WHAT WE HEARDCALM or Chaos: It’s Your Choice!

APRIL 13 - 15 2012

FOURTH ANNUAL

SPEAK OUT CONFERENCE

Fourth Annual Speak Out Conference | April 13-15, 2012 What We Heard

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CALM OR CHAOS: IT’S YOUR CHOICE!

Background During the fourth Annual Speak Out Conference, a workshop called CALM or Chaos: It’s Your Choice! aimed to give students the opportunity to influence the way career education is delivered in the future. Career and Life Management (CALM) is a core course for all high school students in Alberta. Its objective is to enable students to make well-informed, considered decisions and choices in all aspects of their lives and to develop behaviours and attitudes that contribute to well-being and respect for self and others, now and in the future.

The facilitation group began with a presentation outlining key concepts such as career planning and the varied and dynamic aspects of their career stories. Over the course of each workshop, student input was gathered in a two-part survey, a recipe-card exercise and a question and answer period at the end of each workshop.

The workshop was designed and facilitated by representatives from Alberta Education and the Minister’s Student Advisory Council (the Council):

• Lana Rissling – Curriculum Manager, Education Program Standards and Assessment Division, Alberta Education

• Lizette Belisle – Curriculum Manager, Education Program Standards and Assessment, French and International Education Services Sector, Alberta Education

• Pat Siebring – visiting facilitator • Harina Malhotra – visiting presenter, Alberta Learning Information Service, Career and

Workplace Resources, Human Services • Heather W. – Member of the Council • Michael D. – Member of the Council (via video clip)

Executive Summary The students responded very positively to the subject of career planning, both in the workshops themselves and in their survey responses. Student responses indicated they overwhelmingly believe that career planning is important at this stage in their lives and that career planning is valuable in preparing them for the transition to life after high school. Even more promising was the student response to the question Who is responsible for guiding your career planning? The average response was 3.8 out of 4.0, indicating they held a “great deal” of personal responsibility for guiding their career planning. This was much more responsibility than was ascribed to home, school or the community. Finally, the trend toward having a career plan as students got older was very positive. By Grade 12, 94 per cent of respondents either had a plan or were weighing a few specific options. In contrast, only 65 per cent of Grade 9 students responded similarly.

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These responses make it clear that there is a strong interest in career planning among students. However, there is a disconnect between the enthusiasm the students express for career planning and their perceptions of the services offered to them. Responses about the helpfulness of the services and resources available tended to range from neutral to negative. In fact, when students were asked how helpful 21 different services and resources have been, they responded positively only to three: the Internet, parents and other significant adults. The majority of responses were neutral, and nine were negative, including:

• Alberta Learning Information Service (ALIS) • Work experience programs • Career planning workshops • Videos/DVDs • Career and technology studies • Mentorship programs • Interest inventories • Take your kids to work programs • Career centre or counselling (out of school)

Some of the negative responses might have to do with a lack of awareness of the services available. For instance, in the workshops, students showed a very limited pre-existing knowledge of many career resources available to them, such as ALIS and OCCinfo. Moreover, students expressed a significant sense of dissatisfaction with how the CALM course was presented. They felt the course should be offered on an in-class basis only rather than online. Further, students expressed that the course should be more engaging and should do a better job of providing them with career awareness via speakers, workshops, self-assessment and the matching of skills, abilities and aptitudes to specific career streams. A number of students said they were feeling stress or anxiety about the upcoming career decisions they faced. One student felt less stressed having heard the career analogy of a winding river because it implies that changes of direction are normal and to be expected. If the river analogy helps students approach their decision with more serenity, using such analogies may make for a strong addition to the CALM curriculum. Given that students believe they are responsible for their personal career planning, teaching them the skills to manage their own path into the future is critical. The students’ responses displayed a sense of individualism—for example, there were proposals for an alternative name for CALM, with entries like YOU (Your Own Universe). The significant challenge at hand will now be to align the delivery of tools and resources in a way that resonates with the students’ passions, career interests and sense of personal responsibility.

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For information on how this summary was derived, please see Appendix 1 – Process. For more detailed information on “what we heard” throughout the process, please see Appendix 2 – What We Heard.

Implementation The feedback captured in this workshop will act as the student voice component of a multifaceted research report co-ordinated by Alberta Education that will examine the state of career development and financial literacy in schools across Alberta. Ultimately, the feedback will be used to inform the direction of new wellness-related curriculum development models around career development and financial literacy.

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Appendix 1 – Process

The workshop was broken up into seven elements:

1. Introducing the concepts of career, occupation, job and work and challenging students to apply their knowledge in a game that had them move around the room

• The objective of the exercise was to both engage students by having them get up and move and help them clarify precisely what the term career meant.

