DATA REPORT

Joel Phillips

DESIGN

Question: Will a career interests session promote continued career exploration for students at Arlington Mill High School?

Background: Career Caf, a lunchtime group open to all students at Arlington Mill, traditionally has guest speakers to talk
about their career. Due to feedback from the students that they struggle to know what jobs would suit them, I (Joel Phillips)
planned and ran a career exploration session in the Career Caf slot. The session involved interactive activities based
around discovering and applying one's Holland Code. A resource website and my days and location were provided at the
end for those interested in further exploration. Due to the population, the promotional materials (flyers and poster),
session materials, questionnaire, and verbal instructions were provided in English and Spanish.

ASK

A short questionnaire was completed by all 16 attendees. Firstly, the students were asked to rate four statements with
responses 'strongly disagree', 'disagree', 'not sure', 'agree', or 'strongly agree'. The statements were 'I found the activity
interesting', 'I learned new things about myself', 'I learned about a new career', and 'I want to continue exploring my career
interests'

Secondly, the students had two open ended questions to respond to asking them about their favorite and least favorite
aspects of the session.

TRACK

15 out of the 16 students agreed to some extent with all of the statements.
The most agreed with statements were that the session gave them a new career to consider and that they wanted to
continue exploring their career interests (each having 75% of the students strongly agreeing)
More than half (56%) of the attendees reported something related to discovering new careers as their favorite
aspect of the session. Such responses included:
o Finding a new career to learn about
o Looking at my career options
Only two attendees listed a least favorite aspect, with one stating that some people arrived late and the other
wanting more time.

ANNOUNCE

Announcement: The results and findings of this data were shared with the counseling team at Arlington Mill. The results
and a reminder of the useful website links were also posted on the Career Caf poster.

Implications:
Three students subsequently sought me to discuss career exploration as a direct result of the session.
A follow-up career exploration session incorporating changing job prospects in Arlington was added to the Career
Caf schedule.
The careers that students showed particular interest in were used to guide invitations for Career Caf.

Recommendation: Similar career exploration and interest sessions to be included earlier in the semester next year and
will continue to inform the guests that will be invited to Career Caf.

DATA REPORT

Joel Phillips