Exploring careers and workplace skills

Exploring careers and workplace skills

To prepare for the world of work, this lesson encourages pupils to explore the different jobs available and the skills needed for them. Pupils will also discover which core transferable skills can be applied to different jobs and reflect on which of these skills they already possess.

Exploring careers and workplace skills is part of the Barclays LifeSkills suite of career-related learning activities for primary school pupils (ages 7-11 in P4-7 or Years 3-6) to teach children about key skills for the workplace and provide the opportunity to explore a range of careers and industries.

This lesson has a focus on a number of core transferable skills, if your class is younger or is new to the concept of these skills, we recommend starting by delivering activities from our Introduction to core transferable skills toolkit before moving on to this lesson. We have outlined in the lesson plan how activities can be differentiated depending on your class’s age and ability levels.

The Exploring careers and workplace skills lesson includes a variety of video case studies and practical activities to inspire pupils to consider the skills they already have and what skills are needed for different jobs. 

 Please note this activity requires access to a screen and an internet connection.

Resources

• Exploring careers and workplace skills: Lesson plan – for use with a group of pupils in the classroom
• Exploring careers and workplace skills: Presentation slides – to display to pupils and use alongside the lesson plan, with interactive fields to complete as a class
• Exploring careers and workplace skills: Pupil worksheet – can be provided to pupils so they can complete the activities individually. It can be printed off or completed digitally

Key learning outcomes

By the end of the lesson pupils will be able to:

• Match core transferable skills to different jobs
• Identify the skills they already possess
• Reflect on the best parts of different jobs and sectors

Why not try one of these next?

• Being enterprising – https://barclayslifeskills.com/educators/lessons/being-enterprising/
• Transition toolkit – https://barclayslifeskills.com/educators/lessons/transition-toolkit/
• Strengths, goals and aspirations – https://barclayslifeskills.com/educators/lessons/strengths-goals-and-aspirations/