National Career Development Month is here and we’ve compiled our favorite learning games, skill-building activities, and webinars for students to realize their passions, while building the skills necessary for life after school.  Best part? It’s built by educators for educators. Oh and its FREE!

Can’t spend all month on Career Development? That’s ok – we got you covered with a week planner or day planner if that’s all the time you have!

Get the free lesson planner! ⬇️

Week 1: Build background knowledge around job qualifications

Start the week by identifying characteristics of an effective boss with a skill-building activity. Continue the conversation with a lesson focusing on defining and discussing the purpose of a job posting. Students will put these skills into practice when they play learning game, A Job to Do, as they look to fill a new role at the community center. Close the week with Read to Lead: Live!, A student-centered webinar career chat series. Sign up for your tickets here!

Week 2: Start exploring careers

Allow students to spend some time thinking about career opportunities they express an interest in. Engage in reflective class conversations and support students in organizing their ideas using graphic organizers as the first step in their career exploration.  

Then, engage them with a real-word scenario with a Read to Lead learning game, Come Together, where students help an employee at the medical clinicas  they learn about budgets and staff development.

Week 3: Explore different roles in the workplace

Use a group activity lesson, Worst Case Scenario: Making Decisions, with your students. Each student will be assigned a different role and learn to collaborate with a team of peers to make the best possible decisions.  Then come together as a whole class to share strategies, and discuss different methods of problem solving each group used.

Deepen the understanding and importance of responsibilities one has in the workforce, with a close reading activity using an excerpt from President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural address.

Week 4: Experience the job search and hiring process

Begin conversations about how organizations go about hiring employees and how job seekers prepare themselves when job hunting. Students, as editor-in-chief of a digital magazine, will experience this process as they learn about job qualifications and staff development in Staffing Plan. 

Afterwards, review the job description they were fulfilling and discuss the type of information a job description should include to attract the best candidates.

Week 5: Create a resume

Compile all that knowledge and research your students completed, and have them work on their resumes. It’s never too soon to start building a resume. 

And that’s a wrap! We hope your students leave this month feeling inspired, encouraged, and most of all confident in what’s next in their self-discovery and career journey.

Get the free lesson planner ⬇️ to get access to all the learning activities in this post and more! Follow along on social media @readtoleadgames and post your class in action – we want to see those future leaders!