Invite a Guest Speaker

CA Career Briefs

Did you know?

Inviting a Professional Association representative to speak in your classroomwill provide students with a wealth of career information and resources. And, if you are challenged to find a professional organization relevant to all your students*, a speaker from your local Chamber of Commerce could be a perfect fit. Since your Chamber has its finger on the pulse of the local economy, they can provide students with labor market information, facts and figures about growing industries, new job creation and skills employers’ seek. In this lesson students work together to craft questions for a guest speaker as they reach out to make professional connections.

*This QT  focuses on a Chamber speaker; however, you could adapt this lesson for a speaker from a Professional Association in your discipline.

Try this…

• Ask about Professional Associations to find out what students know.
  How would you define a Professional Association?
  What do you think a Professional Association could do for you?
  Can you name a Professional Association in our community?
• Describe the mission of a Chamber of Commerce…and ask:
  What do you think this organization does?
  Who do you know that belongs to the Chamber?
• View video  to give students an idea of what a Chamber of Commerce does.
• List ways the Chamber serves the community.
• Discuss the advantages of inviting a Chamber representative to class.
• Distribute the Student Activity, review the instructions and complete.
• Share questions and select the “best” ones.

Add an Experience!

Encourage students to do their own research and gather labor market information about your county from California’s Economic Development Department site.