Career and Work Education Organiser

Career and Work Education

Contacts

Planning Grid Questions

Teaching and Learning Activities

Overview

Career and work education is an essential element of a student's education and integral to a balanced SOSE program. Students learn about the diverse nature of work, and they develop capabilities that will enable them to create possible futures for themselves in a rapidly changing world. The Career and Work Education Policy states that all schools will include a deliberate focus on career and work education within the provision of general education. Career and work studies in SOSE programs will primarily focus on the People and Work strand organiser within the Resources strand.

Teachers' attitudes towards work and their understanding of career and work education are crucial. The values they hold about the inherent worth of different types of paid and unpaid work, and the place of work education in the curriculum, will have an influence upon the students they teach.

Four important elements of the people and work substrand are:
• learning about self in relation to paid and unpaid work
• learning about the worlds of paid and unpaid work
•  learning to make career plans and decisions
•  implementing career decisions and managing work transitions.

Some considerations for schools and teachers in structuring programs might include:
•  enabling students to think creatively about their futures and to explore
   their capacities;
•  giving students opportunities to be enterprising and to be imaginative and    inventive problem solvers;
•  examining leisure, and paid and unpaid work;
•  exploring their own and their family's involvement in paid and unpaid work;
•  acknowledging the importance of parenting and domestic responsibilities;
•  providing opportunities for students to investigate the way in which people    in the community are involved in paid and unpaid work;
•  focusing on students' roles and responsibilities within a school    environment;
•  ensuring that education about the world of work is a positive experience for    all students;
•  the changing nature of work and leisure in relation to people's daily lives;
•  an examination of possible future directions in the world of work;
•  expanding the students' views of what is possible for their career futures;
•  presenting information about a wide range of jobs;
•  investigating how technology has impacted and will impact on the nature of    work;
•  considering how stereotypes influence career choices for men and    women;
•  understanding the many diverse cultural attitudes and perspectives on    work.

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The Career and Work Education Organiser as depicted
on the SOSE Planning Grid

Strand	Career and Work Education
Time, Continuity and Change
Key ideas to be developed ways of organising and recording time patterns of change evolution and revolution heritage the nature of change - predicted and unpredicted - intended and unintended cause and effect continuity, change and discontinuity	In what ways in the past have the roles, motives and intentions of key people influenced the way people work? What are the traditions and institutions of work? How have they changed over time? How have societies in the past organised themselves to manage work and daily life? In what ways has the definition of work changed? What kind of work will be done in the future?
Place and Space
Key ideas to be developed spatial patterns reason for location and distribution interaction between features or components of places valuing places interdependence within and between natural and built spaces	What makes a place a workplace? How do place and space influence the work done and the way people work? In what ways has technology made more places and spaces accessible to more people? In what ways has technology changed our understanding of ability and disability?
Culture
Key ideas to be developed construction of personal and group identity diversity within and between cultures nature and purpose of cohesion development and consequences of belief	In what ways do cultural beliefs, values and attitudes affect the work people do? In what ways does ethnicity impact on access to employment or career advancement? What is the link between paid and unpaid work and a person's identity? In what ways are work roles stereotyped in the media?
Resources
Key ideas to be developed efficiency and productivity in resource management decision-making in resource use principles of sustainable development management of human, financial and natural resources enterprise practices scarcity and consumption	In what ways is work different from other human activity? What purpose does work serve? How are work roles established? What are enterprise and enterprising action? How is work organised and managed in different workplaces? What are the personal qualities which are necessary for someone to be an effective paid and unpaid worker, now and in the future? To what extent are paid and unpaid work valued in our society and in other societies?
Systems - Natural, Legal, Political and Economic
Key ideas to be developed human community systems decision-making and conflict resolution systems interrelationships and integration of all systems power and authority	How are the political and legal systems changing in relation to managing workforce and workplace? What are the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees? How do people participate in workplace decision-making? What are the tools people need to assist in decision-making?

Teaching and Learning Activities

Just Another Day
A class discussion for Band A.

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