Learning Activity: Career Evaluation Worksheet

Students will use a decisionmaking chart to research career options. They will use the online US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook to compare future job/career choices, considering both income and non-income factors. The accompanying handout includes a comparison chart and reflection questions.

Materials:

• Visual: QR Code
• Handout: Job-Comparison PACED Chart (one copy for each student)
  
• Phone or computer for each student to access bls.gov/ooh

Student Objectives:

• Identify non-income factors to consider when choosing a career.
• Use a decisionmaking chart to evaluate career options.
• Explain how their preferences/priorities impact which factors are most important in their decisionmaking process.
• Identify the education/training necessary to enter the selected career field.
• Identify obstacles to entering the selected career field and possible avenues to overcome these obstacles.

Standard/Benchmarks: National Standards for Financial Literacy

Standard I. Earning Income

Benchmarks: Grade 12

1. People choose jobs or careers for which they are qualified based on the income they expect to earn and the benefits, such as health insurance coverage or a retirement plan, they expect to receive.
2. People choose jobs or careers for which they are qualified based on non-income factors, such as job satisfaction, independence, risk, family, or location.
3. People vary in their willingness to obtain more education or training because these decisions involve incurring immediate costs to obtain possible future benefits. Discounting the future benefits of education and training may lead some people to pass up potentially high rates of return that more education and training may offer. People can make more informed education, job, or career decisions by evaluating the benefits and costs of different choices. 

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