Lesson 9: Professionalism
This lesson focuses on the behavior and skills that demonstrate professionalism in the workplace.
Objectives
- Define professionalism.
- Identify workplace readiness skills that demonstrate professionalism.
- Recognize how professionalism is practiced in the workplace.
Materials
- Instructor Presentation: Lesson 9 Professionalism (Powerpoint)
- Student Workbook: Workplace Readiness Skills Workbook Lesson 9 (Powerpoint)
- Knowledge Check: Lesson 9 Pre-Check and Post-Check (PDF)
Expanding Your Knowledge
These optional activities and resources can reinforce lesson objectives in the home, engage families, or supplement classroom instruction.
Dress for Success
Watch this YouTube video on how to dress for success for an interview and in the workplace.
Role Play Practice
Instruct students to take turns acting out the scenarios below. After each role-play, discuss the professional or unprofessional behaviors observed.
Workplace Scenarios
- Greeting a boss or customer
- Dressing neatly
- Completing a task responsibly (pretending to sweep, organizing supplies)
- Using polite tone/body language
- A coworker interrupts or asks for help
- An unhappy customer complains about their purchase
Additional Resources
These additional resources support the content in the Pre-ETS Toolkit and provide even more ways to help students plan for the future.
Professionalism and WRS Check-up Student Activity
This supplemental activity was taken from the lesson presentation and reformatted into a separate, instructor-guided game. The activity covers a range of school and work-related scenarios and asks students to determine if each scenario is an example of professionalism.
Professionalism in the Workplace
This "Edpuzzle" lesson clearly explains professionalism in the workplace and includes intermittent multiple-choice questions to monitor student comprehension of the presentation content.
Workplace Readiness Toolkit: Professionalism
This document provides 3 activities that can be conducted in school or at home with family members to reinforce professionalism in the work environment. It is one of the lessons found in the Workplace Readiness Toolkit, a publication from the VCU Center on Transition Innovations.
When I Grow Up: Career Lessons and Activities for Grades 9-12
This downloadable workbook is an excellent resource for both job exploration and development of workplace readiness skills.
Workplace Readiness Training
This webpage on the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition-the Collaborative (NTACT:C) offers materials, including guiding questions and a checklist, to support instruction of workplace readiness skills for students with disabilities.