Skills and Abilities Lesson Plan

Subject: Career Education

Grade: 8
Time: 1 hour
Outcome: Compare skills taxonomies such as Essential Skills and Employability Skills and examine
how an individuals skills may influence possible future occupational choices.
Indicators:
Identify how personal beliefs, skills, and attitudes affect decision making regarding ones work
choices.
Draw conclusions about the connections between skill taxonomies and personal work and life
plans.
Activities:
1. Set: Tell the students about how I struggled with deciding on my own career. Explain how I
focused on specific jobs that I wanted rather than what skills and abilities I had which made the
process difficult.
2. Have students complete Career Cluster worksheet ahead of time to understand the broad fields
of work that matches with their skills, abilities, likes and dislikes.
3. Explain how they add up the worksheet to see which broad field they are most compatible with.
4. Create groups around the room with people of the same or similar top broad field.
5. Have these groups create a list of all of the different jobs that would fit under that field of work.
Explain that they must have at least 20 jobs listed. (15 minutes)
6. While students are doing this walk around to give them more ideas.
7. Have students present these lists to the entire room. Have other groups give input. (10 minutes)
8. Put up benefits of fields of work on board. Select specific students to read each one out.
Elaborate and explain these benefits in relation to the future of their careers. (10 minutes)
9. Talk about NOC. How it is a tool in discovering which skills match which jobs. Write notes on
board, have students copy. Discuss. (15 minutes)
10. Closure: Explain that in the next lesson they will be discovering more about the fields of work
and about how they can learn and research these fields of work further on their own time.
Resources:
Career Cluster Handout
Large Lined Paper
Markers
NOC Skills Types and Levels Handout
Adaptations:
Use of individual work, group work and group discussions for engagement.
Use of visual, audio and kinaesthetic resources/activities for differing learning abilities.

Evaluation:
Students will be able to identify the different fields of work.
Students will be able to relate to what fields of work they are most suited for.
Students will understand the benefits of researching the broader fields rather than focusing in on
one career path right away.
Students will understand what the NOC is and how it can be used as a research tool for career
exploration.

The National Occupational Classification (NOC)

The NOC is a list that describes and classifies Canadian
occupations.
The NOC classifies occupations in two ways:
Skill Type
Skill Level
Skill Type:
These are the 10 occupational fields. Each occupational
field is associated with a number.
0

Management

Business, Finance and Administration

Natural and Applied Sciences

Health

Social Science, Education, Government and Religion

Art, Culture, Recreation and Sport

Sales and Services

Trades, Transportation, and Equipment Operation

Primary Production (Agriculture, Fishing, Mining, Forestry)

Manufacturing and Processing

Skill Level:
There are 4 basic skill levels identified by 6 different numbers.
1

Professional (Requires a university degree)

2 or 3 Technical/Para-professional (Requires college or technical school training)

4 or 5 Intermediate (Requires high school completion and on-the-job training)
6

Labouring and Elemental (Requires short demonstration training, no formal

education)

Resource created by the United States Department of Education.