Course Components and Considerations
Career and Work Exploration 10, 20, A30, B30 is a non-prerequisite series of courses that blends theory-based and experiential learning components in a career development continuum of awareness, exploration and experience. Students access the community as a learning environment and thereby enhance their opportunities for career life success.
The curriculum promotes career planning and decision making. The curriculum is not intended to force students to make premature choices. It aims at helping students to expand their occupational awareness and relate their educational choices to career development while keeping a wide variety of transition pathways open for consideration.
Transistion to Work Dimensions
The Transition-to-Work dimensions included in the PAA curricula are: apprenticeship, career exploration/development, community projects, including volunteerism, employability skills, entrepreneurial skills, occupational skills, personal accountability, processing of information, networking, teamwork and partnerships and work study/experience.
Career and Work Exploration 10
This 100-hour, one-credit course may consist of 40 to 60 hours of classroom learning and 40 to 60 hours of workplace learning. It offers students an opportunity to access career development information in school and in the workplace. Students are introduced to career development. They participate in a variety of self-awareness activities using specialized caraeer guidance instruments and gain valuable experiences both in and out of the classroom. Career awareness is the primary career development focus of this course.
Career and Work Exploration 20
This 100-hour, one-credit course consists of 30 to 50 hours of classroom learning and 50 to 70 hours of workplace learning. It provides students with an opportunity to explore career development as well as to do some career planning. The career planning process is facilitated by a wide range of interactive activities and work experience components. The focus in Career and Work Exploration 20 is on the exploration stage of the career development continuum.
Career and Work Exploration A30 and B30
These 100-hour courses each consist of 25 to 30 hours of classroom learning and 70 to 75 hours of workplace learning. Career and Work Exploration A30 and B30 maximize opportunities for students to access the workplace. These courses offer opportunities for students to experience career choices and to develop entry level skills in a workplace setting.
Portfolios
A personal career portfolio is a valuable organizer of student projects and assignments. It encourages students to collect examples of their work as they progress through the various activities, labs and projects. Selecting particular items to include in a portfolio encourages students to reflect on what they have learned or accomplished and what they have yet to learn. Portfolio items may include: journal notes, drafts, photographs, audio or video tapes, computer disks, sketches and drawings, etc. Portfolios may be used for peer, teacher, or self-assessment, and as a means to present selected works to parents, post-secondary institutions, or potential employers. In addition, the portfolio can demonstrate the link between home, school and community in the student's education. Each student should have a portfolio representing his or her work during the course. A portfolio can be developed, maintained, and expanded throughout a student's secondary level education.
The portfolio helps students:
- reflect on personal growth and accomplishment
- track the development of work-related skills and knowledge
- see links with home, school and community education and activities
- collect materials to prepare applications for post-secondary education and scholarship program entrance
- collect materials to prepare for employment applications
- focus on career planning.
The portfolio helps teachers:
- provide a framework for independent learning strategies for the student
- communicate student achievement from one school year to another in a specific area of study
- identify career planning needs for students
- assess and evaluate the student's progress and achievement in a course of study
- relate the skills taught in the classroom to the usefulness of those skills in the workplace.
The portfolio helps post-secondary institutions:
- determine suitable candidates for awards and scholarships
- evaluate candidates for program entrance
- evaluate prior learning for program placement.
The portfolio helps the community:
- reflect on the involvement in a student's education and the support offered to learners
- demonstrate the links with the home, school and community in education.
The portfolio helps potential employers:
- identify employable skills desired in future employees
- provide evidence of the knowledge and skill development of potential employees.
Working Portfolio
Students should collect work over time in a working folder. Students should also keep a journal of observations, critiques, ideas and reflections as part of their working portfolio. Items in this portfolio may be used for the purpose of reflection, for ongoing and summative evaluations, peer, teacher and self-evaluations, and for documenting skill development and mastery.
Working portfolios may be used for purposes of conferencing between student and teacher, student and parent, teacher and parent, teacher and teacher, or student and student. When a teacher examines a student's portfolio in order to make a decision regarding student progress, the information it contains may become documentation for the evaluation.
A daily journal may also become a part of a working portfolio as a means of tracking the student's use of time and to record progress. This will provide the student with a focus for self-directed or independent learning as well as an anecdotal record for part of the course evaluation.
Presentation Portfolio
To compile a presentation portfolio, a student should select items from the working portfolio. The presentation portfolio should cover the range of a student's experiences and should display his or her best efforts. A teacher could use presentation portfolios for assessment. It is strongly suggested that students at the 30 level prepare a presentation portfolio suitable for submission to potential employers or post-secondary institutions.
Through collecting, selecting and reflecting, students become capable of compiling presentation portfolios that display their best collection of work.
Extended Study
The extended study module is designed to provide schools with an opportunity to meet current and future demands that are not provided by current modules in the PAA curriculum.
The flexibility of this module allows a school or school division to design one new module per credit to complement or extend the study of existing core modules and optional modules configured to meet the specific needs of students or the community.
The list of possibilities for topics of study or projects for the extended study module is varied. These optional extended study module guidelines should be used to strengthen the knowledge, skills and processes advocated in the Practical and Applied Arts curriculum.
It is recommended that a summary of any extended study module be sent to the Regional Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction.
For more information on the extended study module, refer to the Practical and Applied Arts Handbook.
Resources
To support the principle of Resource-based Learning a variety of instructional resources have been evaluated and recommended to support the teaching and learning of Career and Work Exploration. See Career and Work Exploration 10, 20, A30, B30: An Initial List of Implementation Materials for a list of annotated resources. Teachers should also consult the comprehensive PAA bibliography. The annual Learning Resource Materials Update can also provide information about new materials evaluated since the curriculum was printed.
To order materials, except videos, teachers should check the Learning Resource Distribution Centre (LRDC) catalogue. An on-line ordering service is available at lrdc.sasked.gov.sk.ca/.
The on-line version of this curriculum and its accompanying list of implementation materials is accessible at www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/paa.html. It will be "Evergreened", or renewed as appropriate.
