Career planning site for Ohio students
State officials have added a robust student section to their Ohio Means Jobs website, hoping it will push K-12 students to think more and earlier about career exploration in the face of the always-changing job market.
The website hosts a career interest survey plus dozens of short videos explaining what it means to be a chemist or purchasing agent or social worker. It also ranks careers by expected salary and future demand in Ohio, and shows students some of the education and skills they need for each.
“The intent really is that school counselors, classroom teachers, everybody who might (affect) a student, can help them understand a basic connection between their classroom learning and future careers,” said Carolyn George, career connections administrator for the Ohio Department of Education.
Gov. John Kasich and other state officials have been pushing those career connections, eyeing students who may be good at math and science but who have no clue how solving equations translates into becoming a civil engineer or pathologist. Other students may not want four years of college, but need to know the path to a skilled trade.
George said more than 30,000 students have created “backpack” accounts on the Ohio Means Jobs website since the K-12 section launched this fall, allowing them to create and save items of interest in personal folders.
The address for the site is https://jobseeker.k-12.ohiomeansjobs.monster.com/seeker.aspx
Improving the process
Schools have used some similar tools in the past, via the Ohio Career Information System and other portals. The new website consolidates multiple functions in one place, and ties them to frequently updated state data on job demand and job salaries, plus real job postings.
“A majority of (high school students) might have a very general idea of what they might like to do, but they don’t have a good idea of what it actually takes to get there,” said Kettering Fairmont High School Principal Dan Von Handorf.
In addition to career interest testing and detailed job descriptions, the Ohio Means Jobs site offers guidance on which courses to take for certain career tracks, how to research college financial aid and budgeting, plus access to practice tests for the SAT, ACT, Advanced Placement exams and computer skills tests.
For those ready to enter the job market, the site also offers a resume-building application, tips on job interviews, plus links to job fairs and actual job postings.
“I think kids, whether they realize it or not, need to be ready for this,” said Matt Kohl, coordinator of The Learning Café program at Springfield City Schools. “The job market is too competitive right now.”
Ohio’s 2013 average unemployment rate was 15 percent for 20-24 year-olds in the labor market — higher than the two previous years for that age demographic.
Chris Kershner, vice president of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, said there are “tremendous opportunities” for young job seekers locally, while acknowledging the regional economy is still in the middle of a transition from largely manufacturing to things like information technology, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, logistics and healthcare.
School efforts
Getting students “college and career-ready” is a growing focus of most local schools, and they go about it in a variety of ways.
Springfield Superintendent David Estrop said his district offers a variety of programs on resume building, interview techniques, customer service skills and other training. As part of an $11 million state innovation grant, they are expanding those career readiness efforts, partnering with local colleges, and using Naviance software, which offers many of the same features as the Ohio Means Jobs site, while also tracking students’ course progress toward career goals.
“We weren’t even considering this stuff 10 to 15 years ago,” Estrop said. “The academic side is fine, and kids need those skills. But they also need the soft skills (promptness, communication, teamwork). … Many of the kids are not aware of what it takes.”
Bunny Brooks, college and career readiness teacher at Lebanon High School, said her district’s plan features at least one career awareness activity in every grade from kindergarten to graduation.
At the high school level, Brooks pointed to a required careers class for freshmen, an annual 150-table college and career fair, plus a local business program where company leaders visit the high school. She said one representative from a local manufacturer assured dubious algebra students that his employees do use quadratic equations on the job.
“If you help them understand they have to be ready for the next step, whatever that may be, then you hit the vast majority,” Brooks said. “If you only focus on college, then you’re missing out on kids who want to go into the military or … may need a year at a technical school to be a plumber.”
Brooks’ concern lines up with state-monitored online job postings, where education-heavy jobs like registered nurses and industrial engineers are joined in the top 10 by truck drivers and repair workers.
Von Handorf said the drive to get middle schoolers thinking about careers is wise, as long as it’s a matter of exploration and not trying to pigeonhole students into certain tracks too early.
Kettering requires all sophomores to take a college or career planning class, and charts more than 20 readiness activities they offer to all students, starting with a career interest survey and other steps for seventh-graders.
Von Handorf said not all students will decide what they want to do at an early age, but he touted Fairmont’s career-tech program as “life-changing” for some students.
“We say it’s a great opportunity to see what you want to do and be, for free,” he said. “When I got into college, I thought I wanted to do engineering, then switched to a chemistry major and had to go an extra semester. That cost an extra $10,000.”
When Von Handorf is welcoming students to Fairmont’s College Readiness Night on Thursday, George, of ODE, said she hopes the families get involved too, saying they have a huge impact on their kids’ mindset. And she encouraged all students to work with counselors on planning their next steps.
“We’re trying to see, how do we get educators to really buy in and understand that this is part of everybody’s job?” George said.
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