Career Education & Career Development

Career Education

The Concept of Career Education

Career education is not new. Good educators have been doing it for a long time. The part that is new is the recent emphasis on career education into the American educational system. Career education is an integral part of all content areas and the basics would be stressed but in a more meaningful way.

In traditional education, students tend to be viewed as objects to be brought up to grade level in basic content areas at the end of the school year. The career education perspective, however, puts a premium on students as persons personalizing education to make it more meaningful. Career education, defined in this context, is self-development over the life span though education, work, and leisure. It is a way of describing and understanding total human development.

Career education is an individual to the teacher as it is to the student, that there is more than one way to accomplish the goals of career education. It should be a means of developing greater understanding of our changing society, its past and its future and increasing appreciation of other people. It is, in its broadest sense, learning how people relate to each other through fulfilling the needs and desires of society.

- Taken from “Career & Technical Education: History, Philosophy, & Practices of Career & Technical Education” CTE 431/2000 book provided by VCSU - Rick Ross, CTE Director, pg 62


Principles of Career Education

  1. Career Education is a comprehensive educational program focuses on careers. It begins with the entry of the child into a formal school program and continues into the adult years.

  2. Career Education involves all students, and regardless of their post-secondary plans.

  3. Career Education involves the entire school program and unites the school, communities, and employers in a cooperative educational venture.

  4. Career Education infuses the school program rather than provides a program of discrete career education curriculum “blocks”.

  5. Career Education provides the student with information and experiences representing the entire world of work.

  6. Career Education supports the student from initial career awareness to career exploration, career direction setting, career preparation and career placement, and it provides for placement and follow-up including re-education if desired.

  7. Career Education is not a synonym for vocational education; but career and technical education (CTE) is an integral and important part of a total career education system.

    - Taken from “Career & Technical Education: History, Philosophy, & Practices of Career & Technical Education” CTE 431/2000 book provided by VCSU - Rick Ross, CTE Director, pg 62


Career Education

Career Education

  • Is a developmental process beginning in early childhood and continuing throughout the adult years.

  • Involved the life roles of the individual; these include family, citizen, avocational and vocational.

  • Emphasizes the development of self-concepts, interests and abilities, and career awareness at the elementary level.

  • Emphasizes career observation and exploration through classroom and community experiences at the junior high level.

  • Provides the opportunity for career decision-making at the secondary level.

  • Includes articulation into post-secondary programs or the world of work.

  • Provides the opportunity for job mobility within cluster areas and from one cluster to another.

  • Builds an interrelationship between school and community.

  • Expands training opportunities.

- Taken from “Career & Technical Education: History, Philosophy, & Practices of Career & Technical Education” CTE 431/2000 book provided by VCSU - Rick Ross, CTE Director, pg 62

 

Career Awareness Grades K-6

Includes programs in the elementary grades, where students will:

Develop awareness of the many occupational careers available;

Develop foundations for wholesome attitudes toward work and society;

Develop attitudes of respect and appreciation towards workers in all fields;

Make tentative choices of career cluster to explore in greater depth during mid-school years.

Career Exploration Grades 7-10

Programs in mid-school years, usually grades 7 through 10, where students will:

Explore key occupational areas and assess own interests and abilities;

Become familiar with occupational classifications and clusters;

Develop awareness of relevant factors to be considered in decision making;

Gain experience in meaningful decision making;

Develop tentative occupational plans and arrive at a tentative career choice.

Career Preparation Grades 11 & 12

Centers on Career Cluster programs at grades 11 - 12, where students will:

Acquire occupational skills and knowledge for entry-level employment and/or advanced occupational training;

Tie a majority of high school experiences into generalized career goals;

Develop acceptable job attitudes;

Be involved in cooperative work.

