In 1993, 45% of all women work in clerical and service occupations.

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Options Unlimited A Role Modeling Program to Expand Career Options Choosing an Activity While planning role modeling events for your class is a flexible and creative process, there are four main types of events which can help to focus your energy and resources: Classroom Events Career Conferences Worksite Tours Work Experience / Job Shadowing The role modeling events you choose will depend upon the regular content of your class. A career prep program would use these events more extensively than a science or social studies class, but even art instructors should be able to use this material effectively in their classrooms. An industrial education program would strongly benefit from these events, and health professionals at all levels could add a great deal to a life skills or health program. Drama classes, math classes, environmental education - all of these will benefit from the introduction of real-life workers in these fields from your community. You may identify and develop a year-long program or plan only a single half-day event. It will depend on how it fits into your regular curriculum activities. Students can also assist with the planning of this event, if it fits with their course of study. First define the learning objectives. It will be easier to share your plans with the role models if you have clear vision of what you want students to learn. Do you want to expose your students to a wide variety of occupations? Do you want them to gain specific knowledge and understanding of the education and training requirements for a few particular occupations? Will they want to understand that particular challenges of a set of occupations, and the skills necessary to be successful? Second, determine what type of event would best suit you and the students. Lecture? Hands-on? Tour? Panel and Discussion? Some combination? Third, find role models or contact the women from a list provided by your local school board, or check with a local Women's Centre or WITT group (Women in Trades, Technology, Operations or Blue Collar Work). Fourth, make sure the role models you choose have an opportunity to go over the Role Model Information Guide, and add any information that you would like specifically for your class. Ideally, educating students about career choices is an on-going process. For example, some classes can begin with classroom discussions about gender roles, followed by a two-hour session where role models come into the classroom to share their skills, tools and stories. This could be followed by a career conference. Once they have adequate knowledge to make informed choices, students can decide on meaningful work experience or job shadow placements. Note: Activities and exercises for these ideas can be found in Options Unlimited in the activity section.

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