• This proved to be worthwhile as there was much confusion of the terms career, occupation and job. Career was defined as:

− Something that every person has − Something that includes education, training, work experience and even

leisure activities

2. Completing part one of the What Do You Know? survey • This part of the survey included:

− General questions on career planning − Questions on specific career planning services and resources − Questions about online or computer programs

3. Delivering a presentation on ALIS

• Harina gave the students an online demonstration of the services offered through ALIS.

• Specific elements that were reviewed included sections on: − Career planning (including OCCinfo with its summary of 530 occupations) − Education (to clarify that a summary of post-secondary institutions,

program and admissions requirements exists) − Jobs − Resources (to clarify that there was an option for students to seek specific

feedback on their resumés and cover letters)

4. Completing part two of the What Do You Know? survey • This part of the survey included:

− Education − Strategies − Resources

5. Summarizing Lana and Lizette’s career stories

• This element emphasized the notion that a career is a varied and exciting journey rather than simply one thing a person does to earn a living.

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6. Completing a recipe-card survey to help identify: • Aspects of career development that are important to students • Specific elements that should be included in a career development program • Ideas to rename CALM

7. Presenting an interactive discussion and closing remarks

• Students were given an opportunity to talk about their experiences with CALM and offer suggestions for improving the delivery of CALM.

• Students were very engaged in this discussion.

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Appendix 2 – What We Heard The Survey: The five introductory questions focused on the students’ level of interest surrounding career planning, school resources and the transition to life after high school. Students were strongly interested in planning aspects and neutral about whether there are adequate career planning opportunities available at their school and the quality of the teaching/presentation.

Responses to four of the five questions showed no obvious trends relative to grade level. Responses to the statement Career planning is important to me at this point in my life showed a trend of increasing importance as the grade of the respondent increased. Results moved from “kind of” to “definitely.”

2.31

2.64

3.58

3.06

3.44

0 1 2 3 4

3.12 3.29 3.60

3.95

0

1

2

3

4

Gr. 9 Gr. 10 Gr. 11 Gr. 12

N/A Definitely not! Not really… Kind of… Definitely!

Career planning is important to me at this point in my life. The courses that I select and that are available to me in Grade 10 affect my career pathway. Career planning is important in preparing me for transitioning from high school to life after school. There are adequate career planning opportunities available at my school right now. I feel that career planning is taught and/or presented well at my school.

Definitely!

Kind of…

Not really…

Definitely not!

N/A

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Students were asked to evaluate how helpful they would say that the following services and resources have been in their career planning. Responses are shown below, sorted from highest (most helpful) to lowest (least helpful).

Students were asked to rate how responsible each of the following is for guiding their career planning: yourself, community, home and school. The students strongly identified themselves as being the most responsible for their own career planning.

2.99

3.24

1.95

3.84

0 1 2 3 4

School

Home

Community

Yourself

N/A Definitely not! Not really… Kind of… Definitely!

Not at all A great deal

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Students were asked to what degree they feel that the following career planning strategies may be helpful. The most positive responses had to do with career awareness, i.e., discovering what career and training opportunities exist and matching them to their interests and abilities.

Students were asked to what degree career planning should be taught and/or presented at the following stages of a student's school pathway. There was a high degree of consistency in this response, favouring junior high and high school.

0.94

1.69

3.01

3.95

0

1

2

3

4

K–3 4–6 7–9 10–12

Career planning is important to me at this point in my life

2.90

3.07

3.30

3.31

3.31

3.42

3.63

3.80

0 1 2 3 4

Convincing me that career planning is important right now

Helping choose between two or more occupational options

Helping with planning the next steps

Information about the world of work

Getting support for my career plan

Information about post-secondary institutions

Understanding my interests and abilities

Finding ways to pursue the things that I am really passionate…

Not at all A great deal

A great deal

Not at all

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Students were asked to rank the top three people they would feel most comfortable approaching for help with career planning.

Individual(s) Count (total number of times ranked)

Importance (rank multiplied by a weighting factor #1 = 3 points, #2 = 2 points, #3 = 1 point)

Parent(s) 59 150 Someone working in the career development field

33 63

School counsellor 28 54 Classroom teacher 31 52 CALM teacher 31 52 Friends 24 43 Other people I know and trust 20 36 Other relatives 8 18

Parents were the people students felt most comfortable approaching for help with career planning, being listed 59 times in 78 surveys. Parents were followed by people working in the career development field at 33 occurrences, then by both classroom teachers and CALM teachers at 31 occurrences each. These totals are represented in red in the graph on the following page.

In order to try to represent the impact of the first, second and third ranking, students’ first choice was assigned three points. Their second choice was assigned two points, and the third choice was assigned one point. This weighted total is represented in blue on the following page. In this ranking scheme, parents led by a clear margin. People working in the career development field were ranked second, and the school counsellor was ranked third.

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Students were asked to place a check mark in the blank that best describes their plans once they have completed high school.

