Job Shadow/Industry Tour: How-To Guide

The facilitation of a job shadowing event begins long before the day of the event. All responsible parties must consider several steps during the creation and planning process for the event. Review the below considerations as you plan, but remember that your site may require more logistics when transporting students off campus.

Pre-Visit Considerations

Identify student attendees based on career interest. To ensure that students are matched with job shadowing experiences that align with their career interests, consider facilitating career exploration activities prior to the visit. This process helps students make informed choices and increases engagement during the job shadowing experience.

Step 1: Facilitate the Career Cluster Survey. Issue the Career Cluster Survey from the LEARN resource “16 Ways to Survey My Career” to students.

This activity introduces students to a broad range of career options and helps them begin identifying areas of personal interest. It serves as a foundation for deeper exploration and reflection.

Step 2: Conduct the “Career Cluster Madness” Activity. The interactive “Career Cluster Madness” activity guides students through a process of narrowing down their interests by comparing and ranking career clusters. By the end of the activity, students should identify their top three career choices, which can then be used to match them with relevant job shadowing sites.

These activities not only support students’ self-awareness and career readiness, but also help educators organize meaningful groupings for site visits. When students are placed in environments that reflect their interests, they are more likely to engage thoughtfully, ask relevant questions, and envision future pathways.

Key stakeholders: Identifying key stakeholders for the upcoming visit is a critical component of attending and facilitating the job shadowing event. These stakeholders may include any chaperones, front office staff involved in checking students out of school, bus drivers, school administrators, etc.

Example schedules: This may be the first time your partner organization has hosted this type of event. To help guide the organization, consider including an agenda worksheet to help them better understand the timeline and objectives. The attached Agenda Template for Worksite is an example worksheet based on previous GEAR UP schedules.

To use the template, copy the timeline from the template and edit the activities as needed. Work with your contact to create interactive activities for your students based on relevant content areas.

Materials and supplies: Contact your job shadowing event contact to ask if there are any materials or supplies you should prepare prior to the visit. These materials may include school T-shirts, name badges, and any note-taking materials for use during or directly after the visit.

Student preparation: Conduct a pre-visit orientation to ensure that students are ready to meaningfully engage in the job shadowing experience. The orientation should include the following components:

• Overview of the host organization: Provide students with background information about the business or organization they will visit. Consider including the establishment’s mission, services, industry sector, and relevance to the local community.

• Logistics and expectations: Share practical details including:

  • Dress code (e.g., business casual, closed-toed shoes, etc.)

  • Behavior expectations (e.g., professionalism, active listening, respectful engagement)

  • Safety protocols or site-specific guidelines

• Career Exploration Activities (Pre-visit): Before the visit, students should complete a variety of activities in the classroom to help them understand the following:

  • The purpose of the hosting business or organization

  • The available career paths within the industry of the hosting business or organization

  • The types of jobs offered by that business or organization and the educational or training requirements for those roles.

• Question Preparation: Encourage students to prepare thoughtful questions for the job shadowing experience in advance. These questions could focus on:

  • Daily responsibilities of specific roles

  • Career journeys of different staff members

  • Skills and education required for success in the field

  • Advice for young people interested in the industry

Transportation: Consult your school’s policies about requesting transportation for students to an off-campus activity. Close the sign-ups for the event early enough to get a total number of students attending in order to arrange for adequate vehicles and drivers.

Lunch: Depending on the time of the job shadowing event, you may need to make lunch arrangements while students are at the event site. Consult with a school administration about the best plan for lunch. Options for lunch may include: having students bring their own lunch, distributing sack lunches provided by the school cafeteria, eating lunch at a facility on-site (if available), or ordering lunch to be delivered, such as pizza, a day before the event.

Substitute teachers: Work with school administration to ensure that your classes will be covered by a substitute while staff members are out of the building, if necessary.

Off-campus forms: Students may need to complete several off-campus, safety, or permission forms for the job shadowing event. Check with your school administration to identify any district-required forms in addition to any safety or permission forms required by the job shadowing location.

Photo releases: Check both your school site’s and district’s photo and talent release protocols before taking or posting pictures from the event.

On-Site Considerations

Engagement and facilitation: Ensure that all students participating in the job shadowing event engage with the staff and activities. All school chaperones should be willing and prepared to offer support during the facilitation of hands-on activities. Chaperones must also monitor students throughout the day.

Post-Visit Considerations

Debrief and reflection: During the following class periods, complete a debrief and reflection activity with students who attended the job shadowing event. Consider using the following instructional strategies to facilitate this activity:

• 3-2-1

• I Used to Think… but Now I Know

• Mirror, Microscope, Binoculars

• POMS: Point of Most Significance

• What? So What? Now What?

This debrief and reflection activity should solidify students’ knowledge gained from the visit and allow staff to instructional theory to career practice. If you are currently teaching curriculum that directly relates to topics learned from the job shadowing event, engage students’ new understanding of real-world connections from the event. The reflection should also allow students to consider how they might fit into the career from the job shadowing opportunity. Additionally, encourage students to give feedback on the event as part of the reflection process.

“Thank You” Notes and Follow-Up: After the visit, follow up with site staff and thank them for their time. Use “Email Template 5” from the Planning and Communication Guide to write thank-you emails. This follow-up will also give school staff the chance to ask any additional questions, collect any new contacts, and discuss opportunities for future visits.