What does work actually look like? (Part 2)

Building on the homework interview from Part 1, students share what they learned from a working adult and find the same patterns Meganne described in the careers of people they know. The activity also introduces the Coffee With careers library.

This lesson is designed to be delivered in 45 minutes as a teacher-led classroom activity.

This activity supports the following frameworks:

  • Gatsby Benchmark 5
  • PSHE Association KS3 codes L9, L11, L12

This activity is suitable for Years 7-9.

This is one of two resource guides designed for Key Stage 3:

These guides are designed to be used in sequence. Part 1 introduces the idea that careers are journeys of discovery rather than fixed plans. Part 2 builds on a homework interview students complete between sessions, surfacing the same patterns in the lives of people they actually know.

Learning objectives

  • Students will recognise the patterns from Meganne's career in the lives of people they know.
  • Students will hear about a range of real jobs from their classmates' interviews.
  • Students will know how to use Coffee With as a careers library.

Before the lesson

  • You will need a computer connected to the internet and a classroom screen.
  • Bring up the Careers page as a starting point. During the activity you'll also use the Search feature - the magnifying glass icon in the page header - to look up specific jobs as students mention them. If a job isn't in the library, a closely related one usually will be.
  • Decide whether the thematic discussions in step 3 will run as whole-class or pair-and-share, based on what works for your class.
  • Remember that the same sensitivity applies as in Part 1: students should talk about the person they interviewed and what that person does, without identifying them by name.

During the lesson

1. Recap of Part 1 (5 mins)

  • Remind students of Meganne's story: from school student to engineer to Antarctic scientist to astronaut reserve, with no fixed plan and a willingness to take unexpected opportunities when they came up.
  • The big idea from Part 1: careers are journeys of discovery, not predictions. Today is about looking for that same pattern in the lives of people students actually know.

2. Sharing and career pages (10 mins)

  • Ask 3-4 volunteers to briefly share what they learned, referring to the person they interviewed (without naming them) and what that person does.
  • For each job that comes up, use the Search feature - the magnifying glass icon in the page header - to pull up that job's career page on the classroom screen. Highlight one or two interesting things - the day-to-day tasks, the related careers, or how someone gets into that job.
  • The big idea to land: Coffee With has a page like this for almost every job. It's a library students can come back to whenever they're curious about a career.

3. Thematic discussions (25 mins)

  • Three themes, around 8 minutes each. Each theme follows the same pattern - a couple of prompts, a short discussion, and a pattern to surface.
  • The journey
    • How did the person you interviewed end up in the job they do now?
    • Was it a straight line, or did they do other things first?
    • Did they expect to be doing this job when they were your age?
    • The pattern to surface: most career journeys involve more steps than people assume, and rarely look like a plan made in advance.
  • The good and the hard
    • What did the person you interviewed love about their job? What was the hardest part?
    • Were the things they enjoy what you'd have expected? What about the things they find hard?
    • The pattern to surface: every job has good and hard parts, and the surprises are often in both directions.
  • Working with others
    • Who does the person you interviewed work with day-to-day? How do they work together?
    • Is their job mostly with people, or mostly on their own? Was that what you expected?
    • The pattern to surface: almost every job involves working with other people, even ones that look solitary from outside.

4. Reflection (5 mins)

  • Ask students to reflect personally on one of the following:
    • What's one thing that surprised you about the person you interviewed?
    • What's one thing you've heard today that's changed how you think about work?
    • What's one job mentioned today that you'd like to know more about?
  • Close by reminding students that the Careers page is there whenever they want to explore further - and that every adult in their life has a career story worth asking about.

After the lesson

  • Share the Careers page with parents/carers, explaining that it's a library of career profiles they can explore with their child.
    • www.coffeewith.xyz/careers
  • Use the School Tools / Activities feature to record the lesson activity:
    • Activity name: Year X - What does work actually look like? (Part 2)
    • Activity type: Encounters with employers and employees