You already have a shortlist of career fields. Today you pick one job role inside that shortlist and plan how you will actually research it. If you do not have your shortlist to hand, pick one job title from a field you named earlier in this unit and plan against that today.

Today you build the plan; next lesson you use it. Aim for at least three methods, and one plain sentence on what you hope to learn from each. A plan with no methods is a wish; a plan with three methods is something you can run.

Three terms you will use in today's plan:

First, put the research sequence in order in the flow-builder below (your teacher may also run this on the board). The order matters: if you jump straight to shadowing without knowing what you need to notice, you waste the visit. Drag the four cards into a chain and be ready to say why one step has to come before another.

Then write your Job Role Research Plan in your Strand 1.2 folder. Use this methods menu and pick at least three:

• Careers sites and job ads (Careers Portal, GradIreland, Qualifax for courses and entry routes, employer careers pages)
  Strength: fast, free, current adverts and entry routes.
  Limit: polished copy; misses the feel of a real day. Start with one live advert on Careers Portal or GradIreland in your field.
• Interview someone in the role
  Strength: honest detail and pathway stories.
  Limit: one person's view; takes courage and time to arrange. Ask your Guidance Counsellor for a local contact, or draft a short enquiry email you can send this week.
• Guidance Counsellor
  Strength: knows local routes and who to contact.
  Limit: not a substitute for hearing from the role itself. Book a short appointment to check entry routes and possible interview or open-day contacts.
• Open day or careers fair
  Strength: you meet providers and can ask the same question to several people.
  Limit: still a sales floor; short conversations. Look for a college open day, an ETB or apprenticeship open day, or a local careers fair listed through school.
• Work shadowing
  Strength: you see the unglamorous parts.
  Limit: hard to arrange; one site is not the whole field. A practical first move is an open enquiry via your Guidance Counsellor to a hospital department, community pharmacy, or similar local workplace linked to your target role.
• Work experience
  Strength: you do the work, not only watch it.
  Limit: longer to organise; may not match your exact target role. Check with your school's placement coordinator what is already possible this term.

Your plan must name:

1. One specific job role inside a field from your shortlist (not the whole field).
2. Three different methods from the menu above.
3. For each method: one strength and one limit in your own words, what you hope to learn, and one practical next step (who you will contact, what you will read, or what you will book).

Layout to copy into your folder:

• Role: ___
• Method 1: ___ | Strength: ___ | Limit: ___ | Aim: ___ | Next step: ___
• Method 2: ___ | Strength: ___ | Limit: ___ | Aim: ___ | Next step: ___
• Method 3: ___ | Strength: ___ | Limit: ___ | Aim: ___ | Next step: ___

Save it as Job Role Research Plan in your Strand 1.2 folder. This plan is a Strand 1.2 Digital Portfolio piece and the backbone for next lesson's research notes (and later evidence of career investigation for Portfolio in Action). It sits outside a named Applied Learning Task for now, but it is portfolio work you will reuse. Next lesson you will run at least the desk-research leg and write up notes from three sources.

Talk these through with the person beside you, then keep the sharper answer for your own notes.

• Looking at your three methods, which one would leave the biggest hole in your understanding if you skipped it, and why that one?
• Which method on your plan is hardest for you to arrange in the next fortnight, and what is the smallest first move that still counts as starting it?

If you add a short note to your Job Role Research Plan after class, name the method you cannot skip and one sentence on why.

• Job role research means using several methods on purpose, not guessing from one source.
• Methods include careers sites and job ads, interviewing someone in the role, your Guidance Counsellor, open days and careers fairs, work shadowing, and work experience. Each has real strengths and limits.
• A useful sequence is clarify what you need to know, desk research, ask people, then see the role live.
• You wrote a Job Role Research Plan for one specific role with three methods, a strength and limit plus learning aim for each, and a practical next step.
• That plan is a Strand 1.2 Digital Portfolio piece and feeds next lesson's research notes.
• Next lesson you run the plan and write research notes from at least three sources.