39%

35%

23%

3%

I have a specific plan that I will befollowing.

I am trying to decide between acouple of different plans.

I am not sure what I will be doingbut I have started working on it.

I don't know what I will be doingand I am not worrying about ityet.

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The response to this question showed a grade-specific trend toward more certainty among older students.

Students were asked to name the key person they turn to for career planning advice. This was a blank field. The overwhelming majority responded teachers (38 responses) and counsellors (33 responses).

38 33

2 1 2 1 2 1 2

0

10

20

30

40

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End of Survey Comments: Thank you for the presentation! I enjoyed having a new website to check out!

I believe CALM should be more hands- on, looking at and trying different jobs through activities.

I believe that ALIS should be spread out to the students by promoting it on the social media sites such as Facebook so students can see the resource, since it is so good!

I feel that there is a lot of emphasis on career planning right now – which is great – but in high school they portray the idea that you will only have one job or occupation. There needs to be more encouragement for open-mindedness and realism that people will change fields I their life and that it's ok to do that!!!

I think that often many school counsellors who try to help you figure out what career to take often just make you feel more nervous about what you are doing after high school!

CALM is too complex to be offered online – it must be visual, not complicated. I got 97% in CALM online and it was a waste of my time because I know everything presented. I heard that in-class is more inspiring.

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The Recipe-Card Exercise: The recipe-card exercise asked students to provide input in four different areas:

• Reasons why career development is important • Things that should be included in a career development curriculum • A memory from a career development experience • A name for a program that encompasses health education, physical education, career

development and financial literacy

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There were pronounced trends in the responses to the question of why career development is important to students. The 136 responses fell into four general categories, which are presented below.

Sample student responses are presented on the following page.

25%

19% 42%

13%

Guidance/support

Personal exploration

Career awareness

Skills development

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Guidance/Support Personal Exploration Because a lot of students want to go to university so they need a plan

Assist students with discovering their true abilities and interests

Interact with people who are successful Broaden students’ horizons Prevent confusion as to what to do after high school

Allows students to have time to research and explore their abundant opportunities available in this country

Crucial to the "mysterious" life after high school

Help shape the student's goals and mindsets

Provides guidance for the future of students, and also ensures that they contribute to society in a positive way

Career development should give students the opportunity to think outside the classroom and gain understanding about the future

Career Awareness Skills Development Career development can make students more aware of the diverse options that suit their interests and values

Gives students something to develop certain skills in order to become what they want

Find a career they love and are passionate about

Resumes

Important to start looking into it early so that you can research

Allows students to plan ahead in financial aid and see their options

To discover the broad spectrum of different ideas

Gives experience for future careers

Explore career development to stop walking blindly

So when students have a job, they will have a clue about what they are doing

Be exposed to a variety of career options Helps them plan for the future To help individuals have a better idea of what path to take

It teaches you social and professional skills

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There were a wide range of responses to the question of what things you would like to see put into a career development program. The 126 responses fell into nine categories, dominated by career awareness and career experience.

Sample student responses by category:

Career Awareness (29 per cent of total responses) A closer look at ALIS in the course. Presentations by professionals and leaders in their fields. To focus more on how students break into the career field. More career focus, less drugs and sex (the info we learned was generally things we already knew). More job fairs. More in-depth career assignments to give students better ideas More in-depth analysis of different careers. A career test, just so that we could see a possibility of what we can be. Inspirational guest speakers. The ability to study occupations of interest. More about career management. A class to map out and develop career plans. Have career development in younger grades. Go and meet people who love what they do and help guide us.

36

23

14 14 14 13

4 4 4

0

8

16

24

32

40

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Career Experience (18 per cent of total responses) More job shadowing. Hands-on experience. Volunteer and job-shadow opportunities. More opportunities to experience careers. Volunteer placements in career-related areas. Workplace etiquette. Interactive things where students work and learn on a hands-on basis.

Skills Development (11 per cent of total responses) Taxes. Team-building exercises. Learning the basics of money, taxes and how to be financially sound. More information on salaries and investing. Real scenarios on how people manage money. Workplace etiquette. Interactive things where students work and learn on a hands-on basis.

Guidance/Support (11 per cent of total responses) Invite university students to talk because they're inspiring. More help on which path to take and how to get there. Offer more personalized experience. One-on-one time with a counsellor. Encourage people no matter what [their goal] is, from a mother to an astronaut. More counselling. More help choosing careers.

Fun (11 per cent of total responses) Make it fun with hands-on activities. More fun in the classroom. More artistic venues and workshops. Make the curriculum more interesting. A way to learn creative processes. Program, resources and games. A more creative program.

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Revised Course Design (10 per cent of total responses) CALM class should be more interactive and less paper-based. More moving around and experiments. Teachers who are well trained in career development. Get rid of CALM online—CALM online is painful. Programs during junior high too.

