Along with academic and social skills, it is important for students to know how to effectively search for, apply for, and land a job that will place them onto a successful career path. This job should bring financial success as well as pride and personal satisfaction with the type of work being done. This Web Quest will have students, in grades 9 through 12, survey the types of jobs that are on the market, discover student interests and aptitudes, take part in the job search, application and interview process, and develop skills in letter writing.

This unit would be appropriate in a social studies, English, and/or economics class.

Notes:

• When students take the job interest survey and career interest survey, stress that the interests, skills, and jobs that exist now will probably change as students mature and as the economy changes. When they are actually ready to find a job, they would need to retake these surveys.

• It would be a good idea to take an in-house field trip to college and career centers to introduce students to the college advisors and career advisors.

• When students do a mock interview, they might do this in front of a group or in front of the whole class. The interview might be video taped and critiqued by the student being interviewed and the class.

• If students need to enter a user id and/org password in order to use the tools at certain web sites, students can be instructed not to provide their actual names, addresses or and any other personal information. Aliases might be substituted for the purposes of this unit.

Standards:

1.  Students will be knowledgeable about the world of work, explore career options, and relate personal skills, aptitudes, and abilities to future career decisions.

2.  Students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.

3.  Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.

4.  Students will clearly compose correspondence such as a resume, cover letter and thank-you letter, in a style appropriate to the purpose of the correspondence.

5.  Students will learn from models by examining and using what he or she learns from the models to assist in conducting project activities.

6.  Students will demonstrate a basic understanding of the rules of the English language in written work.

7.  Students will analyze and subsequently revise work to improve its clarity and effectiveness.