Curriculum Coordinator Marketing Cluster
The current job market requires commitment to learn and self-motivation to stay relevant to business needs. Students, counselors, and educators must stay current and competitive in the career planning process. Students should participate and have a vested interest in their own career development. Teachers and counselors are not alone in supporting this process. This article will look at many free online resources for student career development.
Career assessment refers to using assessments to measure the preferences of the individual and match them to career types. Educators can use online tools such as, http://www.mynextmove.org, to evaluate the student’s judgment of their own personality type, job preferences, and skills. This appraisal should narrow a student’s career path.
With the rising costs of student loans, career and technical education in a secondary setting becomes more important. Students have the ability to try on different programs before they are tied down to large student debt. Students can participate in job shadowing or researching career paths, but these processes take a large amount of time. Teachers and counselors can use technology to assist students in the career exploration process. The Career Explorer website, http://careerexplorer.unl.edu, allows students to learn about careers through a gaming environment. Students can select their desired career clusters and learn about the required skills, time, and education needed for the profession. Once the student discovers all of the necessary proficiencies for the career, the student can identify their current skill set.
The skills identification process allows for the discovery of skill deficiencies. The student must identify the level of proficiency needed in the skill and their current level of proficiency. The absence of a required ability for their career should direct the student in course selection. Simply listing the skill requirements of the career and comparing them to the student’s skill competences connect career to the student on a personal level. This web resource provides an online database of skills matched to individual career needs, http://www.careerinfonet.org/skills. The student will move on to the final stage of the process when they have decided which skills they need to master.
Career planning is often left out of many career assessments in classrooms. The educator or counselor assumes that by selecting the career and what courses the students should take, the student is prepared for the career path. However, the overall plan is still missing. The student must understand that choices like picking a part-time job in their career field in college will have an effect on their employability. Online resources for this step are developing, but they are still in short supply. Monster.com has developed a beta web resource that is very informative, http://my.monster.com/Career-Management. The career management page features a career mapping tool that showcases possible job paths. The process of career mapping is the start to a fulfilling and inspiring career pathway for students.
I think taking career assessment tests can be really helpful when you are trying to narrow down what you want to do. I took a career exploration class, and we used a couple different assessment tests. They really helped me decide my major. http://www.wowi.com/
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