Futures: Essential Employability Skills and Micro-Internship for High Schoolers

This course will prepare students with the attitudinal and behavioral skills that are essential to success in the workplace and classroom and provide a micro-internship.

Begin your career exploration journey while building work experience and a professional network. This course will prepare high school students with the attitudinal and behavioral skills that are essential to success in the workplace and classroom. High school students will link classroom learning to an applied work setting.  Project-based activities allow students to demonstrate the transfer of knowledge and application of skills Through direct observation, reflection and evaluation, high school students gain an understanding of the host companies work, mission, and audience, how these potentially relate to their academic study, as well as the organization’s position in the broader industry or field.  High school students will produce a critical reflection on their internship experience demonstrating how they have addressed specific learning goals. This course culminates with a collaborative capstone project that includes ongoing input and engagement from mentors in education and the workforce. Successful participants will earn a nationally accepted, industry-valued digitally portable credential recognizing their acquisition of essential employability skills.
 

What You Will Learn

Students in Futures: Essential Employability Skills and Micro-Internship will:

• Develop high-demand career skills and begin creating a professional network
• Be able to practically apply 21st Century Essential Skills (critical thinking; communication; creativity and innovation; collaboration and teamwork; initiative and self-management; workplace context and culture) in the classroom and at the internship site
• Know how to contextually apply the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals
• Be able to identify emerging technologies and innovation strategies within companies
• Create an inventory of skills and personal characteristics needed for professional success
• Establish a professional network of colleagues through the Futures Fellowship program
• Develop a network of potential career mentors
• Participate in a virtual or hybrid micro-internship