Career Planning
Now that you have done some career exploration and may have some ideas of career fields you are interested in, you may be ready to move onto career planning. Planning for a career is an important component of the Career Education Continuum. Once a student has an idea of what career field to pursue, work must be done to plan out what that career path could look like. Students should explore questions like...
- Does the career field require further education post-high school graduation?
- Is a community college, a 4 year college or university, or a trade or vocational school the best choice for this career field?
- What specific skills, training, certificates, licenses, or degrees are required for this occupation?
- How much money does an entry level position in this career earn?
- Many other questions may be circling your brain as well
There are many tools students can use to answer these questions and all the other ones that will come up as career planning evolves. Career Planning could be informational interviews with industry professionals, allowing students to ask specific and direct questions to discover how to plan out a career path to lead to their identified occupation. Having a mentor in the career field of choice also provides a wealth of information that will help students plan out their career path. Internships with organizations and businesses in the career field of choice also supports students ability to craft a career plan.
There are also several online platforms which students can use to discover the answers to many of their questions about how to develop a career plan. A few options are highlighted below, but there are many choices available in the online world.
- CAREER ONE STOP
- CAREER PLANNING VIDEOS
- CENTERS FOR EXCELLENCE
- EVOLVEME
- MY NEXT MOVE
- OC BUSINESS COUNCIL
- OC COMMUNITY COLLEGE CAREER PATHWAYS
- PROGRAM FINDER
- US BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS STUDENT'S DESK