A critical aspect of career development for youth is early and ongoing career exposure. Career exposure and work experiences are useful in all phases of career development and can take different forms. The most common types are listed below with a brief description of each one:

Career exposure: these include activities such as in-school guest speakers, company tours/field trips, and conversations with employers for the purpose of initial exposure to jobs and careers.
Job shadowing: this includes opportunities where students “shadow” an employee in their work environment to get an idea of what is involved in their specific job.
Work sampling: this includes job task sampling, career assessments, or any unpaid work experience in the community for the purpose of exposure to different work environments.
Service learning: this is formal volunteer service in a structured community service program for the purpose of contributing to the community and acquiring skills in a community environment.
Internships: these include paid or unpaid student cooperative experience that combine classroom based education with practical work experience, formal time-limited work experience paired with course of study or an informal arrangement with an employer to learn identified work skills for the purpose of in-depth exposure to a job or workplace.
Apprenticeships: these include trade-related paid or unpaid work with a certified skilled journeyman to build occupational skills related to trade certification.