Career Cafe Program

Career Cafe :
Career Cafes have been a great way to supplement my College and Career Readiness Curriculum. For the past 4 years I have been providing this program to our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students.  The set up and scheduling are easy, because the cafe takes place during student lunches.

At the beginning of the year I send out parent interest forms with all 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. The form outlines the purpose and the set-up of a career cafe.  I also include our monthly career cluster focuses, as I try to schedule career cafes to correlate with the month's assigned clusters.

Career Cafe Parent Interest Form

Once a parent is scheduled for a career cafe, I then select student participants.  I typically invite 25-30 students per grade level.  Student selections are simply made from their alphabetic placement on a class list.  I usually choose 3 boys and 3 girls from each classroom.  I keep track of who is invited, so each student attends an equal amount of times throughout the school year. (I also always include the student whose parent is speaking.)

The random nature of participation is purposeful. I do not want students to limit themselves on what career cafe they attend based on current interests and abilities, as students are at an age where they are still learning about what they like and dislike as their experiences grow.  Career Cafes are arranged to help with the exploration of future career choices.  I want the students to attend the career cafes with an open mind, and hopefully learn about new careers they may of never heard about, or considered as a future career goal.

A 'ticket' is made for every student who is invited.  The ticket lets a student know that they are to report to the career cafe room after retrieving their lunch. It also allows them to cut to the front of the lunch line and leave the cafeteria.

Career Cafe Ticket

After a career cafe, students are asked to sign a thank you note for the speaker.  I think learning to write a thank you note is an important skill for students to learn.  This kind gesture will become even more important once students enter the business world.