CAREER DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS IN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS

1. CAREER DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS IN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLS Career Development Interventions in the 21st Century 4th Edition Spencer G. Niles and JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey Prepared By Jennifer Del Corso

2. Developmental Tasks of Middle/Junior High School Achieve new and more sophisticated relations with peers Achieve emotional independence from parents and other adults Set vocational goals Prepare for marriage and family life Develop skills for civic competence

3. Developmental Tasks of Middle/Junior High School continued Acquire a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior Set realistic goals and make plans for achieving these goals

4. Career Development in Middle School Career assistance provided to middle school students must be sensitive to the contextual, physical, and emotional transitions that students experience Akos, Konold, and Niles (2004) found that middle school student exhibit distinct patterns of needs regarding their readiness for career decision making: from career indecisions to premature career identity foreclosure Data from the National Assessment of Education Progress indicate that adolescents experience mixed success in coping with the career development tasks they confront in middle and high schools

5. ASCA National Standards Acquire skills to investigate the world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions Employ strategies to achieve future success and satisfaction Understand the relationship between personal qualities, education and training, and the world of work

6. Career Development Goals for Middle/Jr. High School Enhance self-understanding Learn how to engage effectively in education and occupational exploration Career Planning

7. Career Development Goals for Middle/ Jr. High School Students Self-Knowledge Knowledge of the influence of a positive self-concept Skills to interact with others Knowledge of the importance of growth and change

8. Career Development Goals for Middle/Jr. High School Students Educational and Occupational Exploration Knowledge of the benefits of educational achievement to career opportunities Understanding of the relationship between work and learning Skills to locate, understand, and use career information Knowledge of skills necessary to seek and obtain jobs Understanding of how work relates to needs and functions of the economy and society

9. Career Development Goals for Middle/Jr. High School Students Career Planning Skills to make decisions Knowledge of the interrelationships of life roles Knowledge of different occupations and changing male-female roles Understanding of the process of career planning

10. Career Planning Considerations Since junior high is a transition from the structured elementary to the less structured high school environment, students need an opportunity to explore their personal characteristics and educational options. Because students have a wide range of career maturity, interests, values, and abilities, a great variety of intervention methods is needed.

11. Career Planning Considerationscontinued Although junior high students are capable of verbal and abstract behavior, exploration is enhanced with concrete, hands-on direct experiences. Search for identity is a fundamental part of the junior high experience. Therefore, career guidance must encourage students to explore feelings, needs, and uncertainties.

12. Career Planning Interventions Assessment Learning an organizational system Exploring and learning about different clusters of occupations Job shadowing Portfolio development

13. Career Development Interventions in Middle/Jr. High Schools Interventions the combine psychoeducational activities and experiential tasks are useful in helping students cope Important to help students understand issues related to equity and access in career choice Important to help student develop an awareness regarding the career development tasks they will confront now and in the future Interventions can easily occur in group and/or guidance classroom activities

14. Career Development Interventions in Middle/Jr. High School (continued) Clustering systems can be used to guide career exploration by using the clusters to organize career information resources. Patterns of life-role salience can be addressed by helping student reflect on the various life roles they have or they can create a life-role portfolio Middle school students need assistance in career and educational planning. An educational and career planning portfolio is one technique that school counselors can use to help middle school students plan effectively.

15. United States Office of Education (USOE) Occupational Clusters Business & Office Marketing & Distribution Communications & Media Construction Manufacturing Transportation Agribusiness & Natural Resources Marine Science Environment Public Services Health Recreation & Hospitality Personal Services Fine Arts & Humanities Consumer & Homemaking Education

16. Developmental Considerations for High School Students As students transition from middle school to high school, they focus more directly on the task of identifying occupational preferences and clarifying career/lifestyle choices. According to Super (1957), the essential tasks are crystallizing, specifying educational preferences, and implementing tentative career choices. Most secondary school students in the United States enter work immediately upon leaving high school or do not finish college (Marshall & Tucker, 1992).

17. Preparation for Career Transition: After High School Over 70% of high school seniors expect to hold professional jobs This trend toward “college for all” aspirations emerged from a labor market that needed increased skills, more accessible enrollment to college, and community colleges instituted an open admissions policy. Important to teach students about a variety of rewarding careers that exist in a variety of fields including those occupations that do not require a college degree.

18. Coping with Transition Adolescents must acquire workforce readiness to cope successfully with their school-to-work transition. Important to provide “transition enhancement” assistance to secondary school students as they progress toward further education, training, or employment.

19. Coping with Transition(Continued) Secondary school students need emotional support to lessen the anticipatory anxiety they may experience as they consider the transitions they will encounter. Transition skills build upon the self-awareness, occupational awareness, and decision-making skills students have developed throughout their educational experience

20. Marcia’s Taxonomy of Adolescent Identity The identity-diffused person has not yet experienced an identity crisis or exploration and has not made a personal commitment to an occupation -- or a set of goals, values, and beliefs. The foreclosed person has not yet experienced an identity crisis or exploration but has committed to an occupation and a set of goals, values, and beliefs.

21. Marcia’s Taxonomy of Adolescent Identity continued The moratorium person is engaged in an active struggle to clarify personally meaningful values, goals, and beliefs. The identity-achieved person has sorted through the process of identity clarification and resolved these issues in a personally meaningful way.

22. Career Developmental Competencies for High School Students Develop more self-knowledge Develop skills for engaging in educational and occupational exploration Strengthen decision making skills; career planning

23. Career Development Guidelines for High School Students Self-Knowledge Understanding the influences of a positive self-concept Skills to interact positively with others Understanding the impact of growth and development

24. Career Development Guidelines for High School Students Educational and Occupational Exploration Understanding the relationship between educational achievement and career planning Understanding the need for positive attitudes toward work and learning Skills to locate, evaluate, and interpret career information Skills to prepare to seek, obtain, maintain, and change jobs Understanding how societal needs and functionsinfluence the nature and structure of work

25. Career Development Guidelines for High School Students Career Planning Skills to make decisions Understanding the interrelationship of life roles Understanding the continuous changes in male-female roles Skills in career planning

26. Career Interventions in High School Instruction on tasks related to career maturity (career choice readiness) Assessment Learning how the world of work is organized Occupational research Consideration of the importance of work in life Values clarification Parent involvement

27. Career Development Intervention for At-Risk Students (Froeschle) Mentorship Small Group Solution-Focused Counseling Psychoeducational Career Lessons Implementation of solution-focused skills within the classroom