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Posts Tagged ‘Career Exploration’

Have you been looking for a careers or even a job lately?  With the economy going the way it is, it can be very hard to find the right job for you.  One of the best places to start looking for a job is the internet.  On the internet there is a huge variety of jobs that are posted on a daily basis.  Using job search engines, users are able to find the jobs they would like.  Also on the internet you can find ways to boost the likelihood that you are going to get the job by learning little tricks that will make employers want to hire you.

But, before you can begin your search for a job ask yourself why you got fired or laid off, depending on the case that you are in.  If you got fired, make sure you understand completely why they decided to let you go.  Were you always on time?  Attendance is one of the most important parts of a job.  If you show your employer that you do not want to be there then they don’t want to hire you because you are showing them they can’t rely on you.  If one of the reasons you got fired was because they did not like your performance, then try and figure out a way that you could improve your performance for your next job.  Employers are looking for people who can do the job quickly and will do it correctly.  By making sure you study your job duties, you should be able to satisfy the employer. While on the internet look at a job search blog to try and find something that will catch your eye and just browse jobs that interest you a lot.  It is important that you look for a job that you think you would be good at and also a job that you think you would do well in.  Because of this, make sure that the job you choose is suited just for you and that you will be able to attempt it with flying colors before you go to the interview.  The interview will explain the job more, so you will be able to get a feel or at least a view of what working at that job might sort of be like.  Knowing the job before you enter it will make you a better employee and will also make you someone they would like to keep around.

The word coaching is synonymous with sports teams. A coach can help athletes to develop the mindset to achieve, to set and achieve goals that to many people seem insurmountable, but with focus and clarity, can be met or exceeded. They can help a sportsperson to reach their full potential by planning structured training programmes, providing feedback on performance, and helping them to become more effective.

However, coaching has become more prevalent in other areas. Life coaching has developed significantly over the last few years, with many coaches specialising in niche areas such as health, financial and career coaching to name a few.   

To concentrate on the rising demand for employing a career coach, why should you choose a coach to help you to progress in your career?  

A career coach will help you in many ways. Like in the description of a sports coach above, they will help you to develop and reach your potential, be successful and achieve results. A career coach will normally work with you on a one-to-one basis and will often offer group workshops, teleseminars and e-books to support you to progress in your career.   

A career coach can help you in the following areas:  

Career exploration and discovery  

You may be unhappy or dissatisfied in your job and feel that there is something else out there, but are not sure what it is. A career coach can help you to discover what is important to you in your job and make sure that it uses your talents, skills, and strengths, and provides you with the reward you deserve.  

Understand your strengths and weaknesses  

A career coach will help you to develop an insight into your strengths and weaknesses. This will allow you to understand yourself better and support any decisions you make in your career. It will highlight areas you may not have considered before and you can address any weaknesses that may be holding you back or use them to your advantage.  

Develop your career vision and design your career  

A career coach can help you to structure a plan to progress your career. By helping you to understand your skills and abilities, they can help you to plan your ideal job and how you are going to get there.  

Develop confidence in your own ability  

You may have a plan for your future, but you may be consciously or subconsciously holding yourself back. A career coach can help you to develop greater confidence in your ability as well as providing you with the support and motivation to help you to achieve your goal.  

Provide job search support  

A career coach can help you during all stages of your job search. From helping you to develop your CV, to finding the ideal job and then succeeding at the interview, a career coach will support you every step of the way.  

Help you to get ready for promotion  

You don’t need to want to change your career to benefit from employing a career coach. They can help you to get ready for promotion, plan for the next step in your career, and support you to develop your talents.   

Support you in the workplace  

If you are unhappy at work, there may be many reasons why this may be so. A career coach can also help you to deal with difficult situations or people and become more assertive. You can increase your profile at work, build better relationships and improve your own personal effectiveness.   

Make sure that your goals are congruent with other parts of your life  

A career does not exist on its own and is part of your overall life. It is important that a career coach makes sure that your career goals fit in well with other parts of your life. For example, if work/life balance is essential for you, they will ensure that you consider this when planning or progressing your career.  

Provide you with greater self awareness  

Some career coaches will use psychometric tests or other techniques that will help you to develop a greater self awareness of yourself. A greater self awareness will help you to understand yourself better, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively.  

