Best for: Schools who need to deliver career education to a specific year group or sub-group of students
If you need to deliver a specific and targeted career education program for just one year group or sub-group of students you can use the Ponder Program as the framework and resources and tailor for your students’ specific needs. This group could be a whole year level, or a sub-group such as students who are at risk of disengaging from school.
Occasionally, new member schools tell us that they have allocated time for just one year group and would like to deliver a career education program. Ponder can be used in these situations and provides an easy-to-use framework for a full year’s worth of content, as well as a full suite of resources which you can then deliver in the format of your choosing.
Membership covers ALL your students
It’s worth mentioning that we don’t limit your membership to a set number of students and all your students from Years 7 to 12 are covered, so you don’t need to limit the Ponder Program to set group of students for budget reasons.
How it works:
Ponder is designed to be flexible, so the framework, resources, and delivery mode can be easily adjusted to suit your needs.
This means that you can still use Ponder, even if you only have dedicated time with one group of students.
Ponder is designed to deliver career management skills in line with global best-practice career education standards, and these skills include everything from networking and finding allies through to self-discovery and even workplace health and safety. We find that even disengaged students voluntarily engage with the Ponder resources because they are short, relevant, and clearly communicate an individual concept, which means students can go away from the lesson and reflect on their own situation, then apply the learning to their context.
Timing the units:
We’ve created Ponder in four Modules – Understanding Self, Self in Context, Exploration, and Connection – and there are 10 units in each Module, which means many schools use one unit per week.
Each unit can take as little as 5 minutes, but if you want to allow time for a robust discussion then you may find you need at least 10 minutes and as long as 20 minutes to complete each unit.
If you are not able to schedule one lesson per week, then you could combine multiple units together into one unit, or simply decide which units to leave out.
We’ve also created a suits of accompanying activities which you can use to extend the units to fill a standard lesson or assign as homework.
What about the other year levels?
We find that some schools would prefer to begin with one group of students as a form of pilot, and then roll out Ponder in a similar format to other year levels later on. This is particularly common in schools with little existing career education, or where there is some reluctance from teaching staff to incorporate a new program on top of everything else.
Students who are not taking part in the program may be aware of the program through siblings and friends, and they may see the Ponder Program posters and resources around your school, and this may have the flow-on effect of engaging them with their options as well. We often find that when you include subject area teachers in the delivery of the program (i.e. through home group, or by inviting year level coordinators into lessons) teachers become interested in the program and can support you to advocate for extended access for your other students.
How to use Ponder with one group of students:
You have the freedom to use Ponder in whichever way works best for you and your students, but we suggest following these steps to get started:
Step 1 – identify how much time you will have to deliver your program, and how frequently you will deliver it
Step 2 – align the Ponder units with the time you have
Step 3 – open the resources, download the slides, and access the videos
Step 4 – choose which resources you will use – you can upload them into your schools intranet or student portal, or send them to other teachers who will be supporting your program, or use them in any other way that works for you
Step 5 – localise the resources. This helps make them even more relevant and allows you to extend into new areas which are pertinent to your students
Step 6 – deliver the program to your students
If you have:
- one standard lesson per fortnight – combine two units into each lesson (i.e. Week 1 + 2, Week 3 + 4, etc.)
- one day per term – use all 10 units to structure your day
- one lesson per week – use each unit as a starting point and extend with the accompanying activities
