Career WorkOut
Career WorkOut introduces young people aged 11-18 to work guests from diverse backgrounds.
This helps to achieve the ‘encounters with employers and employees’ which all secondary schools are expected to deliver (Gatsby benchmark 5 in UK Government Careers Strategy).
The aim is to develop young people’s career awareness, aspirations and employability skills. We want volunteer workers simply to be a guest and answer questions honestly.
See Career WorkOut in action…
How it Works
A group of guests from different work backgrounds sit in a circle facing outwards, each faced by 2-4 learners. At the facilitator’s instruction, students begin asking their first work guest open questions about his or her personal experience of work. After 6 minutes, the facilitator stops the conversations and asks the students to move to the next guest in the circle and begin again. They continue until they have met 7-8 guests within an hour.
WorkOut is fast paced, easy and fun, as well as informative and helpful for both young people and adults.
Typical questions asked of guests
1. What is your job?
2. How many hours per week do you work?
3. How many holidays do you get every year?
4. Which are the best parts of your job?
5. What do you not like about your job?
6. What skills do you need to be good at your job?
7. How did you get your job?
8. How long do you want to do this job for?
9. What were your experiences of school?
10. What was your first job and how did you get it?
11. What other jobs have you had?
12. What was the best job you have ever had?
13. What was the best career decision you ever made?
14. What courses have you taken and what help have they been?
15. What is the key to getting on with people?
16. Why are listening skills important at your work?
17. What makes a good application for a job?
18. What makes a bad application for a job?
19. How do you make a good impression at an interview?
20. What is the easiest way to get it wrong at interview?
