Tip of the Career Iceberg

Summary

• Students will group careers with self-selected criteria and then research a given professional field
• Students will examine the educational pathways for potential careers in a chosen professional field
• Students will present their findings using a graphic organizer which demonstrates an understanding of the branches of the identified professions

Setting the Stage

Students may be aware of occupations such as doctor, nurse, lawyer, teacher, electrician, plumber, banker, hair stylist, or carpenter because they may see these regularly. However, these are just the “tip of the career iceberg”. In addition to the “obvious” jobs that students could pursue, there are many other roles in each of these fields (e.g., doctor and nurse are only two of the many careers available in healthcare). Additionally, because we live in an ever-changing world, there are new career opportunities being created every day. How can students (or teachers, for that matter) be expected to know all of the options that they have? 

Materials & Preparation

• Sticky notes or chart paper **Alternatively, teachers may choose to use an online collaboration whiteboard such as miro, conceptboard or Mindmeister
  Personal computers or tablets with internet access for students

• Tip of the Career Iceberg Research Assignment reproducible [Google doc] [Word doc] [PDF] - 1 per student

What To Do

• This lesson is divided into five parts. Each part is detailed in the downloadable Tip of the Career Iceberg Assignment Reproducible. The first part is intended to activate prior knowledge and to introduce the topic of preparing and planning for future careers. 

PART A

• Teachers could begin this lesson by asking students to get into small groups and to brainstorm all of the possible jobs/careers they can think of. Students could use sticky notes, chart paper or an online collaborative whiteboard to record all the identified jobs. Teachers may wish to set a time limit of 3 - 5 minutes.
• Remaining in small groups, students could then group the careers based on their own criteria. They should then provide a title for each of the career groups they created. They could be allowed to have “stand alone” jobs that they cannot find a category for.
• Students could come back together as a class and share their “career group titles.” Teachers could record these titles in a place which can be shared with/viewed by students. Teachers could use the modified Career Sector Classification used on the Let’s Talk Science career resource site as a common grouping system.
• At the end of the sharing, connections could be made between titles. The class could reflect on the more common groups and look at the less common groups and jobs that were deemed “stand alone.” Students could then be asked to link the careers listed to subjects or skills they learn in school. Does the job require specific STEM skills? 

PART B

• Teachers could expand the discussion by presenting information on jobs that are currently in-demand and “new” jobs that are anticipated for the future by referring to articles, reports, or studies such as:
  https://shiftpixy.com/2019/06/03/top-40-most-in-demand-jobs-future/
  https://www.bumc.bu.edu/gms/files/2012/02/Top-30-fastest.pdf
  https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/future-of-recruiting/2018/12-jobs-you-will-be-recruiting-for-in-2030 
• Students may work individually or in pairs to research career opportunities in a “common” professional field/sector. These may include the “titles” from the previous group activity or a list provided by the teacher (e.g., health care, art and design, law, science, engineering, education, manufacturing, indigenous studies, computer science, business, mathematics, astronomy, history, communications, etc.). Students should be encouraged to select a field that is of interest to them. Teachers should strive for a variety of fields throughout the class.
• Students could research five different job titles that would be included in their chosen field of study. The instructions on the student assignment sheet request that students identify jobs that require different pathways (i.e., college, apprenticeship, university). No more than 2 of the 5 jobs can follow the same post-secondary pathway (e.g., 2 could need a college diploma, 2 could require an apprenticeship, and 1 could require a university degree).
• A minimum of two of the five jobs are intended to be “new” to the student(s). This may include a job they had never heard of before, a job that has different responsibilities than they expected, or a job that is “newly emerging” or expected to become prominent in the near future. 
• Students may find the Government of Canada’s Job Bank a useful source of information as they work through the questions on this part of the assignment.

PART C

• Teachers could ask students to consolidate the answers to the research questions in a “graphic” form using a learning strategy such as the Let’s Talk Science learning strategy : Infographic Creator.

PART D

• Teachers could have students perform a “Gallery Walk” to observe the findings of the other students and students could record information about other “new” careers.

PART E

• Teachers could request that students reflect on the “new” jobs that they discovered during the activity by writing a personal reflection and assessing aspects of the jobs.

Let’s Talk Science appreciates the work and contributions of David McKillop from Markville Secondary School, York Region District School Board in the development of this lesson