Support you every step of the way  

Like other coaches, career coaches will support you every step of the way. 

Their role is to:   

- Challenge you and ensure that you commit to making the changes you desire.

- Hold you accountable to the actions you want to take.  You will need to report on your results, which means that as well as being accountable to yourself, you need to demonstrate what you have achieved to your coach.

- Question you and challenge your ideas and thoughts.

- Listen to you without any agenda for themselves, which gives you a chance to come up with your own solutions which are right for you.

- Celebrate your successes and recognise when you have overcome difficulties or challenges.

- Keep you motivated even when the going gets tough!

Copyright Karen Williams 2008. All Rights Reserved

Since 1960s, career cluster resources have been used as career exploration and planning tools in schools, learning communities, and organizations across the nation. Career Clusters is a system that matches educational and career planning.

Step 1: Identifying Career Cluster Interest Areas

Career clusters are groups of similar occupations and industries. When teachers, counselors, and parents work with teens, college students, and adults, the first step is to complete career cluster assessment. The assessment identifies the highest career cluster areas. Career assessments show teens, college students, and adults rankings from one of the following 16 Interests Areas or Clusters:

1. Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resources

2. Architecture & Construction

3. Arts, A/V Technology & Communication

4. Business, Management & Administration

5. Education & Training

6. Finance

7. Government & Public Administration

8. Health Science

9. Hospitality & Tourism

10. Human Services

11. Information Technology

12. Law, Public Safety & Security

13. Manufacturing

14. Marketing, Sales & Service

15. Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

16. Transportation, Distribution & Logistics

Step 2: Exploring Career Clusters and Related Careers

After pinpointing the highest career clusters, teens, college students, and adults explore the different careers and create education plans. Career cluster tools used in career and educational planning include:

LISA: A comprehensive career cluster database

Models

Brochures

Pathways

High school plan of study

Interest and Skills Areas

Crosswalks

After completing a career cluster assessment, teens, college students, and adults look at web sites, career models, brochures, pathways, and high school plans. One of the most unique comprehensive career cluster resources is the Louisiana Integrated Skills Assessment (LISA), an Internet program. LISA lets you explore career clusters, careers, abilities, training requirements, and more. There are 3 steps in the LISA program:

STEP 1: Click here to select a Career Cluster,

STEP 2: Click here to select a Career Group

STEP 3: Explore Occupations within this Career Group

In Step 1, when you choose a career cluster, you will see a description of the cluster. When you select a career group in Step 2, you see different careers. Finally, in Step 3, you see a wealth of information:

Job descriptions

Educational and training requirements

Crosswalks, for example ONET, DOT, GOE, and other codes

Abilities

Knowledge

Skills

Tasks

Work Vales

Labor Market Information

Even though LISA is an awesome program, in classroom or workshop settings, you need printed materials. When using printed materials, the career model is the best place to start. Models provide excellent overviews listing the cluster definitions, sample careers, pathways, knowledge, and skills. Visual models show career clusters, the cluster subgroups, and related careers. Models are an excellent way to introduce career clusters.

For presentations, workshops, and group discussions, the career cluster brochures provide additional information. Adults and teens read about the different careers that are available in each career cluster. Teachers, counselors, and parents use the brochures to solidify adults’ and teens’ potential career or educational decisions. The brochures cover topics such as:

Definition of career clusters

Careers

Career pathways

Employment outlooks

Skills

Credentials

Teachers, counselors, and parents use career pathways for more detailed information. The career pathways are subgroups or areas of concentration within career clusters. Each pathway contains career groups. The career groups have similar academic skills, technical skills, educational requirements, and training requirements. Career pathways are plans of study that outline required secondary courses, post secondary courses, and related careers. The career pathways are essential tools that teachers, counselors, parents, and other adults use to give educational planning advice.

Several web sites feature High School Plans of Study. These study plans show required, elective, and suggested courses for each grade level. The school plans also match the career clusters to related careers, career pathways, and post-secondary options. Teachers, counselors, and parents find that these school plans are guides for selecting the right high school courses to match potential careers. Beyond high school, the Utah System for Higher Education has created a College Major Guide. Parents, teachers, and counselors can use the guide to match college majors to Certificate and Degree Programs.

