Designing Statewide Strategies & Programs

Designing Statewide Career Development Strategies & Programs
Designing Career Development
Programs & Activities to Promote
College and Career Readiness
Designing career development programs
and activities should begin with ensuring
that all youth have access to encouraging
and caring adults and family members
who are excited to support them in their career
development. Many adults may not be
aware of the range of possible careers available
or may feel concern about ensuring
that youth select careers that are “realistic”
for them considering past academic performance
and/or disability status. To maximize
opportunity, it is important that the concept
of “career” focus on the full career cluster or
career pathway instead of on a specific job or
task that is associated with a career (National
Association of State Directors of Career Technical
Education, 2014). Career clusters and
pathways involve a range of occupational
opportunities; therefore, information about
them is most effectively accessed using online
career information systems. Helping
youth identify two to three career clusters or
pathways to explore ensures that they learn
about a wide range of occupations. With further
exploration, youth will be able to more
effectively assess what skills they will need to
develop in order to pursue various occupations.
Therefore, rather than judging whether
a career in sports or music is “realistic,” for
example, adults should encourage youth to
explore the full range of occupations associated
with a sports or music career and to
explore two other career areas as “back-up
plans.” It is also important that youth receive
opportunities to explore other career areas
that may be connected to the interests,
strengths, and values they discovered in the
self-exploration phase.
The design process must also involve establishing
multiple opportunities for all youth
to develop skills in self-exploration, career
exploration, and career planning and management.
Self-exploration and career exploration
skills development can be facilitated
by providing activities that enable youth to
identify and examine a range of preferred
and alternative career aspirations (middle
school), goals (early high school), and intentions
(later high school). In addition, workbased
learning activities should be incorporated
when they are of an age where it is
legally permissible. This process should also
include activities in which students specifically
examine the academic courses needed
to pursue postsecondary training and education
and identify out-of-classroom, schoolbased
learning, and leadership activities
that will optimize their development. These
efforts will enable youth to become aware
of the relevance and utility of in- and outof-school
learning opportunities to helping
them achieve their career goals (Eccles &
Wigfield, 2002). For low performing and atrisk
youth, strategies that increase the relevance
and meaningfulness of their education
opportunities have been found to improve
their academic performance and course interest
(Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009).
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