Episode Details

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Career Exploration for Teens Who Don’t Have a Clue- Special Replay.

Career Exploration for Teens Who Don’t Have a Clue

“SO, what are you going to do after graduation?”

That’s the dreaded question for many teens. They simply don’t have a clue what they want to do.

How do you help a teen find direction in life? How do you help them get to know themselves or get to know God’s leading?

For teens who know they do not want to go to college but do not have a clue what they want to do

Many teens do not have any idea what they want to do after graduation. That is okay. They do not need to know everything about the future during high school. However, it is wise to help them explore. Here are some ideas:

• Give them rich experiences
  • Many times teens do not know what they want to do because they have not experienced it yet. One kind of rich experience is field trips. Hey, the good thing about homeschooling is that we homeschool moms tend to value field trips (although sometimes at high school level, it is harder to squeeze them in to our teens’ busy schedules).
  • However, if you create a Career Exploration elective credit for their transcript, you can log many field trips towards that credit. That is because, any trip gives a little more life experience. Any life experience helps build the ability to make decisions- especially career decisions.
  • For instance: ranger-led nature walks at state parks, cooking demonstrations at special events, car shows or museum exhibits. Sometimes, a teen will get inspired by a watching the person in charge of whatever event they are experiencing. They think: “Hmmm, this might be a cool job!” Or, on the other hand, they might think, “Ugh, I would NEVER want to do that!” Either way is valuable career exploration.
• Show them role models
  • Movies based on careers
  • Biographies of interesting jobs
  • FB Watches or YouTubes about interesting jobs
• Volunteer work
  • Teens need to do volunteer work. It is good for transcript and the soul. Service work is SO important for personal knowledge and development, as well as making the world a better place.
  • Some volunteer opportunities our teens have done:
    • Church (worship, set up, digital team, nursery, office)
    • Digital volunteer opportunities
    • Food bank
    • State park volunteer events
    • Library volunteers

For teens, whether they have a clue about career or not, try a career exploration course

A good career exploration course is very helpful