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"Often beginning in preschool and continuing through middle school students begin to develop career  awareness by discovering the meaning of work, jobs and learning about careers." The Career Cluster Interest Inventory(CCII), is a great initial assessment to help the students explore career options that leads into career exploration. In Module 1, Dr. Dojanovic gave an annual employment goal example that stated, "Amanda will complete Career Clusters interest inventory and report three possible career options for further exploration." This clip helps demonstrate how these assessments help with career awareness.

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Researching into careers and answering some basic questions such as "What are the responsibilities of this job?", "Where are these jobs located? help begin building awareness.  With Curious Kids, they go out to get exposure to unusual and interesting career optons to learn about about the work expectations and requirements for the job.

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This innovative K-12 program brings STEM awareness to underserved communities. With exposure to this program, they are gaining awareness to jobs with science, technology, engineering and math. This not only brings awareness to the students but also to the local families and communities. STEM allows a wide variety of jobs for them, and not the "typical" jobs students are exposed to. With hands on opportunities, they are truly gaining those critical knowledge and skills needed, as said in Module 1.

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Viva Technology - A National K-12 STEM Awareness Program

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The presentation in Module 1 talks about needing exposure before we have awareness, so learning about careers is exactly what KidZania is about. This video shows how kids are learning through realistic role play. Although, this is also sort of like Career Exploration it also aligns with awareness as they are introduced to a variety of career options in different industries. This place truly lets the kids explore completely on their own, as parents are not obligated to stay with them. The kids also learn about money, as they can't spend any unless they work for it doing the different jobs around the "city."

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This course is a great way to provide students with ways to identify their interests, and hand ons experience to determine what they enjoy and what could be some strengths of theirs. Evidence-based practice shows that collaboration among community partners is super effective for implementation of evidence based predictors. This video shows how experiences and linkages to community will help student achieve career awareness and help them go into career exploration and career preparation.

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This video shows an example of a High school's shadowing program. This program allows students to shadow career options to see if their interests are something they would like to pursue. The video shows a story about a young man who is interested being a mechanic. Job shadowing allowed him to learn from professionals in his desired career field and see what a typical day looks like during a workweek. During career development, the student first has exposure through career awareness, and then during career exploration, they have the opportunity to explore their career pathways. Through this shadowing program, the individual can see if this is something they would like to do not only for a job but also a career. Finally, this opportunity is beneficial during the career exploration phase because the student is networking and creating relationships with leaders in their community with similar interests.

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This video displays a program named Destinations Career Academy, more specifically, their job shadow week. This program allows students to observe employment opportunities in different fields. Some of the students shadow in their career interests and others shadow in careers they might have considered.  This is helpful during career exploration because it gives students the chance to observe different aspects of occupations and helps them gain confidence to choose their career path. Through Destinations Career Academy, the student also gains the opportunity to understand education and college requirements in each role.

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High School Students Explore Careers with Job Shadow Program

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When a student is narrowing down their options for their career path, it is important for them to meet and gain experience communicating with business and community leaders. This Career Exploration day was hosted by Junior Achievement and SiCAN to help students gain opportunities to learn more about their desired careers. The students had the opportunities to talk one on one with individuals in various career fields in their local area. It also allowed the students to learn the steps necessary to take in Middle and High School to prepare for that specific career. Career Exploration days like this help students create plans if they need to take additional courses or community college courses to jump-start their career paths. This encourages students to start developing a plan to meet the requirements necessary in their post-graduate transition plan.

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PEF, Junior Achievement, and SiCAN Career Exploration Day for Students

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My Plan is a website is for Middle School, High School, College, and Adult students. My Plan provides a career database, career assessments, salary calculator, career match, and other online resources. This tool is to be used to help students narrow down their career choices. During career exploration, the individual should be able to compare and contrast career options. The My Plan website is a tool to help them think of career options based on their aptitude and preferred lifestyle.

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Career Assessments are critical during the career exploration phase. This video is an example of possible assessments to assist students in choosing their career options. The Myers Briggs personality assessment is an excellent tool for students to learn about their personality traits. The Strong Interest inventory is a career planning tool that helps students identify potential career paths based on skills and interests. If the student understands more about their interests, abilities, personality traits, and strengths, they will make a better decision for their future. During Career Exploration, the goal is to narrow down career options from a handful of options to about one or two ideal career paths that have align with their goals.

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When most people think career prep and votech, they think things like construction or welding.  In this class, that is the case but it also includes things like photography, media, and music production.  Students in 9th grade spend a few weeks in each trade, then in 10th grade they focus on the one they want and in 11th and 12th grade, the actually go into the real world to develop their skills even more. The consistency and long term structure of this program is very beneficial to special needs students.

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Vocatio Career Prep High School 2020-2021

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This class prepares students who are going into a career that requires a college degree by helping them prepare for the ACT. Many students, especially those with special needs (mild to moderate in this case), have test anxiety. By taking this class, it allows them to feel that they know what they are going to be "up against" when they take the test and less surprised by it, because let's face it, the ACT is overwhelming. The more a student with special needs can practice, the less off guard they feel or overwhelmed. The class also helps them understand what scores are needed for specific colleges.

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While this doesn't show students in action, it does have students explaining what they get out of their career prep class. They learned things like how to interview, what GPA is needed to get into most colleges, and how to apply for jobs. This class doesn't just tell them what to do, it tells them WHY to do it. Students learn better when they understand the rationale for why are doing something and how it will affect them.

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Students from the first year of Career Prep A discuss what they learned from the class.

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This class is a votech class that prepares students for construction jobs. This is a great class for many students with mild to moderate disabilities to take as many students who fit in those categories do well with jobs where they can use their hands and is a visual job. This class allows them to prepare for the real job without the worry that if they mess up they will be fired, taking away the anxiety that comes from new things which is common in special needs students. It also shows them multiple things they can do with construction such as different types and different leadership areas which requires college degrees.

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Skills USA Bethlehem Area Vo-Tech School

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Part of training and preparing for a career is learning how to get one. This is a process that can often be intimidating and lead to anxiety. BY having a class where students can practice and hone these skills, it makes them feel more comfortable with interviewing. Not only that but it teaches students to self analyze and reflect.

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Curry College Center for Career Development

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Mock Interview Preparation: Common Questions with Feedback!