Career Exploration Activities for Groups or Mentors-Mentees, Part I

Kristina Marshall, president & CEO, Winning Futures, shared many fun ways to explore careers. Below are some from her presentation, Life Skills and Career Exploration Activities for Teens. 

[Our personal favorite is the "Six-Week Educational/Career Goal Evaluator." What's yours?]

By Googling coat of arms templates, you will see examples for every age from elementary school to college. Contents can vary, but the coat of arms is also an effective mentor-mentee icebreaker and activity.

Again by Googling values scenario cards, examples from many sources and for different ages are available. The actions and consequences scenario cards below are engaging.

http://assets.sportrelief.com/docs/schools/pdfs/martin/martins_action_cards.pdf]

Yes, this activity is for middle school, high school, and Career Tech! You can search online for a discussion guide, but either the facilitator or the students can develop the questions. Discussion might cover work, ethics, personal talent, friends, proper ways of showing emotions, fitting into a group, Mama Bear's motivation, etc. 

Borrowing from the website below, we learn plaques have four questions in common. Who is giving you a 5-Year Vision plaque and why are you receiving it? What will you have earned or accomplished at the end of your five years?

1) Who is giving the plaque? 

2) Who is receiving the plaque? 

3) What is the plaque for? 

4) When is the plaque presented? 

http://www.fireawards.com/what-to-say-on-my-plaque.html]

'What an incredible tool to build goal-setting and goal-achieving skills! Successfully mastering six-week chunks builds competency for longer range goals. Use this evaluator regularly! Talk through obstacles, including procrastination.

See Part II of this blog topic for more ideas from Winning Futures.

http://winningfutures.org/

From the presentation at the National Mentoring Summit 2013, January 24, 2013, Washington, DC