Career Exploration Articles

Here are some articles about career exploration, articles, career explorer, and elementary career education.

Teachers and Counselors, Help Your Students Become Career Explorers

As teachers and counselors, you help students explore careers. You aid your students as they search for meaning, purpose, and direction. You see their talents. You know their interests, abilities, and skills. You help students plan for the future.

You understand students. You know that students -

• Are curious
• Love colorful, multimedia presentations
• Use their senses and imaginations in career exploration

You have searched for tools that will help you unlock their potentials.

Tips for Finding the Right Career Tool

Career tools help your students explore who they really are. Career tools include career self assessment tests, games, web sites, and books. Career tests answer the question "Who am I?" Career assessments point out your students' likes, dislikes, or interests. Kid career tools should be fun, educational, and not boring.

Search for the resource that meets your students' needs. Look at the benefits. Find tests, assessments, games, web sites, and books that are -

• Eye appealing
• Easy to use
• Full of resources

With the right resource, students are ready and willing to -

• Explore
• Investigate
• Learn
• Ask questions
• Enjoy discovering who they are
• Gain knowledge, wisdom, and understanding

An effective career tool motivates your students to explore careers. Creative career tools build a foundation for more detailed career exploration.

Step One: Select a Career Test

How do you choose the right career tests? Look at 3 major areas -

• Format, e.g. Printed, CD-ROM, or on-line
• Cost -$10, $12, $15, $20 or more
• Resources - Information on interests, skills, and careers

When you look at a career test, ask yourself the following questions -

• What do your students prefer? Printed or on-line career test?
• What is your budget for the tests?
• What resources do you have? Do you have a computer lab?

Find career tests that your students are interested in and that provide valuable information about careers and your student's interests. Look at career tests that use well-known career models. Match students' interest clusters to career or job codes. Use newer color-coded career tests that simply career models. The use of colors improves attention span, concentration, memory skills, and understanding. As students grow older, continue to use career models expand their knowledge of careers and college majors. There are a variety of career tests for youth, college students, and adults.

Step Two: Explore Career Web Sites and Books

Career tests prepare students to explore careers. Gather information about fun, informative, and attractive career exploration web sites and books. Look for web sites and books that provide career information about -

• Tasks
• Wages
• Career outlook
• Interests
• Education
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Similar careers

Examples of kid career exploration web sites and books are -

• Career Ship
• What Do You Like
• Eek! Get a Job
• GetTech.org
• LifeWorks
• Young Person's Occupational Outlook Handbook
• Career Ideas for Kids Book Series
• I Want To Be Book Series

Career exploration is a process. As teachers and counselors, use resources that make your journey enjoyable, educational, and effective. Plan successful kid career exploration expeditions.

Written by: Dr. Mary Askew
Copyright 2007 Dr. Mary Askew All Rights Reserved

Elementary School Teachers, Counselors, and Career Education

As teachers and counselors, you know that the elementary school years are important. During the elementary school years, your students build visions of what they desire to do in their lives as they contribute to the workforce. With your help, your students remain open to new career ideas and possibilities. As you work with your students, your students do not make premature career choices or career preparations. For your students, elementary school is a time to build awareness.

As elementary school teachers and counselors, you use career education to promote self-worth, skill development, and decision making strategies. Your activities are designed to build self, family, school, community, and career awareness. You use age-appropriate materials that match your students' developmental levels. These activities expose your students to a variety of different jobs, career information sources, and the reasons why people work.

When you prepare to develop age-appropriate materials products, tests and tools, you use career models like the National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG). The National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG) have domains, goals, and indicators. Each domain represents a developmental area. Under each domain, there are goals or competencies. For each goal, indicators highlight the knowledge and skills needed to achieve the goal. The National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG) prepares you to make materials that are suitable for your students.

As a elementary school counselors and teachers, you create individual career plans and portfolios. Individual career plans (ICP) -

• Develop self-awareness
• Identify initial career goals and educational plans
• Increase employability and decision making skills

Individual career portfolios summarize career awareness activities and experiences that occur during the school year. In addition to individual career plans and portfolios, you use a variety of resources –

• Career days
• Career fairs
• Community speakers
• Field trips
• Information interviewing
• Literary works
• Mentors
• Collages, murals
• Educational games
• Job shadowing
• Dramatic presentations

All of the career activities and tools combine academic work with career pathways. Career activities serve as foundations for future skills. As teachers and counselors, you help students build connections between academics and real life situations. You use career education activities to stress the importance of language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science.

