Too early?
Is elementary school too early for career awareness activities? Of course it is! What could be worse for students than learning about the boring things adults do for work?
What we do
Except nearly everyone acts as if the exact opposite were true. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is one of the most frequent questions kids ever hear from grown-ups. As fun as it is to hear kids toss off career aspirations shaped only by imagination and dreams – think of how many paleontologists we would have if such factors drove career outcomes – we rarely follow up on kids’ answers with much useful, actual guidance.
Our ever-growing concerns about future workforce needs, among other things, is helping to drive change in this area. While long a feature of high school and even middle school education, career-oriented programming increasingly shows up in elementary school learning activities.
Challenges for early days
However, it remains a challenge to develop elementary-level career awareness activities that really work to meet kids where they are. The career and technical education activities more common at older grades do not lend themselves to younger audiences.
A range of solutions
Instead, a grab-bag of other approaches has surfaced to spark elementary kids’ interests in career options, as states have incorporated career-related learning content into the standards that govern K-12 teaching.
Birds and stones
Many approaches to elementary career awareness seek to graft a career “angle” onto existing learning standards. The logic holds that the language arts and math content kids are learning also impart career-related benefits, and adding a discussion or exercise oriented towards careers completes an implicit career awareness circuit.
For example, California argues, “To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students must read widely and deeply from a broad range of high-quality, increasingly challenging literary and informational texts.” In other words, the regular schooling kids are already getting in fact does double duty as preparation for future career activities. This observation is certainly true, but it does not mean that substantive learning about career options and guidance towards one that suits kids’ aptitudes and interests is actually occurring. Call this the “two-birds-with-one-already-in-place-stone” approach.
Inside and outside school
Ohio extends this approach a bit by appending “career connection” clauses to existing learning standards. In 5th grade lessons about measurement and data, for example, the “career connection” content is:
“Students will use yard sticks and rulers to make conversions among inches, feet, and yards for measurement. Provide students with real-world examples of how this skill is applied (e.g., football field as an example of how yards are used; doorway height for feet; inseam of pants for inches) and discuss related careers (e.g., agriculture, design, construction).”
At least actual careers are referenced, but calling this approach a full-blown “connection” to a career seems a stretch.
However, Ohio promotes career awareness activities more imaginatively and effectively outside the bounds of learning standards through a Department of Education program called SuccessBound. This program equips teachers with learning content and access to real-world career experiences that help them give students a first-hand, individual experience of what the work world might offer them. Even so, the elementary-level content is much less developed than what older grades get.
Holistic and sequenced
Pennsylvania has implemented one of the most ambitious, fully conceived career awareness and readiness regimes in the country with the Future Ready PA Index. Divided into four mostly sequential pieces, the program calls for learning activities and data collection in career awareness and preparation, career acquisition, career retention and advancement, and entrepreneurship. Starting in 3rd grade, all students must meet grade-level benchmarks in building a career portfolio that follows them through to graduation. The learning should be individualized and experiential, involving partners and materials from outside the school building.
Back to that first question
Of course, asking what kids want “to be” when they grow is almost certainly the wrong question. Careers are changing, disappearing, and getting born at such a fast pace that an elementary student today will face a work environment full of options we cannot even imagine now. The better career awareness questions, say people like organizational psychologist Adam Grant, drive more towards what kids want to do or what change they would like to see in the world. Helping kids define their career goals by dialing into their own sense of purpose locates the ultimate meaning of work in their own values, rather than in a particular title or level of success that other people might esteem.
Working with purpose
Our elementary-level books seek to open kids up to the ways engineering might help them achieve their dreams or make the world a better place for all us.
Dream, Invent, Create encourages kids to imagine how engineering could help them change the world by spotlighting great engineering achievements and the impact the field has on all our lives.
What’s Engineering? Color & Discover invites kids to color in and explore feats of engineering all around them, helping them learn how engineering shapes the world they live in. And best of all, it’s free to download right now as an at-home activity for kids and parents to share.
We are currently working on a similar book in cybersecurity, delivering career awareness and building interest among elementary-level readers about this vital, growing field. As with our other books, it will emphasize the many chances students will find in the field to learn, grow, and help make the world a better, safer, more livable place for themselves, their families and friends, and society at large. Look for more news this fall and a book in early 2021!
And, finally
What do you think about elementary-level career awareness activities? Have you seen any that you like? What do you think the approach should be with such young students? We welcome your thoughts and invite you to share ours with interested friends or colleagues.
Eric Iversen is VP for Learning and Communications at Start Engineering. He has written and spoken widely on STEM education and related careers. You can write to him about this topic, especially when he gets stuff wrong, at eiversen@start-engineering.com.
You can also follow along on Twitter @StartEnginNow.
Our updated Cybersecurity Career Guide shows middle and high schoolers what cybersecurity is all about and how they can find the career in the field that’s right for them. Now with an updated Student Workbook and new Teacher’s Guide for classroom or afterschool use!
To showcase STEM career options, pair our cybersecurity books with the updated, 2019 edition of our Engineering Career Guide.
We’ve also got appealing, fun engineering posters and engaging books for PreK-2 and K-5.
Our books cover the entire PreK-12 range. Get the one that’s right for you at our online shop.