Career Specialization

Post-High School & Adults

Includes Programs in: Community Colleges, Junior Colleges, Apprenticeships, Vocational-Technical Colleges, Private Vo-Tech. Schools, and 4-year Colleges and Universities

Students will:

Be involved in developing specific occupational knowledge and preparation in a specialized job area;

Have opportunity to form meaningful employer-employee type relationships;

Be provided necessary re-training or up-grading skills.

 
 

Career Development

Career development, “self development",” is the process of preparing people for total life.

The Minnesota Department of Education says, “We don’t consider it early so important what people choose as we do that they choose from the widest range of opportunities.”

We are not as concerned about what the young person decides about his opportunities, as we are what he/she decides about himself/herself in relation to these opportunities. We do not want to make people do things - we want to let them find ways of doing things. We are not as interested in the something they become as the someone they become.

Special Career Development Projects:

A career development program (K-12) might be supplemented with experimental projects in career exploration and training during the summer in exploring the “world of work.”

A program might be designed for juniors and seniors in high school who are having difficulty in making a career decision, difficulty selecting meaningful course work, and difficulty in analyzing themselves - their interests, present abilities, and aspirations.

In addition to the experiences in the shops and laboratories, students could be involved in visits to industries, group guidance activities, recreational events and social interaction during their educational lives.

Parents and Career Development:

Career development recognizes the important role that parents perform in the career development process and their children. Parents instill attitudes about work by the things they say and do regarding their own job. They provide opportunities for exposure to work and help children make a choice according to his/her interest and aptitudes. Children need someone to consult with about their lifestyle. Parents are their first source.

Parents, as workers, provide excellent resources people for classroom discussion on the world of work. Parents should be involved throughout the career development process.

Career Development Program - Expected Outcomes

  • An increased student awareness of self and occupational option.

  • An increase knowledge of the world of work through systematic exposures to workers and work settings.

  • A reduction in high school and college dropout rates.

  • A positive attitude towards work and preparation for work.

  • An increase in job placement and job satisfaction.

  • A more relevant education curriculum (K-12) by bridging the school and the community.

  • An integration of educational efforts of all teachers around a common goal.

  • An improved working relationship of all state agencies and organizations having a similar purpose.

What do we mean “Career Development”

Career development is self-development. It is the process of helping an individual to understand accurately both themselves and the world of work, the specific educational and job requirements of occupations, entry and progress in education pursuits and ultimately the choice of a vocational.

This on-going process of career development is based on the assumption that an individual actually reaches his/her ultimate career decision, not at any single moment in time, but through a series of experiences and resultant decisions over a period of years.

Career development is a sequential, building on vocational development tasks at each level, and is implemented throughout the curriculum.

Career development is every teacher’s responsibility. Teachers must teach for transfer of their subject into the world of work. Teachers cannot assume that the student will make the relevant interpretation on their own.

The career development program is one of orientation and information at the elementary level: information, self-evaluation and exploration at the junior high level, and exploration and preparation at the senior high level.

- Taken from “Career & Technical Education: History, Philosophy, & Practices of Career & Technical Education” CTE 431/2000 book provided by VCSU - Rick Ross, CTE Director, pg 68-69

 

What is “Career Development”?

Career is more than one’s current job or occupation. Super (1976) defines career as “the sequence of occupations and other life roles which combine to express one’s commitment to work in his or her total pattern of self-development.”

The terms career development, career guidance, and career counseling are often used interchangeable. While they are closely related, there are critical differences among them. (U.S. SOL, ETA, 1993)

Career development is the most inclusive term. It refers not to an intervention but to the object of intervention. It is the process by which one develops and refines self- and career-identity, work maturity, and the ability to plan. It represents, then, all the career-related choices and outcomes through which every person must pass (Herr and Cramer, 1992). Indeed, career development is generally conceived as “a lifelong process through which individuals come to understand themselves as they relate to the world of work and their role in it.” (NOICC)

Career guidance, on the other hand, is an intervention. Intended to assist individual to manage their career development (Her, 1979), career guidance is a systemic program of counselor-coordinated information and experiences (Her and Cramer, 1992). The Commission on Pre-College Guidance and Counseling (1986) describes it in these terms:

Guidance consists of support services to help students gain understanding of their social, intellectual, and emotional development; become knowledgeable about educational, occupational, and social opportunities; learn decision-making and planning skills; and combine these insights into personal plans of action.

