STANDARD 9: Career Education and Life Skills

Standard 9: Career Education and Consumer, Family, and Life Skills

Mission: Through Career and Technological Education, students identify and pursue career goals, apply communication and critical thinking skills, develop employability skills, and plan for further education and employment.

Standard 9.1 Career and Technical Education All students will develop career awareness and planning, employability skills and foundational knowledge necessary for success in the workplace.
Big Idea: Students explore career opportunities and assess individual aptitudes and interests to make informed decisions regarding career and educational choices.
9.1 A. Career Awareness and Planning
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do I decide what I want to be and how do I prepare for my career? - Why do I need a career plan? How do I communicate this information to post-secondary institutions and employers?	- Each job, career and profession has a set of preparation requirements, career exploration experiences and different opportunities for personal and professional growth and satisfaction. - An effective career plan is flexible, includes a variety of life experiences, skills and education, and can save time, energy and money.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Describe various life roles and work-related activities in the home, community, and school.
2. Identify abilities and skills associated with various careers.
3. Identify reasons people work and how work habits impact the quality of one’s work.
By the end of Grade 8:
1. Demonstrate the ability to distinguish between job, occupation, and career.
2. Outline the steps in the career planning process.
3. Apply research skills to career exploration.
4. Analyze personal interests, abilities, and skills through various measures including self assessments.
5. Explore careers using hands-on real life experiences within the sixteen States’ Career Clusters.
6. Develop an individual career plan and include in a portfolio.
7. Plan and conduct a cooperative project that addresses one of the problems faced by the school and/or community.
By the end of Grade 12:
1. Re-evaluate personal interests, abilities, and skills through various measures including self assessments.
2. Evaluate academic and career skills needed in various career clusters.
3. Analyze factors that can impact an individual’s career.
4. Review and update their career plan and include the plan in a portfolio.
5. Research current advances in technology that apply to a selected occupational career cluster.
9.1 B. Employability Skills
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How can we best prepare for the workforce when we will likely change jobs multiple times and perhaps even careers?	- In the 21st century, people will most likely have multiple careers and jobs. - Personal actions today and tomorrow may have an effect on future employment.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Describe and demonstrate the importance of personal and interpersonal skills.
2. Identify positive work habits and attitudes necessary for home, community, and school.
3. Identify reasons for working as part of a team.
By the end of Grade 8:
1. Research local and state employment opportunities.
2. Develop an employment package that includes a job application, letter of interest, and resume.
3. Demonstrate job-seeking skills
4. Describe and demonstrate appropriate work habits and interpersonal skills needed to obtain and retain employment.
5. Compare and contrast possible choices based on identified/perceived strengths, goals, and interests.
6. Identify and develop skills that are transferable from one occupation to another.
By the end of Grade 12:
1. Assess personal qualities that are needed to obtain and retain a job related to career clusters.
2. Communicate and comprehend written and verbal thoughts, ideas, directions, and information relative to educational and occupational settings
3. Select and utilize appropriate technology in the design and implementation of teacher-approved projects relevant to occupations and/or higher educational settings.
4. Evaluate the following academic and career skills as they relate to home, school, community, and employment: · Communication · Punctuality · Time management · Organization · Decision making · Goal setting · Resources allocation · Fair and equitable competition · Safety · Employment application skills · Teamwork
5. Demonstrate teamwork and leadership skills that include student participation in real world applications of career and technical education skills.
All students electing further study in career and technical education will also:
1. Participate in a structured learning experience that demonstrates interpersonal communication, teamwork, and leadership skills
2. Participate in simulated industry assessments, when and where appropriate.
3. Prepare industry-specific technical reports/projects that incorporate graphic aids, when and where appropriate.
4. Demonstrate occupational health and safety skills related to industry-specific activities.

