2020 Marine Career Experiential Teaching: School Visiting Career Seminar Tour Service
Taiwan is entirely surrounded by ocean and is blessed with rich and diverse marine resources. However, most Taiwanese people are unacquainted with the development of the domestic marine industry. Consequently, most Taiwanese students are not familiar with the ocean, and very few are interested in joining the marine industry. To cultivate students’ understanding of and increase their engagement opportunities with the marine industry of Taiwan, our center guides students in understanding the ocean through marine career experiential teaching to help them select suitable career paths and open new career opportunities. In 2020, the “School Visiting Career Seminar Tour Service” opened up to elementary schools for the first time. The schools have been fairly active in submitting their applications for the service, with 35 School Visiting Career Seminars held this year, totaling to 3,032 participants comprising students, teachers, parents from elementary schools, junior high schools, and senior high schools. The speaker team consists of teacher leaders who have participated in our tour seminar speaker workshop and marine industry workers (e.g., vessel captains in the sea transportation industry, navy officers, marine organism conservation workers, and cruise journey planners). By using the unique marine features of Taiwan as starting points, the speakers sparked students’ motivation to learn about the marine industry. Additionally, the speakers also shared their own working experience in the marine industry, which helped students recognize the connections between daily life and the ocean. In addition to guiding the students in understanding the local marine industry and the relevant education pathways/employment environment, the seminars assisted students in cultivating their core abilities in career exploration and occupational skill development. This in turn helps the students envision what it would be like to take on a marine occupation.