Our influVET Toolkit was published in response to the growing interest among young people in influencer and digital careers. We want that students make informed, responsible and strategic career decisions and that they understand what influencer careers bring to them and what are the pitfalls and good sides.
The Toolkit brings conceptual guidance around the topics of online presence, personal branding and career management. Also, there are 13 workshops developed that could be used directly in classrooms. The Toolkit does not promote influencing as a “dream job”, but helps VET students in two ways: to recognize risks and responsibilities and to build sustainable and ethical career strategies. Each workshop includes clear objectives, competences addressed, step-by-step facilitation instructions, reflection and discussion components. The methodology follows active and non-formal learning principles, encouraging students to reflect, collaborate and think critically.
So, how to use the Toolkit?
You can use it in multiple ways:
Integration into Career guidance programmes in schools
Career counsellors can integrate selected workshops into existing guidance sessions, especially those focused on emerging digital professions. If schools have this kind of guidance programmes, this can make the work of career counsellors easier and help students to understand better what they want to do in the future. If your school does not have the Career guidance programme, this Toolkit can be introduced in everyday teaching practice – be sure to check down below how it could be integrated.
Integration within media or entrepreneurship classes in schools
As the topics of media literacy and entrepreneurship become even more important in today’s world, there is possibility to use the Toolkit as part of these subjects, if your school has them. This could be particularly interesting for economics schools, graphic schools, or administrative schools that have these kind of subjects in their regular curriculum. Workshops on personal branding, online communication, and digital skills fit naturally into entrepreneurship, marketing or media literacy subjects.
Integration with project-based learning
As the workshops can be used individually, or as a semester–long programme, they could be used as a way to guide students from exploring influencer culture, building digital skills to creating personalized career action plan.
Integration in Cross-curriculum topics or within Class teacher hour (homeroom)
The topics covered within the Toolkit can be easily connected with different cross-curriculum topics, such as personal and social development, learning to learn, entrepreneurship, civic education and use of information and communication technology (ICT). There is a possibility also to use the workshops during the Class teacher hour, where topics like these fit perfectly, as they increase critical understanding and help in making informed choices of students.
And – this list is just a start. We invite you to use the Toolkit and adapt it to your teaching practice. In case if you will need any help or assistance, influVET team is here to help! Just reach out via contact form and we will respond as soon as possible!
The toolkit can be downloaded from HERE.
Good luck with the implementation!