Career counseling is primarily the communication that takes place between counseling professionals and their clients concerning issues of preferences, competency, achievement, self-esteem and the array of factors that facilitate or inhibit personal planning. This may include but is greater than job counseling.

Career education is a term widely used in the 1970’s which conceptually is very close to the comprehensive career guidance definition. In an operational sense, career education programs tend to placce a considerably greater emphasis on the teaching/learning process than do most comprehensive career guidance programs. Finally, the key persons needed for success in career education are classroom teachers whereas, in career guidance, the school counselor is the key person. (Hoyt, 1994)

Awareness - Grades K-6

The program at the elementary level calls for the integration of activity-centered experiences into the existing curriculum. These activities provide meaningful experiences, which aid in the development of positive self-concepts, appreciation of all vocational, understanding of workers, positive attitude towards work and the concept that all work has dignity.

At the elementary level, there is neither intent nor desire to channel students into any occupational decision; rather, to build a base of experience and exposure upon which the student can most effectively make decisions relating to his/her next step in the life-education continuum.

Elementary

Career development at the elementary level includes helping students understand the role of work, one’s own uniqueness, and basic knowledge about different occupations.

The school counselor and classroom teacher work together to plan how career development activities and career education can be infused into the ongoing educational program. The is an opportune time to introduce the concept of school as work and students as workers. Work values develop early in school are the foundation that students will carry to the workplace. Elementary students become aware of community workers. Parent career days or class visitors can expand the child’s understanding of the world of work. Visits to community sites as well as local businesses broaden the child’s perspective of work.

There are numerous curricula available for the elementary grades as well as career information delivery systems specifically designed for the younger child. The counselor usually acts as a career resource to the elementary teacher but also may provide special classroom sessions, often in the area of self-knowledge. Since career and self-awareness are integrated into the regular classroom educational program, very little time needs to be added to schedule except to incorporate special events such as field trips or class visitors.

Orientation and Exploration - Grades 7-9

This phase of the program provides for broad-based occupational exploration including classroom, shop, laboratory, and field experiences in a variety of occupational areas.

It is designed to assist junior high students, through an inter-disciplinary approach, develop a more realistic plan for their own careers. The activities provide for further development of self-concept, self-appraisal of abilities, interests and aptitudes: understanding of education avenues; appreciation of economic and social values of work and an awareness of the decision-making process.

Many of the activities provide an opportunity for the students to visit the business community and observe workers on the job at all levels, including semi-skilled, skilled, technical and professional occupations. Students will interview workers to learn their respective feelings about their occupation, the educational requirements, work settings, benefits, work hours, and job characteristics relative to self-characteristics.

Middle/Junior High

The emphasis at the middle level is on the refinement of knowledge and awareness to the actual experience of simulated work tasks. It is a time to discover abilities and interest and to formulate career and educational plans.

A true middle-level structure provides many opportunities to integrate career development. Team teaching allows a group of teachers to work together in infusing career information into the regular educational program. The school counselor may serve as a resource for the team or to provide special instruction when needed. Middle schools and junior high schools sometimes organize around advisor/advisee programs. This offers a unique opportunity for career education and providing guidance and information for small groups of students. School counselors are often coordinators of such efforts. In a school with traditional class structure, school counselor sometimes provides guidance classes which promote career development. Junior highs may have applied arts curriculum such as industrial arts (applied technology), home economics (family life education), and computer literacy classes which offer ideal opportunities for integrated career education. Libraries and/or career centers may have special, middle-level computerized career information delivery systems (CIDS) for student use. As in the elementary, many career development activities can be integrated in to existing classrooms.

