Most of us never gets to realize career management is essential during our younger years. We are encouraged to think of the future by our parents, but most of our peers think otherwise. In fact, career management related topics is a much loved subkect on public speaking or debate classes. Who won won’t matter then. Afterall, it was a mere competition of the mind and the career choice will always rely on each one.
Some institution offers seminars and lectures on making the sound career choice before or after graduation. Unknown to most, planning should start in midddle school or way before.
What would I be after finishing college? Should I need to take a master or a doctorate to achieve the career I want ot have?
What you want to be and to have is a choice. These questions never escaped the minds of the successful career men and women. Individuals who were successful in their career.
Most of these accomplished individuals started on asking friends, seeking advices and suggestions. They researched on the background on the things they want to become and the essential steps of getting in the right track.
Some of us failed to foresee positive result in managing our careers. Most of these factors are the following:
1. Dependence on the existing boss reputation.This may work to your advantage as long as your boss is an asset to the company. However, should he fail you should have a back-up plan.
2. Passive employment. Some employees tend to wait for opportunities to knock, rather them finding the right opportunity.
3. Lack of knowledge and information on what career they would be taking. Every career person has a silent and imaginary SWOT Analysis in their mind. they should be able to see their ideal work, the the essential steps on how to get there.
4. Low self-esteem. Most often, this feeling and composure allow us to miss opportunity. After a failure in the previous employment, we feel sorry for ourselves. This should not be the case. We should be focusing on what we have to learn from it and make resolution on how to improve ourselves for the better.
Any career encounters – fortunate or not, one must push forward. That’s the only way you can achieve the career growth you want to have. Consider yourself a “Trainee”. With this mindset, you become an absorbent of learning, always ready to invest on training that can hone your skills to achieve the improvement you want to have in your career. And, as an old adage reminds us: Correct practice, correct practice, correct practice. That is the only way you can master your craft. Remember, “Life is what we made it”.
If we want our life to be successful someday then we must have to make it right now. This call to action can be accomplished by enhancing our knowledge by reading; attend seminars related to our careers, workshops and anything that has to do with our career.
Any career management counsellor would say: “If you are constantly learning, your career is in progress.”
Posts Tagged ‘Basics’
Career Management 101: Basics of Career Growth
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010Elementary School Career Education – The Need, Basics, Examples, and Guidelines
Thursday, October 21st, 2010According Ediger (2000), elementary school career education is important. Ediger stated that “the elementary school years are not too early to begin to achieve a vision of what one desires to do in life contributing to the world of work”. Without career education, students have unrealistic perceptions of careers due to a lack of knowledge and poor decision making. Students have limited knowledge and exposure to careers. (2,3) When students look at the different industries e.g. sports, media and entertainment, most students underestimate the skills and time required to have successful careers. (3)
The Basics for Elementary School Career Education Programs
In career awareness programs, students do not make premature career choices. Elementary school career education is not career exploration or career preparation. Elementary students remain open to new career ideas and possibilities. (7,8,13,15) Elementary students build awareness of self, personal interactions, school, and the workforce. (2,15) Elementary school counselors and teachers build self-awareness, family awareness, school awareness, community awareness, career/ work awareness, attitude development, skill development, decision making strategies, and self-worth. (2,4,11)
Career awareness programs use age appropriate materials that match the developmental levels of the students. Age appropriate activities expose students to a variety of different jobs, career information sources, and the reasons why people work. Programs also incorporate academic career pathways into classroom activities. According to CareerTec (2000), the preliminary career education skills serve as foundations for future skills. As the students progress, previous skills are reinforced, developed, and expanded. (2,4,11)
As elementary students get older, the students modify career visions and goals. After completing an elementary school career awareness program, students have higher grades, higher academic achievement, improved school involvement, as well as an increase in career awareness exploration, personal, and interpersonal skills. (1,15) In addition, the students complete more complex courses and have a higher graduation rate from high school. (9)
