Career Counseling: Let's Go Surfing - Use of the Internet for Career Counseling in Schools
Career counseling in middle and high school should be tailored to the unique characteristics of adolescents during those tumultuous years when they begin to learn more about themselves. Part of the adolescent's search for identity is the keen desire to explore interests, abilities, and new experiences, and to find satisfaction. Many are facing for the first time a complex decision about the reality of work in relation to their own lives. Sorting through information useful for making informed decisions about one's life is crucial to the process. However, information is exploding in every area of life. Adolescents and the school professionals who help them have the arduous task of deciphering a mountain of data during their pursuit of career goals and dreams. Useful and user-friendly interactive computer programs exist that can guide students, parents, and counselors through the vast and complicated world of career information.
Establishing rapport and building a relationship are key first steps for school counselors working with adolescents and their career aspirations. Mitchell, Levin, & Krumboltz (1999) proposed that career counselors adopt a "planned happenstance" (p. 116) approach whereby the counselor helps clients "generate, recognize, and incorporate" (p. 117) chance events into their career development. Rather than waiting for life to happen to them, students should be challenged to prepare for the unplanned so that action can be taken when the unexpected happens. With its unlimited volume of data, the Internet is a place where adolescents may experience the unexpected and, with help, can make use of the information gathered.
Individuals and counselors often find that navigating career information can be both complicated and time consuming. Though access to career information can be obtained through traditional sources like the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (go to www.onetcenter.org) or the Occupational Outlook Handbook (go to http://stats.bls.gov/ocohome.htm), these are only the beginning of a thorough career research, planning, and decision making process. CX-Online (Bridges, Inc., 2000), in use throughout the United States and Canada, offers an extensive and interactive framework allowing students, teachers, and counselors to connect career information to interests and education. The temptation when logging onto the Internet is to jump from site to site, seeking just the right information. The beauty of this program is that once students have used some of the basic tools, links are provided that are an appropriate match for their research. The content of CX-Online is written in a style that appeals to adolescents, with new information appearing daily. Articles not only cover basic education, salary, and outlook but also contain interviews with people working in those careers featured each day. Professionals (teachers) also can benefit from use of a variety of lesson plans and activities for use in the classroom.
The National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC) together with is state counterparts, the State Occupational Coordinating Committees (SOICCs), accessible on the Internet, contribute a base of information and links to other sites that further enhance career knowledge (go to www.noicc.gov). The North Carolina SOICC, in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the Commission on Workforce Preparedness/Job Ready, has been in the process of integrating CX-Online into schools state-wide since 1997. Below are suggestions of how to get started, how to use CX-Online daily, and how to keep the program year-to-year are offered. The potential is ever growing and ever changing, just like the Internet.________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.