Posts Tagged ‘Planning’

Career Planning

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

Don’t wait to long while planning for your careers. In many HR departments career planning and career counseling are relatively new terms but now companies are realizing their importance for the success of the company , for that  their HR department are providing career education and career counseling. With out career planning employees are seldom ready for the career opportunities that arise. How do I advance my career? Do company training programs enhance my promotions or do I need a degree for getting that job? Are promotions based on luck? Is that an easy way out for upgrading my CV? Nearly everyone ask himself these questions while during his or her working life, and careers. Our career consist of all jobs during our working life but some people thinks that it just a factor of ” luck” planning careers merely guarantees success it is not a hard activity or to be dreaded rather it’s an activity that should fulfilling, providing goals to achieve in your current career or plans for beginning a transition to a new career. Don’t wait to long while planning for your careers. In many HR departments career planning and career counseling are relatively new terms but now companies are realizing their importance for the success, their HR department are providing career education and career counseling. With out career planning employees are seldom ready for the career opportunities that arise. Once you begin regularly reviewing and planning your career you’ll find yourself better prepared for whatever lies ahead in your careers. HR in banking industry gives little support to career planning and their  career planning seldom occurs the reason of that is it is considered to be as an ” individual matter”  When employer encourages career planning they are mostly  considered that are likely encouraging to set their own  goals but these goals are encouraging employees towards career education and career counseling HR professionals in career planning should always keep the question in their mind that what employees really want? Career planning and development helps employees’ career path led him or her to their goal of becoming “something” in the company.

In a nutshell don’t wait to long while planning for your careers. With out it employees are seldom ready for the career opportunities that arise. With out it employees are seldom ready for the career opportunities that arise.

 

 

 

Career Clusters, a Bridge Between Education and Career Planning

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Since 1960s, career cluster resources have been used as career exploration and planning tools in schools, learning communities, and organizations across the nation. Career Clusters is a system that matches educational and career planning.

Step 1: Identifying Career Cluster Interest Areas

Career clusters are groups of similar occupations and industries. When teachers, counselors, and parents work with teens, college students, and adults, the first step is to complete career cluster assessment. The assessment identifies the highest career cluster areas. Career assessments show teens, college students, and adults rankings from one of the following 16 Interests Areas or Clusters:

1. Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resources

2. Architecture & Construction

3. Arts, A/V Technology & Communication

4. Business, Management & Administration

5. Education & Training

6. Finance

7. Government & Public Administration

8. Health Science

9. Hospitality & Tourism

10. Human Services

11. Information Technology

12. Law, Public Safety & Security

13. Manufacturing

14. Marketing, Sales & Service

15. Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

16. Transportation, Distribution & Logistics

Step 2: Exploring Career Clusters and Related Careers

After pinpointing the highest career clusters, teens, college students, and adults explore the different careers and create education plans. Career cluster tools used in career and educational planning include:

LISA: A comprehensive career cluster database

Models

Brochures

Pathways

High school plan of study

Interest and Skills Areas

Crosswalks

After completing a career cluster assessment, teens, college students, and adults look at web sites, career models, brochures, pathways, and high school plans. One of the most unique comprehensive career cluster resources is the Louisiana Integrated Skills Assessment (LISA), an Internet program. LISA lets you explore career clusters, careers, abilities, training requirements, and more. There are 3 steps in the LISA program:

STEP 1: Click here to select a Career Cluster,

STEP 2: Click here to select a Career Group

STEP 3: Explore Occupations within this Career Group

In Step 1, when you choose a career cluster, you will see a description of the cluster. When you select a career group in Step 2, you see different careers. Finally, in Step 3, you see a wealth of information:

Job descriptions

Educational and training requirements

Crosswalks, for example ONET, DOT, GOE, and other codes

Abilities

Knowledge

Skills

Tasks

Work Vales

Labor Market Information

Even though LISA is an awesome program, in classroom or workshop settings, you need printed materials. When using printed materials, the career model is the best place to start. Models provide excellent overviews listing the cluster definitions, sample careers, pathways, knowledge, and skills. Visual models show career clusters, the cluster subgroups, and related careers. Models are an excellent way to introduce career clusters.

For presentations, workshops, and group discussions, the career cluster brochures provide additional information. Adults and teens read about the different careers that are available in each career cluster. Teachers, counselors, and parents use the brochures to solidify adults’ and teens’ potential career or educational decisions. The brochures cover topics such as:

Definition of career clusters

Careers

Career pathways

Employment outlooks

Skills

Credentials

Teachers, counselors, and parents use career pathways for more detailed information. The career pathways are subgroups or areas of concentration within career clusters. Each pathway contains career groups. The career groups have similar academic skills, technical skills, educational requirements, and training requirements. Career pathways are plans of study that outline required secondary courses, post secondary courses, and related careers. The career pathways are essential tools that teachers, counselors, parents, and other adults use to give educational planning advice.

Several web sites feature High School Plans of Study. These study plans show required, elective, and suggested courses for each grade level. The school plans also match the career clusters to related careers, career pathways, and post-secondary options. Teachers, counselors, and parents find that these school plans are guides for selecting the right high school courses to match potential careers. Beyond high school, the Utah System for Higher Education has created a College Major Guide. Parents, teachers, and counselors can use the guide to match college majors to Certificate and Degree Programs.

