"Applying" Themselves: KTC Students Fill Out Practice Job Applications

In this lesson at KTC, we wanted the students to know the basics of filling out a job application.  Job applications are like reading Greek to students.  They don't know what the sections mean, they don't know what the words are, and they definitely don't have dates of the awards they've gotten, addresses, or phone numbers.  At KTC, we are trying to walk them through the parts of an application so they can then do it themselves.

All the students took a pre-test and a post-test on applications and how they are alike and different from a resume.  From there, we gave them an application and told them to complete it according to a rubric provided.  The students thought that an application would be easier than a resume, but many of them struggled more with the application rather than a resume.  I believe that this occurred because an application is not as flexible as a resume.

With a resume, a student can adjust the font size, the font type, spacing, and so much more whereas with an application, it is fixed and can't be changed.  The students tried their best to complete the application according to our standards.  It was so exciting to see students who were going to leave a blank spot on their application before telling their classmates to fill it in with N/A for non-applicable. Many of our students struggle with the paper applications because it is so dependent on handwriting and lack the fine motor skills to make their writing small and neat enough to be legible.

For those students, we also have an online option for their application, which is the online option.  I found this website that will allow the student to complete the information online and even let them
practice uploading their resume or documents to this site.  I was really happy to have stumbled upon it.  I hope that all the preparation we are giving the students proves to be beneficial in the future.

Links: Online Practice Application Site