they are facing
• Practice using the Decision Balance Sheets in making a decision.
• Discuss an important decision they made recently and whether it fit the ACIP approach. What are the pros and cons of using this method?
• Make multiple copies of "Advice and Actions For Making Smart Decisions" for the above activities. Order from the Career Key eBookStore.

6. Learn how to set goals
   Students:

• Learn about the Foundation Skills, and the Personal Qualities in particular.
• Download and print this 2-page copy of the Foundation Skills at the first page of this module.  Counselors or educators may make multiple copies to distribute for nonprofit purposes.
• Rate the extent to which they have the three Personal Qualities, particularly "Self-Management," and discuss their importance.
• Describe, in writing, a personal experience that either (a) shows how they "set specific, realistic goals, and monitored their progress toward them," or (b) how they would have benefited if they had done this.
• Develop and implement a plan for strengthening their self-management abilities; discuss progress and results in class.

7. Understand the importance of planning
   Students:

• Read Decision Making Process and discuss what it says under "Plans" about two questions to which "you will want to be able to answer "Yes".

8. Pursue and develop competency in areas of interest
   
   
9. Develop hobbies and vocational interests
   
   
10. Balance between work and leisure
    Students:
    

• Take The Career Key to identify their areas of interests (the two or three Holland personality types for which they receive the highest scores) and then discuss how they might develop their areas of interest, develop areas of knowledge and skills in these areas.
• Do information interviews with people who have hobbies and/or careers that sound interesting. Ask these people how they balance their work and leisure time. Report on interviews in class.