Labor market and career information is to students what market research data is to business -- invaluable. Our 21st century economy demands a new approach to career development and that means career education becomes everyone's job. When instructors create active learning experiences linking today’s classroom assignments with tomorrow’s marketplace, students find learning more relevant, rewarding and practical. In addition, integrating career information and workplace skills into the academic experience, helps students make a more successful transition from college to the workplace. Listed below are 10 ideas for creating career assignments around your course content. Which ones would you be willing to try?
- Require students to complete an assignment that includes a visit to your campus career center.
- Include an informational interview assignment in your syllabus.
- Assign your students the Know How Skills Online Lesson and have them turn in the KHS worksheet for credit.
- Enlist the help of one of the career center counselors or staff by inviting him/her to your class to answer career questions.
- Give students extra credit for researching a local company related to your discipline.
- Dream up a creative assignment for students to complete when they attend your campus’s Career Fair.
- Invite a human resource officer from a local business to speak to your class about employer's new hire expectations.
- Conduct a lesson where students draft and practice an elevator speech in class.
- Incorporate Service Learning Opportunities into your course requirements.
- Sign up and use On the QT activities with your students at least twice next semester.
If everyone received the encouragement they need to grow, the genius in most everyone would blossom and the world would produce abundance beyond the wildest dreams. Sidney Madwed