Additional Resources for Counselors and Teachers

For planning curriculum and educational programs, there are detailed Knowledge and Skills Charts and Cluster Crosswalks. The knowledge and Skills expand upon the information listed on the career cluster models. For each knowledge and skill area, there are performance elements and measurement criteria. Crosswalks show the relationships between career clusters and other career models:

Career clusters build a bridge between education and career planning. Different types of career cluster resources are available: videos, web sites, booklets, brochures, activity sheets, and workbooks. Teachers, counselors, and parents use career cluster resources to successfully complete career and educational planning.

Resources:

American Careers Career Paths, Career Communications, 6701 W. 64th St., Overland, KS 66202, 800-669-7795

Career Click, Illinois Department of Employment Security,33 South State Street, Chicago, IL 60603, (312) 793-5700

CIP Code Index by Career Cluster, Adult & Postsecondary CTE Division, Bureau of Career and Technical Education, 333 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA 17126, (717) 772-0814

Cluster and Career Videos, Career One Stop, U.S. Department of Labor, Frances Perkins Building, 200 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20210, 866-4-USA-DOL

College Major Guide Utah System for Higher Education, Board of Regents Building, The Gateway, 60 South 400 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1284, (801) 321-7100

Find Careers (Videos), iSeek Solutions, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, Wells Fargo Place, 30 7th St. E., Suite 350, St. Paul, MN 55101-7804

High School Plans of Study, New Hampshire Department of Education, 101 Pleasant Street

Concord, NH 03301-3860, (603) 271-3494

Introduction to Career Clusters, Career Education, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, P.O. Box 543

Blacklick, OH 43004-0544,

Louisiana Integrated Skills Assessment (LISA), customized Internet version of OSCAR, a product of the Texas Workforce Commission/Career Development Resources, TWC/CDR, Austin, TX 78753

Maryland Career Clusters, Maryland State Department of Education 200 West Baltimore Street Baltimore, MD 21201,

Rhodes Island’s Career Clusters, Rhode Island’s Career Resource Network, 1511 Pontiac Avenue, Cranston, RI 02920, 401-462-8790

School to Career Clusters, State of Connecticut, Department of Labor, Job Bank, 645 South Main Street, Middletown, CT 06457, (860)754-5000

States’ Career Clusters Initiative (SCCI), 1500 W. Seventh Avenue, Stillwater, OK 74074

Career Pathway Plans, Career Cluster, Knowledge and Skills Charts

VTECS Cluster Frameworks, VTECS, 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA, 30033,404-679-4501 ext 543

What are Career Clusters? Career Prospects System, New Mexico Career Resource Network, CAREER TECHNICAL AND WORKFORCE EDUCATION BUREAU (CTWEB), Education Building, 300 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, NM 87501, (505) 827-6512

Career Management Planning and Outplacement

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

Our work often gives us our sense of personal identity, providing us with self-respect and social status. When meeting someone for the first time, one of the most common questions asked is ‘what do you do’? Although we like to complain about our jobs, generally work is seen as a positive thing and if we didn’t have work to occupy us our lives would lose a lot of its meaning. Some view work as their main supply of satisfaction in life, finding it a deeply rewarding experience and crucial for a successful society. When it comes down to termination, redundancy, downsizing or outplacement, whatever you want to call it, it is extremely important that it is dealt with using tact, sensitivity and especially understanding. The effects, on such individual, of a job loss, will be of huge impact as all of a sudden life has to be looked at and planned without the habituate such as a regular paycheck, health insurance, company car, overtime and other benefits. Although the financial/material effects are a big factor to deal with, there are more important effects such as psychological factors to be taken into consideration, like stress, self confidence and the worry of their place in society. Companies also need to be concerned about the other employees not facing the same thing as they might feel guilty, fear for the foreseeable future and de-motivated. Years ago it was the norm to get a job at 18 or so and remain with the same company until retirement. Times have changed since then and with today’s technology and ever changing environment, this is no longer the case. Matching up jobs and people can be an extremely difficult task and in any work situation there are people who are misemployed whereby their jobs don’t make use of their talents and skills, and those who hold jobs they are no longer qualified to do due to reasons such as new technology. When an organization needs to restructure it has to deal with these people, either by finding them alternative positions within the company, retraining them to fit an existing position or make redundancies. Downsizing, terminations and other outplacement consulting has gone from being dealt with by the company’s HR department into a specialized profession. Career transition specialists work with businesses that are facing change either because of closure, restructure or integration and help them with the decision on the best plan of dealing with their employees. There are several services available for the employees facing the loss of their job and also to the rest of the staff who are not affected by the changes as the change to the working atmosphere will affect everyone in the company. All corporations have to restructure at times in order to keep up with competition and survive in the ruthless world we live in today. There are going to be decisions that many individuals won’t like, but if the company is seen to support their staff through transition programs such as these, it will provide reassurance and security. A career change can be stress-full and if the employee has had no choice or thought in the matter this can make it even harder. We all know that sometimes if you are a little stuck, all we need is a little push to get us motivated in making the decision on a new challenge, a new job or a new career that will offer satisfaction and happiness. Some people think that everything happens for a reason and that change is good. The people who can definitely help you if you do find yourself in this position are career management and outplacement consultants. They can absolutely maximize your chances of finding the perfect and exciting new career; involving planning, preparing and they’ll even retrain you to learn new skills. For organizations or individuals, career management and outplacement specialists can offer a wealth of experience in a range of business environments. Qualified to support a diverse variety of needs they are the perfect place to consult if your organization is facing change.