Target Audience: Work-based learning coordinators, employment specialists, vocational rehabilitation counselors, cooperative education coordinators, school counselors and others involved in supporting student career development, including general education teachers, career and technical educators and teacher advisors.

This course provides the theory and tools needed to engage students in their own career development while helping them find meaning and relevance in their high school experience. Participants will explore the necessary steps to walk students through career planning, as well as design practical applications and new career planning ideas to help students discover a path that aligns with their interests and motivations.

In this course, participants will understand the primary theories of career development and how they inform the available tools and resources; explore aspects of student self-assessment, including interests, abilities, values, and personality; examine tools for self-awareness and career exploration to utilize with students; gain strategies to support sparking student interests; discover current resources to research career paths; understand decision-making strategies applicable to career choice; and learn how to help students establish realistic goals, create a career plan, and find experiential opportunities.

Participants will complete this course with an individualized curriculum or program to implement with their students.