Preparing students for employment later in life is probably one of the main aspects of school. Although, some skills get left out of the day-to-day curriculum. It’s important, as teachers, to integrate these lessons into the classroom but find activities relevant to the curriculum being taught.
Career education is crucial at the high school and young adult levels, but collections of lessons have also been created for kiddos in elementary and middle school. If you’re looking to build soft skills with your students, then here is a list of 22 activities that students will both be engaged with and learn a lot.
Elementary & Middle School Job-Readiness Skills
1. Negotiation
Movies in class? Talk about a good way to go about engaging students. Teaching soft skills like negotiation is crucial when it comes to preparing your kiddos for the outside world. This video shows Boss Baby’s interpretation of the top 10 skills for negotiating.
Learn More: YouTube
2. Interpersonal Skills
Intertwining soft skill activities into the curriculum is a win for everyone. Enhance your students’ interpersonal skills with this spelling activity. They’ll need to work together to spell the word correctly. Therefore, listening skills also come into play.
Learn More: YouTube
3. Telephone
Telephone not only works on communication skills but also highlights communication gone wrong. Use this game to show students how easy it is to miscommunicate information. Games like this provide excellent learning opportunities for better understanding.
Learn More: YouTube
4. Active Listening Skills
Listening is surely part of the core skill set that is taught throughout school. Undoubtedly, it’s one of those essential skills you just can’t get through life without. This game will not only help to develop those skills but will also help encourage student cooperation skills.
Learn More: YouTube
5. Phone Manners
Student career preparation can start really at any age. Future employers of students will be looking for confident and well-mannered employees. Learning phone manners will help to improve student success throughout school and life.
Learn More: YouTube
6. Classroom Economy
Student success in the future will largely depend on the way they handle money. Teaching this in the classroom will prepare kids with job-readiness skills far before they’re looking for a first job. Use this video as a guide to starting your own classroom economy!
Learn More: YouTube
7. The Perseverance Walk
Perseverance and grit are essential skills for students to learn. These community-learned skills will follow your students throughout their entire careers. Giving a higher chance of student success due to understanding and recognizing perseverance.
Learn More: YouTube
8. Making Connections
There’s no doubt that teamwork and interpersonal skills are a huge part of student career preparation. It’s never too early to start working on these goals for education. Educational practices like this will help students work together and chat with each other positively.
Learn More: YouTube
9. PowerPoint Karaoke Presentation Game
This activity is great for school and probably high school as well. Download some slides from the website, but don’t let your kids see them; then have them stand up and give the presentation as they see the slides for the first time! If you have some brave students in your classroom that love to have a little fun, then this might just be the perfect game to help them enhance their critical thinking skills as well as presentation skills.
Learn More: PowerPoint Karaoke
10. Test Your Patience
On a piece of paper, create a list of tasks for students. They will need to follow ALL of the instructions completely, if they don’t they’ll be in for a silly surprise. This game will help not only teach patience, but help students recognize patience.
Learn More: YouTube
Teens & Young Adults Job-Readiness Skills
11. Mock Interview
Some teens may have already started searching for jobs. If they have, they might already have employable skills; if they haven’t, they’re going to need some training! The first step to any job is an interview. Use this activity to practice interview skills with your teens and young adults.
Learn More: DLR SD Gov
12. Tracking Your Digital Footprint
Having conversations with students about what they share on Social Media and how that affects their future is very important. Participating in activities relevant to tracking your digital footprint will help students develop critical skills of being aware of everything they post, share, and talk about online.
Learn More: Cyberlite Books
13. Time Management Game
Practicing career readiness skills just got a lot more engaging for your high school students. Essential skills like time management can be difficult to understand, no matter put into action. This game not only helps students grasp a better understanding but also keeps them engaged.
Learn More: YRDSB
14. Customer Service Game
Building customer service skills in high school is extremely important for overall student success. These are basic employability skills that businesses are looking for. If you’re attempting at bringing student career preparation into your classroom, this is a great lesson.
Learn More: Junior Achievement
15. Silent Line Up
Silent line up is a game that will enhance both collaboration skills, while also working on critical-thinking skills. Push your students to silent work together and determine the correct order. These are classroom-learned skills that are often forgotten as students go throughout the grades.
Learn More: Activity Village
16. Explore Industries
Student career preparation takes on much more responsibility in High School. Your kids will soon be deciding what they want to do for the rest of their lives! Preparing career education lesson and teaching them more about the future of work could potentially help for a seamless transition from an education environment to a work environment.
Learn More: NESTA
17. The You Game
Potential employers will be looking for students who have self-confidence and can create connections with employers. Maintaining a better understanding of student selves will help with problem-solving skills in the future. The You Game is perfect for exactly that.
Learn More: Love To Know Printable
18. Commonalities and Uniquities
Student success starts with respect. Respect for both ourselves and for others. Adding this to your career readiness lessons will help students develop a better understanding of the people around them.
Learn More: Group Games
19. Back to Back
Classroom learning happens best in a fun and engaging environment. This may seem like just a fun activity, but it’s actually going to help students in the case of career education. It will enhance students’ speaking and listening skills, while also working on adequate communication.
Learn More: YouTube
20. Public Speaking
Career readiness education is based on various skills that will need to be used in the real world. Public speaking is one of those skills that really comes with business experience, but this game will help your kiddos build an experiential learning bridge into the business world.
Learn More: YouTube
21. Debate
Learning how to properly and respectfully get your opinions across is a challenge. High-impact practices, like holding a debate in the classroom, are a great way to do just that. This video provides a list of common questions that can be used in a debate class.
Learn More: YouTube
22. Customer Service Role Play
Turn this customer service video into a hands-on group challenge to build a customer service activity. Students will love role-playing and you’ll love how quickly they learn. Pause occasionally to talk about what’s happening and how the customer service rep is reacting.
Learn More: YouTube
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