PREPARING FOR LIFE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL
4 Skills & 4 Steps to a Successful Career is a FREE mini-program that can help your students understand the four different skills needed to be successful in the new economy. Below you can find each lesson plan along with a supporting video.
MORE LEARNING RESOURCES
THE MOST COMMON REASONS STUDENTS DROP OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL ARE HEARTBREAKING
The failure is hardly a personal one. Survey responses of nearly 2,000 students who took at least a semester off at school revealed that systemic factors like boring classes and family obligations were the guiding reasons kids left.
Research shows dropping out is strongly tied to socioeconomic status. Kids who come from low-income areas are 2.4 times more likely to drop out than middle-income kids. Unlike kids from wealthier families, for whom school is usually the primary focus, poorer students must focus on other responsibilities. School becomes secondary, if it's a priority at all.
HARD TO CONVERT
CAREER EDUCATION PROGRAMS
RESEARCH FINDINGS
In response to the global pandemic and the necessity to provide skilled training remotely, this report evaluates research, effective practices, augmented reality/virtual reality, and simulated software platforms for hard-to-convert career & technical education (CTE) programs. Completed for the Los Angeles/Orange County Regional Consortium in 2020, the study highlights 12 CTE program areas that pose challenges to distance learning and explores opportunities for online conversion.
CAREER INFONET
Skills Profiler
This allows students to choose from seven different skill groups including basic skills, social skills, complex problem-solving skills, technical skills, system skills, resource management skills, and desktop computer skills.
DREAM CATCHER
Career Orientation
Identify your purpose in life and achieve your career dreams through eight interactive lessons. Each lesson includes great videos and motivations, as well as an online tool to connect with other students with similar career interests.
ISEEK
Lets your students rate themselves on 35 skills and see which occupations match those skills.
Skills Assessment
O’NET ONLINE
Skills Search
This allows students to choose skills from six different skill groups including basic skills, complex problem-solving skills, resource management skills, social skills, systems skills, and technical skills.
WORK PREFERENCE
Twenty-four questions will assess your student’s work style.
Inventory
100 GO IN BUT HOW MANY COME OUT?
Excerpt from (Re)Defining the Goal
(Page 27).
With those high school graduates that decide not to attend college, plus the number of dropouts from ninth through twelfth grade, we have a total of 3,123,501 originally enrolled ninth graders in California who will not immediately attend college. Wow!
This may seem shocking considering all the attention given towards pushing ninth through twelfth graders to enroll directly in the university. Borrowing a phrase from author and educator Dr. Dale Parnell, this group of students is what I have come to call the “neglected majority.”
These students, nearly ¾ of the population of any high school, need and deserve equal alternatives to the “college prep” curriculum. This neglected majority needs an alternative to the pervasive one-way-to-win mindset and paradigm that is so popular among today’s middle and high schools.
SELF-EXPLORATION
PERSONALITY ASSESSMENTS
CA CAREERZONE
Interest Profiler
Occupational interests are identified through a series of questions about work activities that some people do in their jobs. Based on the aforementioned Holland Code, it includes comprehensive information on over 900 occupations.
JUNG
Helps identify one’s lifestyle preferences, personality strengths, and suitably aligned career choices.
Typology Test
MYERS-BRIGGS
Type Indicator (MBTI)
This personality test builds upon Jung’s typologies and is one of the most reliable and trusted. It has been selected by the nation’s top colleges to help with career development and is backed by scientific research. This test will help your students understand themselves and how they interact with others. It will help them identify their preferences in four areas: where they focus their attention, how they take in information, how they make decisions based on the information, and how they deal with the world. The original test costs $49.95, however, a free version can be found at:
KEIRSEY (KTS-II)
Temperament Sorter
This test is similar to the MBTI. However, it breaks up the MBTI’s 16 types into 4 basic categories: Artisans, Guardians, Rationals, and Idealists.
INNER HEROES
This test is a combination of the MBTI and the KTS-II
List Subtitle
BIG FIVE
Once called All About You, these tests measures personality as it applies to careers.
Personality Test
DISC
Personality Quiz
Helps your student learn how they respond to conflict, their motivations, their stressors, and how they solve problems.
COLORCODE
Identifies driving core motives, helping students understand why they do what they do.
Driving Core
OCCUPATIONAL
Outlook Handbook
This online handbook allows students to look at jobs based on groups, areas, growth, education, and pay. For each job, the student can see what they do, the work environment, the education needed, the pay, the job outlook, and similar occupations.
HOLLAND CODE
Career Test
Helps students identify career interest among six themes: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. Offers a list of suggested careers based on the profile.
ASVAB
Army Careers
Multiple-choice test that helps a student identify which Army jobs are best for them. The entire test is done through a military recruiting office, but sample tests can be found online.
CALIFORNIA
Career ZONE
A career exploration and planning system designed for students. This site has information on over 900 occupations. It has many profiler tests, as well as career videos, and job openings.
CALIFORNIA
Career CENTER
This is a career planning website helping students find an education plan with many different options. It will help your students develop career self-management skills.
ROAD TRIP
Nation Stories
Road Trip Nation Stories told by people in a myriad of occupations help create the resources that will show your students the many different careers and possibilities available.
DIRTY JOBS
Discovery Channel
A Discovery Channel series with Mike Rowe. He assumes the duties of the job he profiles for the week, helping students gain an appreciation for the many different jobs available and what makes people happy in those jobs others consider “too dirty.”
WHAT DO YOU WANT
California
Though focused on California, this is a good site to help students determine courses to take and career options.
THE SUPPORT PERSONNEL
Accountability Report Card
The SPARC online tool enables school site student support teams to create a unique, publishable document highlighting the impact their staff and programs are having on student career and college readiness.
O*NET ONLINE
Career Research
At O*Net, a student can enter a work title, look up careers by expected job growth, by career cluster, by green economy sector, by industry, by job family, by STEM discipline, and by education, experience, and training necessary. As jobs are located, O*Net provides
information about the tasks, tools, technology, knowledge, skills, abilities, work activities, work context, job zone, education, credentials, interests, work styles, work values, related occupations, wages, employment, and job openings.
GINGIKS
Videos of people with interesting jobs all shot by high school students.
youtube Channel
CAREER ONE STOP
U.S. Department Labor
U.S. Department of Labor website with career exploration tools, occupational videos, labor market and wage data, and job searching resources.
CAREER SURFER
Application
This mobile application is a tool for beginning career exploration and planning. Students can explore careers on their mobile devices by viewing snapshots of the more than 900 occupations detailed on the California CareerZone. Career Surfer is a free download from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
CAREER EXPLORATION
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