Exploration and Skill Training - Grades 10-12

At the secondary level, the career development program becomes more specific. In addition to increasing knowledge about occupations and work settings, students receive experiences in job seeking, job application and job interviews; understanding of employer-employee relationships; and a clarification of the decision-making process as relates to self.

Activities that help relate subject matter content to actual work situations will be integrated into the various disciplines. Students will continue to develop an understanding of self and an awareness of their preferred life style. Assistance is provided in selection of appropriate course work and actual “work” experiences and provided through cooperative vocational education programs.

Special attention will be given to the guidance function at the secondary level in assisting and implementing the student’s vocational preference whether it be entering work after high school or continuing his/her education.

High School

The early high school grades can be devoted to further exploration of career choices. For those who choose to become involved in a school-to-work opportunity, the junior and senior years should be a time for specific preparation, including the development of occupationally specific skills, the application of academic theory in real situations, and the mastery of the workplace basics.

The greatest challenge and the greatest need for career development programs occur at the high school level. The challenge is finding time in the busy student schedule to implement career development activities in groups. The need is that career pathways dictate certain educational selections that require guided reflection and decision-making. Informed educational decisions cannot be made without appropriate continuing career development activities. One method of access is through existing classes. Teachers may not only promote careers relevant to their discipline but also incorporate career development activities of general value, e.g., researching a career in English class. Sometimes teachers, in collaboration with school counselors, actually provide mini units within classes. In some states, careers classes are scheduled and mandated for all students. Advisor/advisee programs also offer an ideal opportunity for implementing a career education curriculum. However, advisors need to be trained and provided appropriate information if they are to be effective. At the high school level, information provided to groups must be supplemented with individual planning sessions with the school counselor, which is the essence of school counseling; assisting students in setting and working towards personal/social, educational, and career goals. Computerized CIDS, appropriate for high school students can help sort the voluminous amount of educational, occupational, and career information available. Career resource centers offering career development tools are found in most high schools. Job shadowing and real work experiences are often parts of the experiential career development process.

School-to-work transition programs require continued career development as students connect work-based learning with school-based learning. Employability skills, job finding, and job keeping skills are all part of the competencies which students must master as they consider their future role in the world of work. Resume writing, interviewing, skills analysis, team problem solving are but a few of the abilities that young people need to take to the workplace. Job shadows and industry visits can further connect the school to future employment. High schools must accept responsibility for assuring that every student has the opportunity to be prepared to achieve economic success.

Vocational Guidance and Counseling

Guidance and counseling is a vital function at every grade level in the career development program with special emphasis at the secondary level to provide every student with information about occupational choices as well as educational avenues.

Application -

Post Secondary

Further training and preparation for future work is finely honed at the postsecondary level.

Beyond High School

Student development professionals in community colleges, four-year colleges, and universities assist adults of all ages in career planning and decision making. In career centers or counseling offices, career faculty and staff offer a broad spectrum of programs and services to diverse populations. To help students/clients choose/change a major and/or identify potential occupations, colleges provide assessment of interests, aptitudes, values, and work styles. Career Development Centers furnish career and transfer information in multimedia with career libraries providing materials about colleges, graduate and professional schools as well as a full array of occupational data. Colleges provide career development classes, and individual or group counseling sessions to assist special populations, including new high school graduates. Many college provide cooperative education, internships, and other types of work experience to support career clarification and implementation.

Colleges sponsor career, job, and transfer fairs and programs which promote relationships with area employers and other colleges and graduate schools. College career professionals often rely on alumni to serve as career contacts and mentors and provide career services to alumni. Career centers maintain job listings and assist in job placement for graduates. To support job search activities, career personnel offer workshops on resume writing, interviewing, and portfolio development. College career professionals promote the belief that career development is a lifelong process.

Community and technical colleges have a special role in the school-to-work transition programs. It is imperative that they work with high schools to assure a smooth transitions into specialized training. Articulation agreements with specific high school and postsecondary course sequences can maximize the educational experience for the student.