Standard 9.2 Consumer, Family, and Life Skills All students will develop career awareness and planning, employability skills and foundational knowledge necessary for success in the workplace.
Big Idea: All students will demonstrate critical life skills in order to be functional members of society.
9.2 A. Critical Thinking
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
How do I decide or make choices?	Choices we make as individuals affect self, family, community and the world.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Recognize and define a problem.
2. Plan and follow steps to make choices and decisions.
3. Identify and access print and non-print resources that can be used to help solve problems.
4. Demonstrate brainstorming skills.
By the end of Grade 8:
1. Demonstrate the ability to communicate, analyze data, apply technology, and problem solve.
2. Describe how personal beliefs and attitudes affect decision-making.
3. Identify and assess problems that interfere with attaining goals.
4. Recognize bias, vested interest, stereotyping, and the manipulation and misuse of information.
5. Practice goal setting and decision-making in areas relative to life skills.
By the end of Grade 12:
1. Apply communications and data analysis to the problem-solving and decision making processes in a variety of life situations.
2. Describe and apply constructive responses to criticism.
3. Apply the use of symbols, pictures, graphs, objects, and other visual information to a selected project in academic and/or occupational settings.
4. Recognize bias, vested interest, stereotyping, and the manipulation and misuse of information while formulating solutions to problems that interfere with attaining goals.
5. Apply knowledge and skills needed to use various means of transportation within a community.
9.2 B. Self-Management
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
Why do I need to be accountable?	Personal attitudes, behaviors, knowledge and skills promote self awareness, personal responsibility and self-direction.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between personal behavior and self-image.
2. Recognize and build upon personal strengths
3. Accept criticism and respond constructively.
4. Recognize personal likes and dislikes.
5. Demonstrate steps to deal with stress and conflict
By the end of Grade 8:
1. Develop and implement a personal growth plan that includes short- and long-term goals to enhance development.
2. Demonstrate responsibility for personal actions and contributions to group activities.
3. Explain the need for, and advantages of, lifelong learning.
By the end of Grade 12:
1. Revise and update the personal growth plan to address multiple life roles.
2. Apply project planning and management skills in academic and/or occupational settings.
3. Compare and contrast methods for maximizing personal productivity.
9.2 C. Interpersonal Communications
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
How do I best communicate?	Effective communication skills are necessary to convey meaning and understanding to others.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Develop positive social skills to interact with others.
2. Select and use language appropriate to the situation.
3. Develop skills for accepting self and others through awareness of different cultures, lifestyles, and attitudes.
4. Practice steps for effective conflict resolution.
5. Work cooperatively with others to accomplish a task.
By the end of Grade 8:
1. Demonstrate respect and flexibility in interpersonal and group situations.
2. Organize thoughts to reflect logical thinking and speaking.
3. Work cooperatively with others to solve a problem.
4. Demonstrate appropriate social skills within group activities.
5. Practice the skills necessary to avoid physical and verbal confrontation in individual and group settings.
6. Participate as a member of a team and contribute to group effort.
By the end of Grade 12:
1. Model interpersonal and effective conflict resolution skills.
2. Communicate effectively in a variety of settings with a diverse group of people.
9.2 D. Character Development and Ethics
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
How do family, school, community and workplace influence an individual’s character and ethics?	One’s character and ethics are constantly being challenged and are ever-changing and evolving.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Demonstrate character traits that are important in day-to-day activities in the home, school, and community such as trust, responsibility, respect, fairness, caring, and citizenship.
2. Conduct a cooperative activity or project that addresses a character trait.
3. Identify ethical behaviors in the home, school, and community.
4. Explain a person’s responsibility to obey the laws and rules.
By the end of Grade 8:
1. Explain and demonstrate how character and behavior affects and influences the actions of others in the home, school, and community.
2. Describe and demonstrate appropriate character traits, social skills, and positive attitudes needed for the home, school, community, and workplace.
3. List problems and their causes, effects, and solutions that are faced in the home, school, and/or community.
4. Describe how personal ethics influence decision making
By the end of Grade 12:
1. Analyze how character influences work performance.
2. Identify and research privileges and duties of citizens in a democratic society.
3. Discuss consequences and sanctions when on-the-job rules and laws are not followed.
4. Compare and contrast a professional code of ethics or code of conduct from various work fields and discuss similarities and differences.
5. Apply a professional code of ethics to a workplace problem or issue.
9.2 E. Consumer and Personal Finance
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
When should I start planning financially, and how is it best to do so?	Financial choices have costs, benefits and consequences.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the value of money.
2. Identify various sources of money for personal spending.
3. Explore the relationship among wants, needs, and resources.
4. Understand that prices of goods and services can be compared to make decisions about purchases.
5. Explain how people can improve their ability to earn income by gaining new knowledge, skills, and experiences.
6. Describe how to earn and save money in order to purchase a desired item.
By the end of Grade 8:
1. Identify and demonstrate personal finance skills in checkbook maintenance and investing.
2. Construct a simple personal savings/spending plan.
3. Understand that people make financial choices that have costs, benefits, and consequences.
4. Explain the difference in cost between cash and credit purchases.
5. Compare prices of similar items from different sellers.
By the end of Grade 12:
1. Analyze factors that influence gross and net income.
2. Design, implement, and critique a personal financial plan.
3. Discuss how to obtain and maintain credit.
4. Prepare and use skills for budget preparation, making predictions about income and expenditures, income tax preparation, and adjusting spending or expectations based on analysis.
5. Use comparative shopping techniques for the acquisition of goods and services.
6. Analyze the impact of advertising, peer pressure, and living arrangements on personal purchasing decisions.
7. Evaluate the actions a consumer might take in response to excess debt and personal financial status.
8. Analyze the interrelationships between the economic system and consumer actions in a chosen career cluster.
9.2 F. Safety
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
How is safety a personal and societal responsibility?	Lack of awareness about laws and rules may lead to unsafe situations and chaos.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Identify common hazards associated with home, school, and community.
2. Explain how common hazards can be eliminated in the home, school, and community.
3. Describe and demonstrate the safe use of tools and equipment used at home and at school.
By the end of Grade 8:
1. Demonstrate appropriate safety procedures for hands-on experiences.
2. Demonstrate the use of recommended safety and protective devices.
3. Describe appropriate response procedures for emergency situations.
By the end of Grade 12:
1. Engage in an informed discussion about rules and laws designed to promote safety and health.
2. Describe and demonstrate basic first aid and safety procedures.
3. Analyze the occurrence of workplace hazards.
4. Practice the safe use of tools and equipment.
5. Implement safety procedures in the classroom and workplace, where appropriate.
6. Discuss motor vehicle safety, including but not limited to, New Jersey motor vehicle laws and regulations, methods of defensive driving, and the importance of personal responsibility on public roads/streets.