In summary, in career programs, students:
Learn and apply the academic material
Know and value self
Build self-esteem and confidence
Identify interests and build relationships between the school environment and the work force
Build academic, communication, problem solving, and social skills
Increase awareness of the need for future jobs skills
See the connections between learning in school, academic skills, job related skills, and careers
See career possibilities
See themselves as a future contributor to the job force
Receive empowerment
Build self-determination (2,7,9)
Examples of Elementary School Career Education Resources
Career awareness programs widely use tools are the Individual Career Plan (ICP) and the Individual Career Develop Portfolio. According to the Ohio State Department of Education (2000), Individual Career Plans (ICP) are essential for the development of self-awareness, employability skills, decision making and goal setting, community involvement, economics, and the reduction of bias. Students use the Individual Career Plans as they identify and explore initial career goals and educational plans. Elementary students use Individual Career Plan (ICP) to develop skills and to prepare to make future educational and career decisions. (12)
Another important tool is the Individual Career Develop Portfolio. Individual Career Develop Portfolios are collections of the career awareness activities and experiences that have occurred during the school year. (12) Other elementary school career awareness activities include:
Artistic displays
Career Days
Career Fairs
Career research
Career videos
Collages, murals
Community speakers
Educational games
Family group discussions
Field trips
Information interviewing
Job shadowing
Library book report
Mentors
Poetry
Phonics
Pictured dictionary
Puppets
Role playing
Scrapbook
Story reading
Student group discussions
Word search and comprehension activities (8,9,11,12,16)
Elementary school programs help students build connections between academics and real life situations. (9) Teachers and counselors use career education principles to stress the importance of language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. Language arts have many uses in the workplace: Reading, writing, and listening skills. The uses for Mathematics include: Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills to solve problems. In Social Studies, students gain understanding about other countries, languages, cultures, and the aspects of living in a global marketplace. Students learn the importance of Science having skills to solve problems as well as understanding how science is involved in different industries, such as food, media, agricultural, and automotive industries. (8)
Guidelines for Elementary Education Career Resources – National Career Development Guidelines
The NCDG Guidelines is a career knowledge, skills, and decision-making framework. The NCDG framework has three domains, goals, and indicators. Teachers and counselors use the domains, goals, and indicators as guidelines to design and create career resources. The three domains are: Personal Social Development (PS), Educational Achievement and Lifelong Learning (ED), and Career Management (CM). Each domain represents a developmental area in a career education program. Under each domain are goals or competencies. Under each goal, indicators highlight the knowledge and skills needed to achieve the goal. The National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG) is the foundation for career education products, research development, tests and tools. (14)
Summary
Elementary school career education programs build self-awareness, family awareness, school awareness, community awareness, career/ work awareness, attitude development, skill development, decision making strategies, and self-worth. Elementary school career awareness programs use age appropriate materials that match the developmental levels of the students. As a results of career education, schools reported that students had higher grades and academic achievement, improvement in school involvement and performance, as well as an increase in career awareness exploration, personal, and interpersonal skills. Career awareness activities include Individual Career Plan (ICP), Individual Career Develop Portfolio (ICDP), Career Days, Career Fairs, Field trips, information interviewing, and library book report.
References
1. American Counseling Association, Office of Public Policy and Legislation. (2007). Effectiveness of School Counseling. Alexandria, VA: Author.
2. Angel, N. Faye; Mooney, Marianne. (1996, December). Work-in-Progress: Career and Work Education for Elementary Students. (ED404516). Cincinnati, OH: Paper presented at the American Vocational Association Convention.
3. Benning, Cathleen; Bergt, Richard; Sausaman, Pamela. (2003, May). Improving Student Awareness of Careers through a Variety of Strategies. Thesis: Action Research Project. (ED481018). Chicago, Illinois: Saint Xavier University.
4. Career Tec. (2000). K-12 Career Awareness & Development Sequence [with Appendices, Executive and Implementation Guide]. (ED450219) .Springfield, Il: Author.
5. Carey, John. (2003, January). What are the Expected Benefits Associated with Implementing a Comprehensive Guidance Program. School counseling Research Brief 1.1. Amherst, MA: Fredrickson Center for School Counseling Outcome Research.
