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.

http://sofiah-family.blogspot.com/2007/08/parents-as-career-coaches.html

Guidelines for Elementary Education Career Resources - National Career Development Guidelines

The NCDG Guidelines is a career knowledge, skills, and decision-making framework. The NCDG framework has three domains, goals, and indicators. Teachers and counselors use the domains, goals, and indicators as guidelines to design and create career resources. The three domains are: Personal Social Development (PS), Educational Achievement and Lifelong Learning (ED), and Career Management (CM). Each domain represents a developmental area in a career education program. Under each domain are goals or competencies. Under each goal, indicators highlight the knowledge and skills needed to achieve the goal. The National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG) is the foundation for career education products, research development, tests and tools. (14)

Summary

Elementary school career education programs build self-awareness, family awareness, school awareness, community awareness, career/ work awareness, attitude development, skill development, decision making strategies, and self-worth. Elementary school career awareness programs use age appropriate materials that match the developmental levels of the students. As a results of career education, schools reported that students had higher grades and academic achievement, improvement in school involvement and performance, as well as an increase in career awareness exploration, personal, and interpersonal skills. Career awareness activities include Individual Career Plan (ICP), Individual Career Develop Portfolio (ICDP), Career Days, Career Fairs, Field trips, information interviewing, and library book report.

http://www.content4reprint.com/culture-and-society/education/k-12/elementary-school-career-education-the-need-basics-examples-and-guidelines.htm

Careers can develop in ways that are as unique as people themselves. They may be the result of education, training, relationships with colleagues, or challenges inside and outside the workplace. But increasingly for many students in the middle grades, the process of finding a fulfilling career begins with a career development program that provides opportunities to explore both themselves and the world of work.

Students and parents often operate under the commonly held myth that they can select an appropriate career by taking some sort of aptitude test. Not only have such tests been totally discredited by educators and psychologists, but the very idea of using such a method to match students with occupations is unrealistic. Not only do people's interests and skills change over time, but occupations also are changing. One that looks promising today might be unattractive or even obsolete tomorrow. The challenge of career planning is to break away from this outdated approach by promoting career awareness, exploration, planning, and preparation.

Early Adolescence: A Critical Time
Early adolescence—a time of rapid physical, intellectual, emotional, and social development—is a critical point in career development. It is in the middle grades that early adolescents begin to explore their interests and capabilities, and to develop a sense of where they fit into the world of work.

The focus of career planning at the middle level should not be on helping students to select an occupation, but on teaching them to keep their options open, investigate their personal preferences, and broaden their exploration of occupational opportunities. To accomplish this, a school's career development program requires a blueprint that identifies and prioritizes goals and goal-related activities.

Building a Quality Program
One such blueprint is the National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG), ... (5/18/07 - From the National Assoc. of Elementary School Principals)

1. 7/29 - Georgia (PDF)
   
2. 5/13 - Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education OkCRN
   
3. 5/12- The National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG) is the foundation for career research, research development, Holland Code career self assessment tests and tools . The NCDG Guidelines is a career knowledge, skills, and decision-making framework. The NCDG Web site provides career development activities and resources linked to the NCDG goals. (More)
4. 5/2 - Idaho - CIS PPD 4 pgs Activities related to Indicators