Additional Resources for Counselors and Teachers

For planning curriculum and educational programs, there are detailed Knowledge and Skills Charts and Cluster Crosswalks. The knowledge and Skills expand upon the information listed on the career cluster models. For each knowledge and skill area, there are performance elements and measurement criteria. Crosswalks show the relationships between career clusters and other career models:

Career clusters build a bridge between education and career planning. Different types of career cluster resources are available: videos, web sites, booklets, brochures, activity sheets, and workbooks. Teachers, counselors, and parents use career cluster resources to successfully complete career and educational planning.

Resources:

American Careers Career Paths, Career Communications, 6701 W. 64th St., Overland, KS 66202, 800-669-7795

Career Click, Illinois Department of Employment Security,33 South State Street, Chicago, IL 60603, (312) 793-5700

CIP Code Index by Career Cluster, Adult & Postsecondary CTE Division, Bureau of Career and Technical Education, 333 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17126, (717) 772-0814

Cluster and Career Videos, Career One Stop, U.S. Department of Labor, Frances Perkins Building, 200 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20210, 866-4-USA-DOL

College Major Guide Utah System for Higher Education, Board of Regents Building, The Gateway, 60 South 400 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1284, (801) 321-7100

Find Careers (Videos), iSeek Solutions, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, Wells Fargo Place, 30 7th St. E., Suite 350, St. Paul, MN 55101-7804

High School Plans of Study, New Hampshire Department of Education, 101 Pleasant Street

Concord, NH 03301-3860, (603) 271-3494

Introduction to Career Clusters, Career Education, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, P.O. Box 543

Blacklick, OH 43004-0544,

Louisiana Integrated Skills Assessment (LISA), customized Internet version of OSCAR, a product of the Texas Workforce Commission/Career Development Resources, TWC/CDR, Austin, TX 78753

Maryland Career Clusters, Maryland State Department of Education 200 West Baltimore Street Baltimore, MD 21201,

Rhodes Island’s Career Clusters, Rhode Island’s Career Resource Network, 1511 Pontiac Avenue, Cranston, RI 02920, 401-462-8790

School to Career Clusters, State of Connecticut, Department of Labor, Job Bank, 645 South Main Street, Middletown, CT 06457, (860)754-5000

States’ Career Clusters Initiative (SCCI), 1500 W. Seventh Avenue, Stillwater, OK 74074

Career Pathway Plans, Career Cluster, Knowledge and Skills Charts

VTECS Cluster Frameworks, VTECS, 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA, 30033,404-679-4501 ext 543

What are Career Clusters? Career Prospects System, New Mexico Career Resource Network, CAREER TECHNICAL AND WORKFORCE EDUCATION BUREAU (CTWEB), Education Building, 300 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, NM 87501, (505) 827-651

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Parents help us discover the gifts and the callings that God has for our lives. Parents help children and teens discover their vocational interests and the motivational gifts. Parents identify the steps and resources that are necessary to develop the qualities and talents that children and teens possess.

Parents know that children and teens receive the vocational interests, abilities, skills, and talents in a seed form. These seeds will develop into careers, jobs, tasks, assignments, or ministries. Then, the talents and gifts will produce earnings, wages, and spiritual rewards as the children receive pleasure from knowing that they are fulfilling the callings that God has placed on their lives.

The Goal of a Parent

A parent receives direction from Proverbs 18:16, Proverbs 22:6, and 1 Peter 4:10.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

1 Peter 4:10 As every man has received a gift, even so minister the same gift one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Proverbs 18:16 A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

To learn about abilities, interests, and motivational gifts, parents have many tasks:

Assess children’s and teens’ vocational interests, abilities, skills, beliefs, and values.

Discover potential careers that are linked to children’s and teens’ identified interests.

Help children and teens choose the suitable post-secondary education and training.

Provide resources that help children and teens utilize their vocational interests, abilities, skills, beliefs, and values.

Understand the relationship between education, training, and specific occupations.

Introduce experiences that meet career, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral goals.

Present information on the current and future labor market.

Introduce problem-solving and decision-making strategies, and

Solve career issues, conflicts, and concerns.

