Summer Vacation

This is the penultimate (Look it up!) post until Wednesday, September 21. In this post, I will propose a new twist to an old topic. The September "Back to School" theme of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" will become "How You Should Spend Your Summer Vacation". I'd like to suggest a few things that you should do this summer to help you reach your goals.

1. Define Your Goals
Students in middle school and beyond can use the sites I've written about this past year to help achieve this end. My post of December 14, 2010 lists some good ones where you can find career and interest inventories to help you pinpoint career interests.

2. Investigate Possible Careers
Hopefully, you've used some of the information I've posted to enroll in a summer program that will assist you in this endeavor. www.bls.gov and www.careercornerstone.org are two excellent websites.

3. Investigate Training for Specific Careers
The websites above will help you find out what kind of educational background a specific career requires. You can find out more about these programs and schools at www.collegeboard.com and www.unigo.com.

4. Visit Specific Schools
Actually travel to places where you might enroll after high school. At the very least, use the sites mentioned to find out more about a school. In addition to these and individual college websites, www.campustour.com provides virtual tours of many campuses. www.neighborhoodscout.com gives a wealth of information about the region and city in which a school is located. www.thefire.org gives information as to the school's protection of the individual's Constitutional free speech rights.

5. Determine Entrance Requirements and Prepare for Entrance Exams
Students should be sure they have the proper courses to fulfill entrance requirements. These can be found on the school's website or by looking up the school on www.collegeboard.com. If you need to take a class/classes that you haven't scheduled, you'll have to notify your counselor as soon as possible. Students entering junior year in the fall should spend some time preparing for SAT's. Those entering senior year who haven't taken the SAT should be sure to apply to take the first one to be given on October 1, 2011. Register by September 9, 2011. Go to the College Board site for more information.

6. Begin Your College Application
Hopefully, those students who are entering senior year have done all of the previous things on the list and should spend some time this summer to prepare as much of their college applications as possible, specifically THE DREADED ESSAY! More on that next time!

Part V - Good Government

     In many ways, I consider myself a libertarian.  So when I find FOUR online sites that I really like that are run by government bureaucracies, that's really saying something!  They're informative.  They're current and they're free!!!  ( Doesn't sound like government at all!)
     For years I lugged around a dozen copies of the Occupational Outlook Handbook so I could show my freshman classes how to use this invaluable tool.  Now the Bureau of Labor Statistics has put this publication and much more online.  The BLS site is http://www.bls.gov/ .  At the home page, scroll down the Publications tab to Career Guides and then click onto Occupational Outlook Handbook.  By this point you can see that the site has a wealth of useful information you might find interesting.  You can go to the A-Z index and see an alphabetical list of the careers that are covered by name or related occupations.  Each career article covers:  Nature of the Work; Training, Other Qualifications and Advancement; Employment; Job Outlook; Projections; Earnings; Wages; Related Occupations and Sources of Additional Information.  This last item can be especially helpful.  For example, if you look at this sub-heading under the Radiologic Technologists and Technicians entry, you'll find links to their national society and be able to find specific certification requirements and programs.
     On the BLS home page, if you scroll down to "Career Information for Kids", you'll be linked to a page that asks, "What Do You Like?".  I clicked the Sports balloon and the following choices came up:  Dancer; Professional Athlete; Coach; Recreation and Fitness Worker and Recreational Therapist.  I clicked  Recreational Therapist and was taken to a very easy to read short article that covers the same areas as the OOH in a shorter, simpler manner while linking to the Handbook for more in depth information.
     The Department of Labor runs the O*NET data base at http://www.onetcenter.org/. This is a successor to the DOT - Dictionary of Occupational Titles.  It also gives information about knowledge, skills, interests and general work activities specific careers demand.  You can download assessments or order them from the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).
     The Department of Labor also runs http://www.careeronestop.org/.  When I began this blog only a month ago, if you clicked on CareerOneStop on the  Federal Department of Education's http://www.college.gov/ site, you were taken to the BLS site mentioned earlier.  Now that link takes you to the Department of Labor site. ( That's the government bureaucracy I know!)  The CareerOneStop is also a really good resource, especially for older students or work force re-entries/unemployed.  They actually have centers run by the Department of Labor to help employment seekers.  There are more than a dozen centers within 25 miles of my home!  Who knew?  Well, that's one of my reasons for doing this.  The amount of information and resources out there is almost overwhelming.  I hope that by writing this blog, I've opened them up to you as well.