Lesson 2: CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN PROGRAMS

Objectives
To become familiar with various setting in which career development programs occur.

In some instances, a career development program may include activities and settings that may not be considered "career development" if one takes a purist viewpoint. For example, career development is often a part of the following programs/work environments:

• Adult Education
• Business & Industry
• Colleges & Universities
• Community & Government Agencies
• Community Colleges
• K-12 Education
• Military
• Private Counseling Practice
• Trade or Technical Schools
• Succession Planning
• Employee Training & Development
• Job Rotational Systems
• Mentoring Programs
• Cross-Functional Teams
• Outplacement Services

In K-12 schools, career development occurs in classrooms, in guidance groups, one-on-one with a counselor, and in workplace settings. Oregon K-12 career-related buzzwords include:

• Assessment
• Portfolios
• Tech Prep
• School-to-Work
• Comprehensive Guidance
• Infusion of Career Development into Curriculum
• Contextual Learning
• Critical thinking
• Career-related Learning Standards
• Certificate of Advanced Mastery (CAM) Requirements
• Education/Employment Development Plans (EEDPs)

In community agencies, career development may be embedded in various programs.

Chances are you won't be familiar with all of these programs, and we won't go into as much depth as might be useful to you on each of these programs, but I want you to do some research for yourself. I would like you to explore the Internet to learn more about career development programs in various settings, in various states, and perhaps even in various countries. Go to a search engine, like Altavista.com, type: "career development" (use quotation marks) and search any language. Check out some of the programs you discover and learn what you can about the ways and settings of career development programs. See what you can ascertain about their:

• Program goals and objectives, and activities to meet them
• Resources required (staff, budget, facilities, equipment)
• Funding
• Marketing and public relations efforts
• Results -- evaluation methods
• Collaborative efforts and referral sources

Assignments:

• Submit an entry to the Class Discussion about an interesting career program you discovered on the Internet (cc to me via email). Read what other students found. This is worth 5 points for a well-documented entry, three for a less thorough entry, and one for a minimal entry.
• Interview someone in a work setting other than your own about their career development program. Use the topics suggested above. Post a two paragraph report of your findings in the Class Discussion. This is worth a possible 20 points, 10 for a less thorough job or 1 for a minimal job .

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Please e-mail Susan Roudebush if you have any comments.
Updated January 4, 2002
Copyright 2002, Susan Roudebush