You show students that Language Arts have many uses in the work force:

• Reading
• Writing
• Listening skills

You provide examples that show how people solve problems when they use Mathematics. Different types of Mathematics include:

• Addition
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Division

In Social Studies, your students learn how skills that are necessary to be successful in the global marketplace. In Social Studies, your students learn about -

• Countries
• Languages
• Cultures

Your students learn the importance of Science gaining skills to solve problems. You show your students how applications of Science are used in different industries, such as -

• Food
• Media
• Agriculture
• Automotive industry

The connections between academics and real life situations reinforce, develop, and expand previously learned skills. In summary, as a elementary school teachers and counselors, you help students:

• Know and value self
• Build self-esteem and confidence
• Learn and apply the academic material
• Identify interests and build relationships between the school environment and the work force
• Build academic, communication, problem solving, and social skills
• Increase awareness of the need for future jobs skills
• See the connections between learning in school, academic skills, job related skills, and careers
• See career possibilities
• See themselves as a future contributor to the job force
• Receive empowerment
• Build self-determination

As counselors and teachers, you build self-awareness, family awareness, school awareness, community awareness, career/ work awareness, attitude development, skill development, decision making strategies, and self-worth. You use age-appropriate materials that match the developmental levels of the students. Examples of activities include individual career plans (ICP), individual career portfolios, career days, career fairs, field trips, information interviewing, and library book reports.

After completing career education activities, your students are prone to get higher grades, academic achievement, school involvement, and interpersonal skills. In addition, your students are more adept to complete more complex courses and have higher graduation rates from high school. As your students get older, they will achieve their career visions and goals.

References

1. American Counseling Association, Office of Public Policy and Legislation. (2007). Effectiveness of School Counseling. Alexandria, VA: Author.

2. Angel, N. Faye; Mooney, Marianne. (1996, December). Work-in-Progress: Career and Work Education for Elementary Students. (ED404516). Cincinnati, OH: Paper presented at the American Vocational Association Convention.

3. Benning, Cathleen; Bergt, Richard; Sausaman, Pamela. (2003, May). Improving Student Awareness of Careers through a Variety of Strategies. Thesis: Action Research Project. (ED481018). Chicago, Illinois: Saint Xavier University.

4. Career Tec. (2000). K-12 Career Awareness & Development Sequence [with Appendices, Executive and Implementation Guide]. (ED450219) .Springfield, Il: Author.

5. Carey, John. (2003, January). What are the Expected Benefits Associated with Implementing a Comprehensive Guidance Program. School counseling Research Brief 1.1. Amherst, MA: Fredrickson Center for School Counseling Outcome Research.

6. Dare, Donna E.; Maddy-Bernstein, Carolyn. (1999, September). Career Guidance Resource Guide for Elementary and Middle/Junior High School Educators. (ED434216). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

7. DuVall, Patricia. (1995).Let's Get Serious about Career Education for Elementary Students. AACE Bonus Briefs. (ED386603). Hermosa Beach, CA: AACE Bonus Briefs.

8. Ediger, Marlow. (2000, July). Vocational Education in the Elementary School. (ED442979) Opinion Papers

9. Gerver, Miriam, Shanley, Judy, O Cummings, Mindee. (2/14/02). Answering the Question EMSTAC Extra Elementary and Middle Schools. Washington, DC: Technical Assistance Center, (EMSTAC).

10. Hurley, Dan, Ed.; Thorp, Jim, Ed. (2002, May). Decisions without Direction: Career Guidance and Decision-Making among American Youth. (ED465895). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Ferris State University Career Institute for Education and Workforce Development.

11. Maddy-Bernstein, Carolyn; Dare, Donna E. (1997,December).Career Guidance for Elementary and Middle School Students. Office of Student Services Brief, v9 n1. (ED415353). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

12. Ohio Department of Education, Division of Vocational and Career Education, Ohio Career Development Blueprint, Individual Career Plan, K to 5 (ED449322). Columbus, Ohio, 2000

13. Splete, Howard; Stewart, Amy. (1990). Competency-Based Career Development Strategies and the National Career Development Guidelines. Information Series No. 345. (ED327739). Columbus, Ohio: ERIC Clearinghouse on Education and Training for Employment & Ohio State University

14. U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education. (1994, 2004). National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG). Washington, DC: Author.

15. Williams, Jean A., Ed. (1999, January). Elementary Career Awareness Guide: A Resource for Elementary School Counselors and Teachers. (ED445293). Raleigh, NC: NC Department of Public Instruction, NC Job Ready.

16. Woal, S. Theodore. (1995). Career Education--The Early Years. AACE Bonus Briefs. (ED386603). Hermosa Beach, CA: AACE Bonus Briefs.

Copyright 2007 Dr. Mary Askew All Rights Reserved