Post-secondary Awareness (3 per cent of total responses) Provide more information on post-secondary institutions, scholarships, etc. For CALM, I think there should be more focus on post-secondary information and planning, as well as help in deciding what do in the future. Going into Grade 12, I knew so little about university that I did not know the difference between graduate and undergraduate programs.

Personal Exploration (3 per cent of total responses) Have a section in the curriculum about extracurricular activities like Speak Out and other forums. Focus on uncovering skills and abilities. Exposure to new and different options rather than what we are already aware of.

Health and Well-being (3 per cent of total responses) Stress management. How to cope with stress and anxiety. How to properly manage stress.

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The question on sharing of a memory related to career development experience in the classroom produced a wide range of responses. The Wordle cloud of the combined statements is shown below.

The statements were broken down into four general categories and were dominated by career awareness.

51%

18%

16%

11%

Career awareness

Guidance

Career experience

Personal exploration

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Sample student responses:

Career Awareness (51 per cent) Taking a music course in Evansburg helped me decide to go into the recording industry. In biology class I decided that I really liked genetics and will look into being a genetic engineer. In CALM online we had to interview a professional in the field we were interested in and this was the most helpful thing for me in choosing courses etc. Talking to my band teacher who gave me insight about the highlights and hardships of being a professional musician. My Grade 7 science teacher inspired me to participate in a science fair. Now six years later I want to research brain development. Reading the "Centre City Plan" (Calgary) made me realize that I wanted to be an urban planner. Career Experience (16 per cent) As part of my CALM experience I did a week (25 hours) of work experience at a local non-profit organization in the environmental field. It was a great experience in resumé building and gave me a great idea of an actual workplace/career. Just getting the opportunity to talk with the people I worked with was incredibly useful. Work experience with the foods teacher. A student teacher came and was the most inspirational person that I've met. This was exactly my dream career. She helped me see how university is like. I had the opportunity to go to the Global Youth Symposium with the Red Cross and it affirmed that I want to make the world a better place. Guidance (18 per cent) I had an amazing science teacher and he told me that I had a real talent for sciences which really pushed me towards pursuing a career in the sciences. A teaching assistant at school shows how much fun she has every day and this helps depressed kids. I had a teacher in Grade 6 tell me that I should pursue a career in writing. My Grade 8 social teacher inspired me to take the challenge, which led me to finding an extremely strong passion as a political activist. Drama teacher incorporated philosophy into teaching -- the concept of metacognition (thinking about your thinking.) He was in a wheelchair and inspired me that you can do anything if you believe in yourself

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Personal Exploration (11 per cent) A Europe trip encouraged me to travel. Someone from Learning Clicks Alberta came to my CALM class and gave me awesome resources to help in my career development. One guidance counsellor told me that it's difficult for people who excel in many areas to decide on one career and it changed my thinking forever. My neighbour motivated me to take chances and explore all my passions.

The question about naming a program that encompasses health education, physical education, career development and financial literacy elicited a number of different responses. The Wordle cloud for this exercise is shown below.

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Proposed Names for CALM (Acronyms) • CALM: Career and Life

Management—"I think this is a pretty good name"

• LES: Life Education Skills • LIFE: Learning Information For

Everyday/Everyone/Everywhere • "A better acronym than CALM. CALM

brings to mind boring. Boring = lazy = farce."

• LAWD: Life and Wellness Development

• AIO: All-In-One

• PCP: Personal Career Pathway • PWC: Personal Wellness Course • PLAD: Personal Literacy and

Development • YOU: Your Own Universe • ELL: Enhancement of Life Lessons • BOWL: Balancing of Wellness and Life • LIFE: Living in the Future Education • ABC: All 'Bout Career • BANK: Bring a New Klass • CARE: Career and Reality

Enhancement

Names for CALM (Non-Acronyms) • Life on Track • Future Survival 101 • Life Lessons • Future Foundations • Student Resources for the Future • Pathways • Beyond the Textbook • Balanced Life Strategies • Career Pathways, Your Next Step • Lifestyle • Individual Career Pathway • Well-being Studies and Activity • Life Management • Life Studies • Healthy Bodies, Healthy Career,

Awesome Bank Account • Lessons of Life • Lifestyle or Choices • Finances and Career Studies • Reality and Planning for Your Future • Reality 101

• Green, Wellness, Life, Air, Re-energize & Rejuvenate

• Energy, Wellness and Happiness • Wellness Studies • Future Pathway Guide • Plan for Your Future • Life Class • Life Planning • Winning at Life • Life Lessons • The First Step • Life Lessons • Future Development Studies • Future Skills and Life Planning • Workplace Wellness Education Plan • Life After High School • Life Planning 101 • Eyes to the Future • Steps in the Right Direction • Healthy Minds, Bodies and Lives • Life Program