Students have a lot to consider as they make plans for life after high school. Career exploration can help students make, and feel confident about, their next steps. Download this resource to refer back to or share.
How can we expect students to choose a career path that doesn't exist yet?
We may not be able to tell them what jobs will exist in the future, but we can help students make logical, informed decisions. We do this by inviting them to engage in career exploration. Exploring a variety of career paths and occupations, as well as relevant labour market information, helps students become equipped to make informed decisions that they feel good about.
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Career exploration is “the exploration of the environment and the self with the aim of gathering career-related information.” It is a vital step in the career development process that students often first encounter as they begin to plan for life after high school. Although students need to engage in career exploration to make informed decisions regarding their post-secondary path, career exploration is not limited to this time of life. Instead, it is a continual process that individuals participate in as they progress through life.
Sometimes career exploration arises from necessity, as with students nearing graduation who must choose between different post-secondary education programs or when adults experience restructuring and subsequent job loss. Other times career exploration results from an internal desire to seek new opportunities. Whatever the case, it is becoming increasingly relevant for students to learn how to engage in career exploration since research shows that, on average, people now have five to seven careers in their lifetime. Career exploration is the key to equipping students not only for post-secondary success but for life-long professional adaptability.
The career exploration process requires research and experimentation by the individual. This is the time for students to take an inventory of what they know about themselves and to begin looking for potential careers that interest them. But beyond just researching, they also need to explore through hands-on experiences in the classroom or through work and volunteer opportunities. Even investing in their hobbies is a valuable part of the exploration process. Like any good scientist, once students have completed their experiment, they need to reflect and draw their conclusions. Did they actually like the kind of work they completed? Is the career they were exploring compatible with their interests, skills, and values? Depending on how they answer these questions and others, they will either research new career options or they will research the next steps as they draw up a plan.
Career exploration is important for students because it helps them set informed goals and motivates them to achieve those goals. Let’s take a look at how career exploration accomplishes this.
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Did you know that the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) includes 867 detailed occupations? Or that Canada’s National Occupational Classification (NOC) lists approximately 30,000 different job titles? That said, neither the SOC nor the NOC “attempt to provide an exhaustive list of job titles.” Instead, these lists aim “to cover the most commonly used and universally understood labels that identify work” in their respective labour markets. In other words, a list of 30,000 occupations does not cover all the jobs that exist in a single country. Given the tremendous number of job titles and opportunities, it is impossible for students to be aware of all their options without dedicating time and attention to career exploration.
Exposing students to the plethora of occupations within the labour market is a vital piece of career exploration. However, to help youth make informed career choices, it’s important to also teach them about a couple of fundamental economic principles: supply and demand. Of course, the economy is ever-evolving as technology continues to transform how people work and what kinds of jobs exist. So it’s impossible to tell your students exactly what the job market will look like by the time they are ready to enter the workforce. It’s possible that the jobs your students will one day have don’t exist yet. It’s also possible the jobs they’re dreaming of will change. However, by introducing them to trends in the economy and relevant labour market information, you can help your students gain insight into what areas of study will prepare them for tomorrow’s economy.
According to Sareena Hopkins, Executive Director at Canadian Career Development Foundation, an informed decision is based on self-awareness and opportunity awareness. So, to make an informed decision, students must learn about themselves and the different options available to them. And this is precisely where career exploration comes into play. Career exploration is the vehicle for building opportunity awareness. Active career exploration does more than simply list a number of post-secondary pathways available to students. Instead, it allows students to discover the skills, knowledge, and values involved in different jobs. Through exploring occupations, students gain relevant knowledge concerning job responsibilities, work environment, training requirements, remuneration, and more. As a result, they are equipped to make informed decisions.
ChatterHigh fills an important gap in supporting opportunity awareness. It exposes individuals to a wide range of post-secondary options, industry sectors and occupations. This is vital for anyone, but particularly critical for young people who may have had limited access to social capital and limited exposure to the range of possibilities that exist in post-secondary and labour market systems.
- Sareena Hopkins, Executive Director, Canadian Career Development Foundation
Since career exploration involves exploring the environment and the self, it requires students to reflect on themselves and the variety of job opportunities they’ve discovered. Since this exploration is not simply a mental exercise but requires hands-on experience, students will be able to test their hypotheses. That is, students can try out their career of choice through job shadowing, work or volunteer experience, or developing a new hobby. Then they can decide whether this career pathway is truly compatible with their values, skills, and interests. Considering the role that intrinsic motivation plays in job satisfaction , it’s important that we help students discover careers that interest them and allow them to use their skills. And career exploration is one key way we can do this.
Hope can be defined as the cognitive combination of agency and pathways. In other words, hope is where “goal-directed determination” and the “planning of ways to meet goals” intersect. That’s because knowing what our goal is, believing we can achieve it, and having a plan to achieve it shows us that our goal is attainable. And that’s precisely what career exploration does for students. Not every student who dreams of travelling to the moon is going to become an astronaut, but career exploration shows them that there is a path that leads to that outcome. It may be hard. It may not be the right fit for the student. They may even discover something better for them along the way. The beauty of career exploration is that it can help students feel more confident as they begin their post-secondary education. And if they do discover their original goal isn’t right for them, they can pursue a new interest and set a different goal.
Interested in finding a way to help foster hope in your students? Check out ChatterHigh’s gamified platform that uses inquiry-based learning to expose students to a variety of career and post-secondary options. ChatterHigh’s approach has been proven to produce a wide range of positive outcomes, including making students feel more hopeful about their future. Ready to start exploring? Create your account now or book a demo .
It’s never too early to begin career exploration, especially when it’s engaging. In fact, to equip students to make informed decisions with minimal stress, we should begin career exploration by middle school.
Middle school is the ideal time to introduce your students to career exploration for three main reasons. First, middle school students want to engage in career exploration. Second, middle school students benefit more from career intervention than their high school peers. Third, in high school, students are choosing courses that form their educational pathway and determine their post-secondary opportunities.
Middle school students are already preoccupied with thoughts of their future and what they will become. By offering them career exploration opportunities, we can meet them where they are at and ease some of their anxieties by helping them find answers to their questions. In fact, one ASA study revealed that 87 percent of middle school students want to match their specific skills and interests with potential careers.
Research shows that “middle school is the most effective time for career guidance.” Several studies from 1988 to 2017 all demonstrate that middle school students respond exceptionally well to career intervention. While career exploration is still beneficial for high school students, one study “suggests that career guidance efforts may be the most effective with younger teenage students .”
Depending on the high school a student attends, they may not be choosing many of their courses for the first year or two. However, when it comes time to choose senior-level courses, it is vital that students know which courses are compulsory for admission to their post-secondary programs of choice. This necessitates prior career exploration in which a student discovered programs that interest them.
Because career exploration is a continual process, there are benefits to bringing it into the classroom well before high school and it should be worked into all subject areas. Research shows that higher levels of career planfulness can result in heightened school engagement. Highlighting future career relevancy can also help to answer the age-old question, “When will I ever use this stuff?!” In a world where the average worker will have five to seven different careers during their lifetime, it is valuable to practice career exploration as an ongoing activity. So let’s take a look at exactly how we can get our students engaged in this exploratory process.