6. Dare, Donna E.; Maddy-Bernstein, Carolyn. (1999, September). Career Guidance Resource Guide for Elementary and Middle/Junior High School Educators. (ED434216). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education.
7. DuVall, Patricia. (1995).Let’s Get Serious about Career Education for Elementary Students. AACE Bonus Briefs. (ED386603). Hermosa Beach, CA: AACE Bonus Briefs.
8. Ediger, Marlow. (2000, July). Vocational Education in the Elementary School. (ED442979) Opinion Papers
9. Gerver, Miriam, Shanley, Judy, O Cummings, Mindee. (2/14/02). Answering the Question EMSTAC Extra Elementary and Middle Schools. Washington, DC: Technical Assistance Center, (EMSTAC).
10. Hurley, Dan, Ed.; Thorp, Jim, Ed. (2002, May). Decisions without Direction: Career Guidance and Decision-Making among American Youth. (ED465895). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Ferris State University Career Institute for Education and Workforce Development.
11. Maddy-Bernstein, Carolyn; Dare, Donna E. (1997,December).Career Guidance for Elementary and Middle School Students. Office of Student Services Brief, v9 n1. (ED415353). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education.
12. Ohio Department of Education, Division of Vocational and Career Education, Ohio Career Development Blueprint, Individual Career Plan, K to 5 (ED449322). Columbus, Ohio, 2000
13. Splete, Howard; Stewart, Amy. (1990). Competency-Based Career Development Strategies and the National Career Development Guidelines. Information Series No. 345. (ED327739). Columbus, Ohio: ERIC Clearinghouse on Education and Training for Employment & Ohio State University
14. U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education. (1994, 2004). National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG). Washington, DC: Author.
15. Williams, Jean A., Ed. (1999, January). Elementary Career Awareness Guide: A Resource for Elementary School Counselors and Teachers. (ED445293). Raleigh, NC: NC Department of Public Instruction, NC Job Ready.
16. Woal, S. Theodore. (1995). Career Education–The Early Years. AACE Bonus Briefs. (ED386603). Hermosa Beach, CA: AACE Bonus Briefs.
Home Improvement Loan Basics
Monday, July 26th, 2010Most people think about home improvement as all the little things you can fix or do around your house to make it more livable. But home improvement projects don’t have to be limited to small budgets or simply involve a few minutes of work on the weekend.
Many home improvement projects require some sort of financial loan because they are large scale projects that require payment on materials or labor all at once in order to get the project started. These larger home improvement projects require some sort of bank or lender issued home improvement money.
Larger home improvement projects that require financing could including adding an addition to your home, remodeling your home to add more space, upgrading the appointments in a kitchen or bathroom, installing a new furnace or cooling system, replacing a roof or installing siding or simply putting in a new swimming pool.
There are two general types of home improvement loans. There are unsecured home improvement loans and a secured home improvement loans. Within those two types there are many different loan vehicles and products which can give you extra money, though each has it’s own good points and potential drawbacks. The differences among the loan vehicles are many, but let’s focus on the two types of home improvement loans that are generally available:
Unsecured home improvement financing: An unsecured loan of any type involves you borrowing money without putting anything up for collateral. That means that if you can’t pay the loan then there is technically nothing the bank can immediately take away from you. Unsecured loans are granted based on many factors, but a steady income and good credit score definitely help. Home improvement credit cards are technically unsecured loans that are meant to be used for home improvement projects. Unsecured loans are meant to be paid back over a short period of time and will almost always have a higher interest rate.
Secured home improvement financing: A secured loan of any type is a loan which involves you offering something to the bank in exchange for the money. If you get a home improvement loan based on the equity in your home, then you are really trading part of the ownership in your house to the lending institution. As you repay the loan you are buying back your house. Secured home improvement loans usually involve larger amounts of money but do have a lower interest rate and offer a longer time to pay it off.
Even if you have bad credit or very little equity in your home you can still sometimes take out a small home improvement loan without much trouble. Borrowing money to improve the home you own is often seen as a much safer option for many banks than borrowing money to purchase a new home entirely.