(CP) The Importance of Career Pathways Lesson

The Importance of Career Pathways

Career Pathways (also known as Career Clusters) is a workforce development initiative designed to allow students to experience greater success in high school while developing competencies and skills for the world of work. Career pathways consist of an integrated collection of courses that develop a student's core academic, technical, and employability skills. Ultimately the pathways lead to related post-secondary courses and a high paying career.

Whether you know exactly what you want to do or whether you have no idea where your work life is headed, here are some suggestions for discovering a career pathway.

Dream and Discover

When you were small, what did you dream about becoming when you grew up? What influenced that dream? Was it a movie or TV show you saw? Maybe someone you met that you liked? What do you dream about becoming now? What attracts you to that occupation? Don't discount your dreams. There is something in them that appeals to you. Try to determine what that something is.

After you have thought about your dreams, take time to discover your interests and personality. While all of us want to make enough in our career to live on, it's not all about the money! You will have to work at your career every day, so you should at least work at something that interests you. In addition, you need to consider your personality traits. Someone who is a bit shy and quiet might not want to enter into a sales occupation.

Explore Careers and Pathways

Take the time to explore not only the career, but what it takes to get there. Read, talk to people who have a career like you think you want, job shadow someone who has that career, and learn what it is like to do that job every day. Ask questions. What do they like most about the job? What do they like least? What are the hardest parts of the job? Listen carefully to the answer, as it will give you a lot of insight into what would be expected of you.

After you begin to narrow your career search, you should learn about career paths. A career path outlines all the things necessary—education, experience, skills—you must acquire to be qualified for a particular career. The knowledge of career paths should play a major role in choosing a career, because by choosing a career you also choose a career path. Choosing a career path will determine what type of college education you will pursue. You want to make sure that you understand all about the career path you choose when you choose your career.

Once you have found a career that fits your interest and some of your skills, take the time to figure out what it would require to get there. Maybe being a doctor interests you, but if you are not willing to put in twelve more years of study beyond high school; that may not be realistic. That doesn't mean you should give up your dream of helping people through medicine. Several medical careers ask only for a four year degree or less. Not only do you need to have the skills, aptitudes, and attitudes to carry on a career; you must be ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to get you to that career.

Set Priorities and Choose

Are you asking yourself when you should make the decision about your career? The answer is: that depends. Perhaps you have spent some time examining your options against your priorities and you have found a career or two that appeal for you. You've thought about both what you would bring to the career as well as what you hope to get out of it. You may be ready to make a career choice. On the other hand, maybe you have thought a little about a career choice, but you are graduating high school and have to make some decisions. In other words, some of you will make career choices after much thought and consideration; some will have the choice forced upon them.

Plan and Prepare

There are two important things a student needs to do in preparing for a career: develop a good work ethic and create a portfolio of tools they will need to find a job in their chosen career. A good work ethic means having those skills and attitudes that employers in your chosen field find desirable. These traits are similar to the ones that make you successful at school: good attitude, punctuality, loyalty, hard work, dependability, and team work to name a few.

In creating a portfolio of items for job acquisition, the following documents and skill sets should be assembled:

• Resume'
• Cover Letter
• Portfolio of work
• Interviewing skills

Finally, you will want to construct a career plan that will help you get from where you are to where you want to be. We will begin to create that plan in the next lesson.

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