College & Career Readiness
Deciding on a career path is one of the most important financial decisions young adults make. Using this curriculum, students develop plans for achieving their personal career goals. Activities include career investigation, salary negotiations & interview strategies, and a flow chart project for short and long term career planning.
In partnership with the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics, Dr. Mike Casey, Professor of Finance at the University of Central Arkansas, developed a set curriculum units for teaching personal finance topics to Arkansas students based on the state’s personal finance educational standards. The full curriculum includes lesson plans and activities for multiple days of class, as well as discussion guides, writing prompts, and assessment materials.
Students will explore questions like:
What do I need to consider when choosing a career path?
How can I learn more about career paths?
How are salaries determined? How can I negotiate my salary based on my skill set?
Connections to Arkansas Learning Standards:
Students will create visual flow charts that include their short and long term goals and steps for achieving goals over time.
Personal finance standards appear in multiple courses and content areas in Arkansas, including personal finance, quantitative literacy, economics, family & consumer science, and in several business electives. The College and Career Readiness curriculum is designed to be a useful addition to any of these courses and includes strategies for team teaching & connecting topics across content areas. Specific learning standards met through activities include (All standards are specific to Arkansas):
PF.3.CCP.1 Explore potential careers (including an employment forecast) and the steps needed to achieve them based on interests and/or talents
PF.3.CCP.2 Explore opportunities for internships, job shadowing, and real-world experiences to determining future career paths
PF.3.CCP.3 Develop a flowchart to outline the steps needed to achieve chosen career paths (e.g., trade school, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, doctorate)
