It's never too early to have children start thinking about careers and what they might want to do one day. In early childhood play encourages children to explore and pretend different roles and occupations.
Jonie Watanabe Tsuji (a National Certified Counselor) defines career readiness simply:
It’s about being able to have conversations, well-spoken ones, on jobs and your place in a world filled with them.
Questions she suggests you ask at all ages:
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- What do you like to do in your free time? (interests)
- If you could do a job, without putting a name on the actual job, what type of things would you like to do? (skills)
- What is important to you in a job? (values)
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/career-readiness-starting-early-young-learners-heather-wolpert-gawron
AWARENESS OF OCCUPATIONS
Encourage children to think about different occupations in their family, your school, community, city, and around the world.
*block play - build a farm, restaurant, airport, hospital, and so forth
*field trips - when you take field trips talk about the people that work in different locations
*books - as you read point out occupations of characters in the book
OCCUPATIONS FROM A TO Z
Take turns in identifying an occupation that begins with each letter of the alphabet.
*Discuss skills or tools that someone who chose this occupation would need.
Bounce Patrol - "Alphabet Occupations"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Oxqyd5qUw
Rapper Sam - "You Can Be ABC's"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9TLZBZ3eo8
GUEST SPEAKERS
Invite parents and members of your community to come and speak in your class about their careers.
WHAT'S YOUR BAG?
Give each child a brown paper bag and ask them to interview their parents about their jobs. What do they like best about their job? How did they train for their job? Put a tool, picture, or other object that represents what they do in the bag and share it with classmates.
WHEN I GROW UP!
Have a special day where children dress for the job they'd like to have one day. Ask them why they chose that job, how they will prepare for it, and so forth.
