michelle.hogan@ownfutures.co.uk
National Careers Week - general resources
1. As a starter activity, teachers can explain their career paths to students. What different jobs they have done, qualifications, routes to where they are now.
2. As a starter activity, teachers can explain what career options are linked to their subject.
3. Create a quiz of the most unusual jobs staff in the school have done and get students to guess who the staff member is!
4. Deliver an assembly on famous people’s career journeys, a good example is Richard Branson. Get students to guess who it might be at each stage. You could even add the Headteacher’s in!
5. Get students to research the local labour market information to find out what jobs are available and growing locally. They could produce posters to explain what they have found out.
6. For the careers leader, arrange a meeting with your link governor. If you haven’t got one, raise with your senior leadership team that you need one in order to meet the Quality in Careers Standard.
7. Contact ex-students to be career role models for current students. Ask them to deliver a talk or send you some information about what they have been doing since they left you and what they are doing now, with pictures, and create a display.
8. Invite role models from the World of Work to a Zoom or Teams call with your class. Students could submit questions in advance so you can moderate them. This can also mean you can access people outside your immediate area.
9. Contact parents and ask them to share their career journeys. Create a display to show the varied job roles in the extended school community.
10. Use the case studies from the National Careers Week Website as inspiration
https://nationalcareersweek.com/new-site-template/ncw-in-action/
11. Download the official posters and resources from here!
Resources by subject
• English – Get students to write a piece of persuasive writing getting someone to employ them for their ideal job.
• Geography - research national labour market information and then plot it on a graph of the UK.
• History - research the changing faces of the labour market in the local area. What jobs did people used to do that don’t exist anymore? Why have they changed?
• Maths - Compare cost of living to jobs with different wages. How much would students want to earn to have their ideal standard of living? What kind of jobs would give them this income?
• PE - Give students a list of jobs and ask them to work out which they think would be the most active and which the least. You could do this as a line with each student being given a job and they have to organise themselves.
• Business - Research how to start your own business. You can find templates for a Business Plan here.
• Art - take inspiration from Drawing the Future and get students to draw a picture of their ideal future job.
• Science and Technology - invite a STEM ambassador into school to talk to the students about their jobs
• MFL - Find out what job opportunities there are if people are prepared to travel to another country. What doors does languages open?
• Drama - play charades for different job roles!