Career Module Lesson Plan
Career Assessments
Learning Objective(s):
• Summarize how values, interests, and skills play a part in one’s career decisions/ paths
• Reflect on one’s own values, interests, and skills
• Reflect on how these values, interests, and skills might connect to career path(s)
Time: 50 Minutes (each lesson plan is designed for a 50-minute class period. If you have additional time,
please see section below on next steps as possible in class activities)
Materials:
• CCPD PowerPoint on Career Assessments
• Values Assessment Sheet
• Interests Assessment Sheet
• Skills Assessment Sheet
• FOCUS 2 assessment (Optional: Faculty may choose to have students take their FOCUS 2
assessments prior to class or as homework after class, or neither. Please see the FOCUS 2
assessment assignment instructions below to gauge if you will use FOCUS 2 and if so, how you
will implement)
Outline:
• Warm Up (5 mins): Introduce topic and why you have selected to incorporate it into your course
• Present Info (40 mins): Utilize CCPD provided PowerPoint which has embedded learning activities
o NOTE: There are several options for in-class activities embedded in the PowerPoint slides
with anticipated amount of time needed to complete each activity. Faculty are
encouraged to consider time restraints of the class and choose activities as they see fit. If
using every worksheet and using every reflection question for in-class discussions, this
presentation could last 1.5 hours, or longer depending class facilitations and discussions.
Additionally, faculty may opt to assign certain in-class activities as homework
assignments.
Next Steps/Homework:
These assignments range in complexity and amount of time required to complete. Please select the best
fit for your course, and contact your liaison if you’d like assistance with implementation ideas or
brainstorming alternative assignments.
• Faculty may opt to have students complete one or more of the assessment sheets during class
but save the reflection questions on each worksheet as a homework assignment (possible
formats: 1-2 page reflection essay; 2-3 minute reflection video; or consider allowing students to
create a virtual or physical poster to answer the questions on the worksheets)
• FOCUS 2 Assignment variations (See FOCUS 2 Assignment details below)
• Have students take their current career interest and map out (e.g. like a brainstorming web) how
they see their prioritized values, interests, and skills connecting or disconnecting with their career
interests. Then have students choose a different career path as given in FOCUS 2 assessment
results. How do the two career paths connect in terms of values, interests, or skills sets needed
to be successful?
Resources:
CCPD PowerPoint
Values Assessment Sheet
Skills Assessment Sheet
Interests Assessment Sheet
How to Find Work You Love (TedTalk video)
FOCUS 2 assignment
NOTE: This assignment is intended to be completed after the career assessment presentation; however,
faculty could opt to have students take the FOCUS 2 assessments before the presentation and assign
homework using FOCUS 2 after class. Options for both are below:
If using FOCUS 2 assignment after presentation:
• Students should create an account on FOCUS 2 using their Catamount email address and a
password of their choosing by visiting https://www.focus2career.com/Portal/Login.cfm?SID=942
FOCUS 2 will ask students for an access code, which is Catamount (with a capital C)
• Once their accounts have been created, they should take the following assessments (In total,
these should take the students roughly 20 minutes to complete) Students may take additional
assessments if they wish.
o Work Interest
o Values
o Skills
• FOCUS 2 will generate their results for each assessment and will recommend career fields and
possible corresponding majors.
• Students should choose ONE career field they are interested in and research that career field
using information provided on FOCUS 2. They should also choose ONE additional career field
they are NOT interested in and reflect on the following:
o After having completed both in-class assessment worksheets and the FOCUS 2
assessments, how do you see your values, skills, and work interests connecting or
disconnecting with the career path you are interested in? If your chosen career field in
FOCUS 2 does not connect with every skill, value, or interest you have, what draws you to
this field? What skill(s), value(s), or interest(s) is/are most important to you and how do
you see that playing in to this particular career field?
o What about the career field you are NOT interested in? Why do you think you are not
interested in this career field? how do you see your values, skills, and work interests
connecting/ disconnecting with the career path you are not interested in? Using
information from the class presentation/ worksheets and the FOCUS 2 assessments, how
did you make your decision that you would not enjoy this career field?
o What are at least two things you’ve learned about yourself from the class presentation
and FOCUS 2 assignment? How will you use that knowledge moving forward?
o NOTE: It’s helpful if faculty give students options on how they prefer to reflect on class
materials – e.g. a written journal entry, a reflection video, virtual/ physical poster, writing
song lyrics, etc.
If using FOCUS 2 before the class presentation:
• Students should create an account on FOCUS 2 using their Catamount email address and a
password of their choosing by visiting https://www.focus2career.com/Portal/Login.cfm?SID=942
FOCUS 2 will ask students for an access code: Catamount (with a capital C)
• Once their accounts have been created, they should take the following assessments (In total,
these should take the students roughly 20 minutes to complete) Students may take additional
assessments if they wish.
o Work Interest
o Values
o Skills
• FOCUS 2 will generate their results for each assessment and will recommend career fields and
possible corresponding majors. Students should review their list before coming into class. NOTE:
It’s helpful if students bring their laptops to class so that they can log in and use their FOCUS 2
assessment results during in-class discussions.
• If faculty choose to use the in-class assessment worksheets, in-class discussions should focus on
the similarities or differences between the FOCUS 2 assessments and the worksheets they do in
class.
• If faculty choose to use the FOCUS 2 assessments only, in-class or small group discussions should
center around results and career paths generated from FOCUS 2.
• Faculty may choose to assign reflection homework using questions as listed above to guide
students in their reflection. NOTE: It’s helpful if faculty give students options on how they prefer
to reflect on class materials – e.g. a written journal entry, a reflection video, virtual/ physical
poster, writing song lyrics, etc.