IT'S YOUR LIFE ... A CAREER WEBQUEST



Introduction

The Scenario:


YOU MADE IT!  You will be graduating from high school and look forward to working and living on your own.  

In order to be prepared for a career, you will research an occupation of your choice and through outlined steps, find a job, place to live, create a budget and forecast your Net Worth in five (5) years based on your salary, investments and expenses.
Objective

The objective of this webquest is for you to research career options and set a budget that would allow you to live the type of life you would like.  This will including finding a career, a place to live (a house, apartment, or condominium), and develop a budget.  Although the focus of the webquest is career exploration and real life budgeting, the webquest does require you to perform various calculations.


Purpose

1) Allow you the opportunity to explore careers, develop a budget and calculate your net worth based on career choice, budget and investments

2) Allow students that have not yet considered career options the forum to research possible careers.

3) Allow students that know their career path the ability to see how their future will unfold based on the selection that they have chosen.  Therefore, please take this task seriously.  The more you put into it, the more prepared and certain you will be about your future.

The Task

This webquest will require you to assemble a career portfolio.  As you complete the process steps of this webquest, you will be creating various pieces for your career portofio. At a minimum your portofolio must include the following:

  1. Your completed learning styles inventory.
  2. Your completed career and personality assessments.
  3. All career worksheets specified in the process steps. Including the results of all career surveys.
  4. An individualized world of work map indicating career clusters based on your interests and abilities.  This can be done on the computer by creating a pie chart or by hand.  This can be done on regular paper or on a poster board.  Be sure to include a legend with your world of work map.  This requirement will be more fully explained below.
  5. A written and visual demonstration of your career choice which includes a description of how mathematics is used in your chosen occupation including a written paper, a collage or poster, and a powerpoint presentation.  Be creative.
  6. The educational requirements of your career including all training and college costs which includes setting a budget, establishing a savings plan, locating loan information and repayment amounts.
  7. The outlook on your career including the entry-level salary.
  8. Finding a home including a description or picture and an estimate of monthly costs and budgets. Be creative this can be done either in writing or visually.
  9. Finding a car including a description or picture and an estimate of the monthly costs and budgets.  Again, please be as creative as possible this can be done either in writing or visually.  You can draw a picture, cut a picture from a magazine, or print a picture from the internet.
  10. Your calculated budget based on your salary.  This will be more fully described below.
  11. A written statement regarding how realistic is your budget based on calculations and actual/real world costs based on the home, car and other expenses you will actually incur.  Will you be able to follow your budget?  Will you be able to save money.
  12. A class presentation on your career choice including:
    A Visual Display of Your Career.
    The educational requirements of your career.
    The outlook of your career including entry level pay and job availability/growth.
    An individualized world of work map
    Your home budget.
    Your car choice and budget.
    Your calculated budget.
    A discussion on how realistic is your budget.
Process

1.Learning Styles Inventory

If you have not already done so, complete the following:

Learning Styles Inventory

This must be included in your career portfolio.  The teacher will give you a print-out of your answers, once you have completed the survey.

2. Completed Career and personality assessments

Extraversion Test - email to yourself or use my email - charlene.m.kovacs@cmsdnet.net

Emotional Stability - email to yourself or use my email - charlene.m.kovacs@cmsdnet.net

Left Brain/Right Brain - email to yourself or use my email - charlene.m.kovacs@cmsdnet.net

Job Diagnosis -  use my email if you do not have one charlene.m.kovacs@cmsdnet.net

Career Explorer  - use only if you have your own email


3. Career Worksheets


4. Individualized World-of-Work Map

The World-Of-Work Map visually displays job families, or groups of similar jobs into 12 regions.  When viewed in it's entirity, the World-Of-Work Map covers nearly all jobs in the United States. A career's location is determined by its primary work tasks, including working with:
Date:  Facts, numbers, files, business procedures
Ideas:  Knowledge, insights, theories, new ways of saying or doing something
People:  Care, services, leadership, sales
Things:  Machines, tools, living things, and materials such as food, wood, or metal
Arrows indicate that a job family relies heavily on two areas such ideas and peopler or people and things.
World Of Work Map
Based on your career worksheets, personality assessments, career quizzes decide what area on the world of work map best fits your personolity, interests and abilities.  Create your own world of work map indicating your selected area using the template below.

World of Work Map Template
5.  Use your completed  career worksheets, quizzes and world of work mapto help you decide on a career.



6.  Educational Requirements & Financing






7. Job Outlook & Entry Level Salary


8. Finding a Home


9. Finding a Car


10. Monthly Budget

Calculate your monthly budget


11.  Budget Statement

Construct a written statement regarding how realistic is your budget based on calculations and actual/real world costs based on the home, car and other expenses you will actually incur.  Will you be able to follow your budget?  Will you be able to save money.




12.  Class Presentation

Develop a class presentation on your career choice including:

Conclusion


You have just completed the first step in career exploration by beginning to think about what career choices would fit your strengths, personlity and lifestyle.  Continue to think about these as you continue through high school.