The Steps Towards Completing Career Exploration Process

Step One: Preliminary Assessment

Parents must gain access to computerized, online, or paper/pencil career assessments. From these assessments, parents, teens, and children gain knowledge and understanding of our abilities, ambitions, aptitudes, identities, interests, life goals, resources, skills, and values. During this assessment period, parents will evaluate children’s and teens’ readiness for career planning.

Gary W. Peterson and others of the Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling and Career Development University Center, discussed the differences in career planning readiness. Children, teen, and adults can be categorized as:

Decided

Decided yet needing a confirmation

Decided yet not knowing how to implement their decisions

Decided choosing to avoid conflict or stress

Undecided

Undecided with a deferred choice

Undecided yet developmental unable to commit to a decision

Undecided and unable to make a decision because the individual is multi-talented

Children, teen, and adults transition from indecision to decisiveness when they complete the following steps in the career decision making and planning process.

Step Two: Educational and Occupational Exploration

Parents, children, and teens gather information about:

Educational choices

The benefits of educational achievement

The economy or labor market

Occupational choices

Specific occupations and programs of study

Training opportunities

The relationship between work and learning

Positive attitudes towards work and learning

Personal responsibility and good work habits

A typical working day for a specific occupation

Career exploration systems

Step Three: Problem solving

Parents, children, and teens solve career problems by:

Identifying educational and career planning obstacles

Creating solutions or courses of action

Setting achievable goals

Resolving conflict and tension

Making a commitment to reach our God-given potential

Problem solving should take into consideration personal values, interests, skills, and financial resources. Big problems are broken down into smaller, more manageable steps. Achievable goals result in the production of new competencies, attitudes, solutions, as well as educational and training opportunities.

Step Four: Goal Setting and Decision Making

As individuals, parents, children, and teens:

Set, formulate, prioritize, and rank goals

Clearly state our vocational interests, abilities, and values

Derive plans or strategies to implement the solutions

Make a commitment to complete the plans

Understand decision-making processes

Evaluate the primary choice

Consider a secondary occupational choice, if necessary

Decision-making processes include:

Developing learning and career plans

Identifying suitable occupations

Selecting appropriate educational programs

Figuring the costs of educational training

Considering the impact of career decisions.

Step Five: Implementation

While implementing and executing our learning and career plans, parents, children, and teens translate vocational interests, abilities, and skills into occupational possibilities. Parents, children, and teens do reality testing through interviewing current workers, job shadowing, part-time employment, full-time employment, and volunteer work. Parents, children, and teens obtain skill training, for example, social skills, resume writing, networking, and preparations for interviews.

Career Planning Resources

In order to assess gifts, talents, and abilities, parents, children, and teens need career resources. Career planning resources include books, videotapes, audio-tapes, games, workshops, self-assessment inventories, career exploration web-sites, and computer-assisted career guidance programs. These resources are found at libraries, community colleges, and resource centers.

The basis for most of the resources is the National Career Development Guidelines. In 1987, the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC) developed The National Career Development Guidelines. The guidelines were organized into three areas: Self-knowledge, Educational and Occupational Exploration, and Career Planning.

Self-knowledge deals with our self-concept, interpersonal skills, growth, and development.

Educational and occupational exploration reveals the relationships between learning, work, career information skills, job seeking, skill development, and the labor market.

Career planning includes self-assessment, career exploration, decision making, life role formation, goal setting, and the implementation of career choices.

Conclusion

We are each significant, different, and special. Yet, God knows our gifts, talents, and abilities. God has chosen us for special positions and tasks. Our occupations should reflect the callings that God has placed in our lives. Our vocations represent the gifts given to us by God. Our destinies come from God. Parents help children and teens discover God-given talents, abilities, and interests so that children and teens can fulfill God’s purpose for their lives.

As parents, we will use prayer, the Word of God, other books, videotapes, audio-tapes, games, workshops, training materials, self-assessment inventories, career web-sites, computer-assisted career guidance programs, and resource centers to assist us in helping our children, and teens.

References

Miller, Juliet V. (1992) The National Career Development Guidelines, Eric Digest ED347493, ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services, A

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Arbor, Michigan

Peterson, G., W., Sampson, J., P., Jr., Reardon, R., C., and Lenz, J., G. (1996) A Cognitive Approach to Career Development and Services, Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling and Career Development, University Center, Suite A4100, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1035, http://www.fsu.edu/ ~career/techcenter/html