Over a few weeks we as a class entered Harwin Elementary and went through three linked lessons on Careers in groups. What a learning curve for us.

We started with a a selection of careers, where the learners had to choose from what we provided. While the trust wasn’t there yet, they were also not very engaged with what we provided them for options. The interest wasn’t there yet.

When the second week came we asked them to think of a career and see what they thought a person doing it would make, have a schedule like etc. There was a slight perk up but not enough.

The biggest change came the last week, where learners were asked to choose a field they wanted to pursue and research what that would actually look like in BC. Using the Job Profiles at https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/career-planning/search-job-profile made it straight forward while also giving the learners true autonomy on what they chose. That autonomy was what sparked diligent work from almost every learner, especially with support from the adults in the room. They worked hard and were genuinely interested in finding out about a career. We didn’t have to worry about motivating them, the choice was enough.