Empower Your Future: Career Readiness Curriculum Guide - Second Edition

Sep 18, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

Empower Your Future: Career Readiness Curriculum Guide - Second Edition provides an interactive, hands-on curriculum for youth and young adults to strengthen career readiness and employability. It is organized into five domains—Beginning Your Journey, Know Yourself, Exploring Careers, Strategies for Success, and What’s Next—each mapped to Massachusetts Career Development Benchmarks. Units cover self-assessment, positive identity, career exploration, goal setting, communication and interpersonal skills, job readiness topics, and practical job-search and retention skills including resumes, applications, interviews, and networking.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages326

Reading Time13 h 42 min

AccessFree to download

Empower Your Future Overview

Using the Guide

Ice-Breakers/Team-Building Activities Resources

Unit 1: Beginning Your Journey

Career Readiness Orientation

Unit 2: Know Yourself

Unit 3: Exploring Careers

Unit 4: Strategies for Success

Part I: Job Readiness

Part II: Obtaining and Retaining Work

Unit 5: What’s Next

SECOND EDITION table of contents Empower Your Future is comprised of five domains: Beginning Your Journey, Know Yourself, Exploring Careers, Strategies for Success and What’s Next. Each domain includes comprehensive lesson plans that contain a variety of lessons and activities. The Guide supports and is aligned with the Massachusetts Career Development Benchmarks. Empower Your Future Overview........................i Using the Guide............................................iii Ice-Breakers/Team-Building Activities Resources........................................iv Unit 1: Beginning Your Journey, Career Readiness Orientation Topic 1: Orientation and Professionalism ..........1 Topic 2: Know Yourself ...................................8 Topic 3: Possible Selves—Breaking Out of the Box...................23 Topic 4: How Beliefs/Attitude Affect Decisions...............................32 Topic 5: Communication Skills .......................42 Topic 6: Interpersonal Skills...........................50 Topic 7: Exploring Careers............................63 Topic 8: Goal Setting/Success.......................67 Topic 9: Moving Forward .............................74 Unit 2: Know Yourself Topic 1: Positive Identity ...............................84 Topic 2: Occupational Interests......................95 Topic 3: Work Values ................................. 102 Topic 4: Short-Term Goal Setting.................. 106 Topic 5: Highlighting Your Strengths—Creating an Elevator Speech ..........110 Unit 3: Exploring Careers Topic 1: Individual and Transferable Skills ....116 Topic 2: Career Search .............................. 121 Topic 3: Education and Training .................. 125 Topic 4: Exploring Careers through Informational Interviews and Job Shadows...........135 Topic 5: Internships .................................... 139 Unit 4: Strategies for Success Part I: Job Readiness Topic 1: Motivation and Initiative................. 146 Topic 2: Workplace Safety.......................... 151 Topic 3: Technology Etiquette in the Workplace........................... 164 Topic 4: New Employee Payroll Process and Your Paycheck ........................ 170 Topic 5: Time Management......................... 173 Topic 6: Positive Working Relationships ........179 Part II: Obtaining and Retaining Work Topic 1: Job Searching ............................... 197 Topic 2: Job Applications and Inquiries ........202 Topic 3: Resume ........................................211 Topic 4: Job Interviews ...............................223 Topic 5: Cover and Thank You Letters...........233 Topic 6: Building a Network/References.......242 Topic 7: Job Retention ................................247 Topic 8: Job Advancement ..........................259 Unit 5: What’s Next Topic 1: Success at Work: Tips for Your First Days at a New Job.................266 Topic 2: Coping.........................................270 Topic 3: Community Resources ....................275 Topic 4: Personal Finance and Budgeting .....278 Topic 5: Long-Term Goal Setting ..................298 EMPOWER YOUR FUTURE: CAREER READINESS CURRICULUM GUIDE Empower Your Future Overview: Career Readiness Curriculum Guide Commonwealth Corporation is pleased to publish this edition of Empower Your Future: Career Readiness Curriculum Guide. Empower Your Future is a life skills, career development and employability curriculum guide developed for use by program staff taking part in the Bridging the Opportunity Gap Initiative funded by the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) . Commonwealth Corporation, in collaboration with DYS, is excited about expanding the reach of this Guide for use by public schools, agencies, non-profits and organizations who are committed to enhancing education, employment and positive outcomes for youth across the Commonwealth. EMPOWER YOUR FUTURE: CAREE

FAQs

How is the guide organized across the curriculum domains and units?

The guide is structured into five domains—Beginning Your Journey, Know Yourself, Exploring Careers, Strategies for Success, and What’s Next—each supported by lesson plans and a set of unit topics, including orientation, skills building, career exploration, and job-getting and keeping work.

What learning approach and delivery style does the guide emphasize?

The guide is designed to be interactive, engaging, and delivered in a hands-on manner, accommodating a variety of learning styles to support a successful transition to work and career.

Which job-search and job-retention skills are covered?

The curriculum includes resume writing, completing job applications and inquiries, conducting job interviews, preparing cover and thank-you letters, building a network/references, and strategies for job retention and advancement.

Sep 18, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

Empower Your Future: Career Readiness Curriculum Guide - Second Edition_Page 1

Open in WPS to view all 326 pages