World events can impact future career options for today's young people. Students may not always make the connection between events they hear about and the future of various occupations. This activity uses current events in the news to spark discussion about careers and career outlooks.

Materials:

1. Access to Choices Explorer

Suggested Strategy:

One or two days before class, ask students to pay particular attention to the world news in the newspapers, on television or even on Internet news sites. Let them know that in the next session, the class will have two rounds of discussion, with each student offering their ideas about world events and their impact on career options.

1. Ask students to form a discussion circle.
2. Have each student briefly outline what news sources they reviewed in preparation for the class, before offering one positive and one negative recent world event they have been following.
3. In the second round of discussion, have each student propose a career that they think would be affected -- positively or negatively -- by one of the events raised by the class in the first round.
4. You or a student can keep track of the careers on the board. When everyone has participated with their observations and thoughts, ask students to return to their desks and review the list of careers on the board. Have them create a list, putting these careers in order from "most likely to change" to "least likely to change."
5. Ask students to tell the class which careers were at the top of their list, and explain why they placed the careers in that order. Do other students agree or disagree? Why?
6. Have students use Choices Explorer to research the careers at the top and bottom of their list. After this research, has their opinion of the various career outlooks changed?

Alternative Strategy:

As part of the preparatory research, have students ask a parent or other older person if they know of careers that have been changed by world events in their lifetime. Students can share their findings during the second round of discussion.