Career Studies, Grade 10, Open (GLC2O)
This course teaches students how to develop and achieve personal goals in education and work and contribute to their communities. Student learning will include assessing their own knowledge, skills, and characteristics and investigating economic trends, workplace organization, work opportunities, and ways to search for work. The course explores postsecondary learning options, prepares students for community-based learning, and helps them build the capabilities needed for managing work and life transitions. Students will design action plans for pursuing their goals.
Personal Knowledge and Management Skills
Overall Expectations
By the end of this course, students will:
- demonstrate an understanding of and apply strategies needed for success in school;
- identify their interests, skills, characteristics, and accomplishments and describe how these are influenced by their experiences;
- describe the personal management skills and characteristics needed to succeed in school, work, family life, and the community and demonstrate the effective use of personal management skills in a variety of settings;
- demonstrate understanding and effective use of interpersonal skills required to establish and maintain positive relationships and work effectively in teams or groups.
Specific Expectations
Developing Learning Skills and Strategies
By the end of this course, students will:
- demonstrate understanding of the secondary school program and graduation requirements and related terms (e.g., compulsory credit, transcript, full disclosure, types of courses, literacy test, community involvement, diploma, certificate of achievement);
- demonstrate effective use of strategies for achieving success in school (i.e., note taking, strategies for completing homework, strategies for studying for tests and examinations);
- produce an evaluation of the effectiveness of their learning skills and strategies and identify those requiring improvement.
Developing Personal Knowledge
By the end of this course, students will:
- demonstrate understanding of the purpose and use of self- assessment and standardized assessment tools and strategies (e.g., aptitude tests, skills inventories);
- produce a personal profile describing their current interests, competencies, characteristics, and learning preferences, using a variety of assessment strategies;
- identify the skills they have developed through school subjects (e.g., literacy, numeracy, communication) and through community experiences and explain how these skills are transferable to work and other life roles;
- describe internal and external influences that might limit or expand the range of career opportunities they would consider (e.g., previous successes, peer pressure, parental expectations).
Applying Personal Management Skills
By the end of this course, students will:
- describe and explain the importance of personal management skills (e.g., organization skills, stress management), habits (e.g., maintaining a personal planner), and characteristics (e.g., adaptability) for success in school and other life roles;
- demonstrate understanding of the impact of family responsibilities on education and careers;
- summarize and document their own personal management skills and habits, identifying their strengths and targeting areas for improvement;
- demonstrate effective use of personal management skills (e.g., well-organized notebooks, punctuality).
Working in Groups
By the end of this course, students will:
- describe a variety of effective communication skills (e.g., active listening, giving and receiving feedback, negotiation, conflict resolution, consensus building);
- demonstrate use of effective communication skills in a variety of situations in school, at home, and in the community;
- identify positive teamwork skills (e.g., task management, conflict resolution, task assessment) and demonstrate the ability to use them effectively in a variety of settings;
- identify and explain ineffective leadership and teamwork skills;
- describe respectful and responsible behaviours that produce effective group results.
Exploration of Opportunities
Overall Expectations
By the end of this course, students will:
- demonstrate the ability to use a variety of resources to find information about learning, work, and community involvement opportunities;
- identify a broad range of options for present and future learning, work, and community involvement;
- demonstrate knowledge of selected fields of work, occupations, and workplace issues;
- describe trends in society and the economy that affect work.
Specific Expectations
Accessing and Managing Information
By the end of this course, students will:
- identify and describe an occupational classification system (e.g., National Occupational Classification) and identify occupational groups in this system that are of interest to them;
- demonstrate effective use of print, video, and computer-based resources to locate, select, and evaluate career-related information on the basis of identified criteria;
- identify questions that are appropriate for gathering relevant career-related information and use them effectively in information interviews with people in selected fields of work;
- demonstrate the ability to organize selected career information effectively, using word-processing, database, spreadsheet, and information management software.
Identifying Trends and Opportunities
By the end of this course, students will:
- identify and describe a variety of learning opportunities for secondary school students, including high school courses, community-based learning (e.g., school–work transition programs, community involvement, work experience, volunteering, cooperative education), and co-curricular activities;
- describe and compare a variety of post-secondary learning options, including university, college, apprenticeship, private training, distance education, and on-the-job training;
- identify a broad range of local and regional work opportunities;
- describe various forms of self-employment (including entrepreneurship), the characteristics of successfully self-employed people, and the advantages and disadvantages of self-employment as a career option;
- demonstrate understanding of how to maintain safety in the workplace and identify employees’ and employers’ rights and responsibilities;
- demonstrate understanding of selected fields of work (e.g., telecommunications, finance, construction), including emerging trends, sample occupations, and ways that high school students can prepare for those fields;
- identify and describe economic and societal trends (e.g., globalization, developments in information technology, emerging work style alternatives, changing demographics);
- demonstrate knowledge of selected occupations, including education/training requirements, duties, employment prospects, and the knowledge and skills valued by employers;
- explain how economic and societal trends influence the way in which work is done, the patterns of adult work life, and the growth and decline of various occupations and fields of work.
Preparation for Transitions and Change
Overall Expectations
By the end of this course, students will:
- demonstrate understanding of the processes of finding and creating work;
- demonstrate the ability to use marketing and networking strategies and to produce personal documentation (e.g., résumés, portfolios) in searching for work;
- use appropriate decision-making methods to set learning, community, and work goals and develop action plans;
- identify changes taking place in their personal lives, their communities, and the economy and identify strategies to make transitions occur more smoothly.
Specific Expectations
Managing Change
By the end of this course, students will:
- demonstrate understanding of transitions and change by identifying some of the personal and work-related transitions and changes that they, their families, and people in their communities have experienced (e.g., moving to a new country, losing a job, going to a new school);
- demonstrate understanding that career development is a lifelong process that will include transitions, changes, and lifelong learning;
- identify effective and ineffective ways of dealing with transitions and change.
Searching for Work
By the end of this course, students will:
- demonstrate an understanding of both the “open” (publicly advertised) job market and the “hidden” (unadvertised) job market, and identify appropriate strategies to access each market;
- identify the types of summer or part-time jobs or self-employment options that would suit their personal interests and skills;
- use a variety of resources appropriately to identify summer or part-time jobs in the “open” job market;
- identify their own network of contacts that could help them access the “hidden” job market, and explain the importance of personal networks;
- create effective résumés, cover letters, and thank-you letters for the work search process, using word-processing software and appropriate vocabulary and conventions;
- complete job applications effectively and without spelling or grammatical errors;
- demonstrate the ability to communicate their interest in a work opportunity effectively (e.g., on the telephone, in person, or through e-mail and the Internet);
- identify common interview questions and demonstrate the ability to respond appropriately and effectively.
Setting Goals and Planning Action
By the end of this course, students will:
- demonstrate an understanding of how to use decision-making processes;
- articulate personal, community, and occupational goals and explain how these relate to their competencies, interests, and characteristics;
- articulate their learning goals, taking into consideration what they have learned about their learning preferences, strengths, needs, and interests, and the competencies needed for selected fields of work;
- identify several postsecondary education/training options that are suited to their competencies, interests, and aspirations and explain why they are appropriate;
- identify potential barriers that could interfere with the achievement of their goals and use problem-solving strategies to identify appropriate actions;
- produce a preliminary learning plan, to be included in their annual education plan, that identifies courses to be taken in school, activities in the school and community, and postsecondary education options that will help them achieve their goals.
