Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE/ESOL Classroom - SABES

Brainstorm a list of questions that students would like the employers to answer. The list might include:
• What types of job openings are there in your company?
• What kinds of skills are you looking for in a prospective employee?
• What kind of education and experience do your employees have?
• What type of training does your company offer?
• What is a typical career path in your company?
Tell students that they can bring a resume to the mini-job fair to give to employers. Students should come prepared
to answer basic interview-style questions about themselves and their career aspirations.
Invite 5–10 employers to come to the class or program and to bring materials about their companies.
On the day of the mini-job fair, you can have employers answer questions in a panel format or you can have them set
up around the room (or a conference room) to resemble booths at a job fair. Distribute a list to the students of the questions
they brainstormed earlier.
If conducting this as a panel, have students take turns asking the panel questions. If conducting this booth-style, pair
students and ask them to visit each “booth” to ask the questions and collect information. Remind students that they
can hand out their resumes.
If the students are interested in hosting a career fair:
Brainstorm a list of 4–6 occupations that students would be interested in learning more about. Explain that you
will find local professionals in these occupations to come and participate in a career fair in a month. A variation of the
traditional career fair is to highlight the different settings that employ one occupation, such as nurse. This could be a
visit from one individual or could be done as a panel, which could consist of, for example, 3–4 nurses who work in a variety
of settings – ER, doctor’s office, nursing home, and home health.
Brainstorm a list of questions that students would like the individual or panelists to answer. (They can refer to the list of
questions from Section II, Lesson 1.) The list might include:
• What do you do on a daily basis?
• What kind of setting do you work in?
• Do you work with people? Equipment?
• What kinds of skills and qualifications do you need for this job?
• What kind of education and training do you need?
• What is a typical beginning salary? Is there room for advancement?
• What is a typical career path for this occupation?
On the day of the career fair, have panelists or individual sit in front of the room. Have students take turns asking questions.
Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE & ESOL Classroom | Section III, Lesson 4: Job Fairs/Career Fairs | 87