4 Career Pathway Tools to Share with Your Students
If you’ve ever been asked what you want to be when you grow up and felt completely unsure, you can probably relate with most high school students—and, frankly, with most adults too! Career pathway tools can make this easier on your students by helping them determine which careers align with their goals, strengths, and interests. We’ve compiled a list of four potentially useful tools below.
O*NET Career Pathway Tools
The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is a Department of Labor database of occupational characteristics and worker requirements across the country. To help figure out potential career paths, students can take the O*NET Interest Profiler, a short assessment that scores interests and provides a list of potential careers they might want to explore based on their responses.
ACT® WorkKeys® Career Pathway Tools
The ACT® WorkKeys® is a system of assessments and curricula that builds and measures essential workplace skills. While the WorkKeys assessment does come at a cost, the ACT website provides a helpful occupational profiling database where students can search for job profiles by title, Career Cluster®, or job description.
These database searches provide a list of potential job titles. Students can select titles to view O*NET codes, a table of ACT WorkKeys skills, and a list of tasks associated with the particular job title, providing students an important glimpse into potential careers.
Internships
Internships are invaluable career pathway tools for students who may already have specific career interests. It is one of the best ways to get practical, hands-on experience and exposure.
Typically lasting a couple of weeks to several months, internships can help students get a taste of a particular career and actively network with professionals. Read more about the importance of work experience for students and ways to help land a great internship.
Looking to offer your students more career and technical education (CTE) course options to help them decide on career fields? Take a look at our Courseware’s CTE course library, and explore how Edmentum can help address career paths and certification course needs. Additionally, download Edmentum's career-connected learning workbook to design an engaging career-connected learning program.