Teachers and school counselors can teach nine of the ten reasons people are fired from jobs. We have the power to prepare our students for the world they will enter when they leave school by teaching career readiness and employability skills.

“Ask yourself if what you are doing today is getting you closer to what you want to be tomorrow.” – Unknown. This question is key not only for the individual but important for us to impart to our students. We want students that are prepared for success not just with Math and English but also with social and communication skills.

According to Zippa (the career expert), the top 10 reasons people get fired are: Damaging or stealing company property, drug or alcohol possession on the job, falsifying records, inappropriate social media use, insubordination, inappropriate behavior (bullying, harassment, illegal behavior, unethical behavior), poor performance, too much time off work, using company property for personal reasons, and violating company policy.

SEL and Career Readiness

Teaching students SEL skills will prevent the top reasons employees are terminated.

Employability skills and SEL skills are nearly the same. We teach students to control their emotions. In the workplace, one must be able to control their emotions. Getting angry and screaming at your boss rarely ends well.

When learning social and emotional skills, students frequently learn about empathy and how to work in a group. This is key when working with people. Do you have the skills to work on a project together?

Communication and conflict resolution skills are heavily utilized in the workplace. How do you talk with your coworkers? Are you able to communicate your thoughts clearly? What do you do when you disagree with someone? Do you have the skills to compromise and negotiate?

Teachers and counselors also teach students healthy social media practices and digital citizenship. Students learn how to interact online, write emails, and what not to post.

Other “soft skills” learned in school include how to follow directions. A student should be able to do what their boss assigns them.

The Mind Trek SEL Program offers a complete curriculum for 6-12th grade students to prepare them with the social and emotional skills they will need to be employable.

Career Readiness Mindset

Students are more likely to be engaged in the learning process when thinking about their future. The age-old question, WHY DOES THIS MATTER!? Students that have a career path in mind can see purpose in the coursework they are currently doing. They can get the answer to the age-old question of “Why does this matter?” Students who can see the connection between a topic to something they enjoy are more engaged and more likely to continue working even when the topic becomes challenging.

How do we develop this career-ready mindset?

Career interest inventories and assessments can give students an idea of what they want to do after high school. Knowing what they want opens the door to creating long and short-term goals.

Academics can be connected to students’ goals. For example, when they are learning Algebra, you can help students understand that when they are a nurse, doctors, pharmacists, or paramedics, they will use Algebra to calculate medication dosages.

Students that can understand the purpose of what they are learning are more engaged and are more persistent when things become challenging.

Reality Check

Reality Check Activities are an excellent way to get students thinking about their future. You have heard so many students state that they want to be a rock star, professional athlete, or YouTuber as their profession. Reality Check activities help students grasp the cost of living and the cost to support the lifestyle they envision.

There are multiple ways you can do a reality check activity. The Mind Trek SEL Program has a Career Readiness Unit that includes a Reality Check Activity. You can also find online reality check quizzes. JumpStart.org offers an online reality check quiz for students to take. They can pick the type of housing they envision, the type of transportation, and other expenses.

Reality Checks give students the chance to see how much the life they want to live actually costs. You can take that further by allowing students to look at careers supporting that lifestyle. Students can then decide if they need to change career paths or lifestyle choices.

There is an excellent online game called SPENT. It requires no login. Students can play the game of SPENT to see if they can make a minimum wage job last them through a month. Throughout the game, you are asked to pick your job from help wanted ads, pick where you live, and make all sorts of decisions. It is an excellent, fun opportunity for students to see how financially challenging life can be without any education or career training.

Students can also learn through the game of LIFE. Download our FREE life-size game of Life to get the directions and printables to create your own Life Trek game.

SEL Unfiltered

Do you want to hear more? Check out the rest of our series on Career Readiness on our SEL Unfiltered podcast, wherever you stream your podcasts.

Check out other episodes in our Career Readiness series, including Career Exploration – Engaging the Community, Virtual Career Exploration, Landing the Job, and Employability Skills – Communication.

Game of the Week

Every week on SEL Unfiltered, we like to bring you a game or activity. You can use the game with your students, in the classroom, or in a small group. This week Kaitlin and I did a Take 5 activity on Make a Change Monday.

Take 5 activities are simple questions that you can do with your students every week. They are designed only to take 5 minutes and build relationships and community in your classroom. The key to Take 5 activities is to be consistent.

Make a Change Monday is an opportunity for students to think about how they can make a difference. Your questions can be focused on the individual, like “What is one thing you can improve from last week?”. You can ask bigger questions as well, such as “What is one thing that you can do this week to make your school a better place?” Make a Change Monday is a great way to get students thinking and making positive changes in themselves and in their school.