Get the most from your education $

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Career changers, Entry-level workers, Students
Student studying

Student studyingApril is Financial Literacy Month—30 days dedicated to improving people’s personal finances.  In honor of those 30 days, Money Management International created a 30-step path to financial wellness.  Whatever the state of your personal finances, getting started with those 30 steps can help bring you to the next level.

In addition to following a general path toward financial health, there are certain life events that require sound financial decisions.  One of the biggest is the decision to pursue higher education—whether that’s a short-term training program, a college degree, or even graduate school.

Education and your financial health

Education can have two big impacts on your financial health:

1) Education pays.  It’s well documented that more education boosts your lifetime earnings. Check out the data below:

Chart showing higher salareis correspond with higher education

2) Education is expensive.  Even if you don’t personally know someone with a large debt due to school or college costs, you’ve probably read plenty about the issue.  According to Bloomberg News, Americans are now collectively $1.3 trillion in student-loan debt.

Both of the above are true:  furthering your education has the potential to boost your earnings AND put you in debt. The education-planning challenge is to get the most benefit for the lowest cost.  So how do you do that?  Get started by researching both career fields and any schools you are considering.

Research your career goals

Before getting started in training or a college program, take the time to see how employable you’ll be with your new skills.  CareerOneStop has lots of free tools to help you understand the job market:

Research schools and programs

Once you have an idea of the career field you want to train in, take the time to research schools and programs:

  • Visit College Scorecard to see the average annual cost for the school you want to attend. You’ll also be able to see students’ typical total debt amounts,  monthly loan payments, and salaries after graduation. Look at all of the information provided on this website to help you figure out if the school would be a good investment for you.
  • Visit with admissions and financial aid staff at your schools of choice. Ask about total costs, graduation rates, loan amounts, and employment of graduates.
  • Check to see if a school or program is accredited by visiting their website or the U.S. Department of Education’s Accreditation Search.
  • Find more tips and information on paying for school.

 

 

 

 

 

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Finish high school for your health

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Career counselors, Parents, Students
National Public Health Week logo

NPHWYou might not think of education as a matter of health, but organizers of National Public Health Week do! They cited helping all Americans achieve at least high school graduation as one of their top nine priorities. They explain that “education is the leading indicator of good health, giving people access to better jobs, incomes and neighborhoods.”

How does a high school education impact health?

The American Public Health Association, sponsors of the week (April 3-9, 2017), detail the health benefits of high school graduation:

  • High school graduates tend to lead longer and healthier lives than their peers who drop out.
  • Graduates generally earn higher incomes, and can afford better health care and housing in safer neighborhoods.
  • They also learn more about healthy lifestyle practices at school.

Barriers to finishing high school

Although the health benefits of finishing high school may be clear, many students struggle with issues that make it difficult to do so:

  • While high school graduation rates reached a record high of 82% in 2013-2014, there were still approximately 750,000 students who dropped out in 2012.
  • Some common reasons students drop out include: bullying, absenteeism, undiagnosed or unmanaged medical conditions or mental health issues, and chronic stress related to social and environmental circumstances.
  • Students may also leave school to provide care for a relative or child, or to start earning a full time income.

CareerOneStop’s website for young adults, GetMyFuture, offers additional considerations and support for students who face these challenges.

Better health and more. The benefits are clear: 

  • Earnings. Graduates typically earn 40% more than someone without a high-school degree.
  • Employability. The chances of being employed rise by 33% when you finish high school.
  • Advancement. A high school degree is required to go to college, and for most good jobs.
  • Satisfaction. Graduates can take pride in their accomplishment and future direction.
  • Being a role model. Graduation is also meaningful to friends, family, and community.

What can students do? 

  • Make sure you know exactly what you still need to meet graduation requirements in your area. Match your transcript to requirements.
  • Work with your school counselor to get registered for the needed classes, and ask about education and career options after you complete your degree.
  • If your school environment is the source of the problem, request a transfer to a high school that’s a better fit for you.
  • Find out if there are alternative or online high school options that allow you to work at your own pace, or that help students transition to community college.
  • As much as possible, focus on completing school rather than working at a job.

Check out GetMyFuture for more tips on using high school as a launching pad to the future.

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Tips for disclosing a disability to your employer

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Uncategorized, Workers with disabilities
Workplace with employee in a wheelchair

Workplace with employee in a wheelchairA conversation with an employer about your disability involves several decisions.

Disclosing a disability requires thought and planning. Many individuals with disabilities feel uncertain about disclosure. Ultimately, the job candidate must decide the time, place, and degree of information to share with others.

Are you required to tell an employer about your disability?

No. Disclosure of a disability is not required. Job candidates should be aware that once disclosure of a disability or an accommodation request is made, employers may ask the employee about the limitations related to the job and are permitted to make medical inquiries.

When is the best time to disclose a disability?

If you have a visible disability, you may want to anticipate the concerns of the employer. Consider taking charge during the first interview to talk about your disability and how you would handle any impact on the job. You may want to describe any accommodation you use, how it helps your performance, or demonstrate how you would perform difficult functions.

Many experts suggest disclosing before a job offer in order to communicate self-confidence and refocus the employer’s attention on your ability to do the job. Some people with non-visible disabilities may choose not to disclose their disability at all.

What should I say?

Share examples of the strategies you use to do your work. For example a candidate with low vision might say: “In my previous work, I was responsible for maintaining our inventory. I created a labeling system with a good color contrast that I could see easily. It turns out that this was a benefit for others as well.”

Let the interviewer know that you would be glad to answer any questions they might have about how you would do your work and the accommodations you use. Being open and direct about your disability will help put the interviewer at ease, which is a critical factor in whether you receive a call for a second interview.

Get more ideas on disclosing a disability from the Job Accommodation Network, or see PACER’s workbook on disability disclosure, written for youth but an excellent resource for all ages.

And find more resources and information to help support your successful employment at CareerOneStop’s Resources for Workers with Disabilities.

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Can I get a moo? Celebrating Ag Day!

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Career changers, Career counselors, Students
Ag Day logo

Ag Day logo

The Agriculture Council of America sponsors National Ag Day March 21, 2017, to celebrate the abundance that the agriculture industry provides to the country.

CareerOneStop is bringing special attention to the careers that support the agriculture industry, and that are responsible for helping to grow and develop the agricultural products we all benefit from every day.

The Agriculture Council hopes that by recognizing Ag Day, Americans will better:

  • Understand how food and fiber products are produced.
  • Value the essential role of agriculture in maintaining a strong economy.
  • Appreciate the role agriculture plays in providing safe, abundant and affordable products.

Why celebrate agriculture? For starters:

  • Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis. But too few people truly understand this contribution. This is particularly the case in our schools, where students may only be exposed to agriculture if they enroll in related vocational training.
  • By building awareness, the Agriculture Council of America is encouraging young people to consider career opportunities in agriculture.
  • Each American farmer feeds more than 144 people … a dramatic increase from 25 people in the 1960s. Quite simply, American agriculture is doing more – and doing it better. As the world population soars, there is an even greater demand for the food and fiber produced in the United States.

Ready to sign on for an Ag career?

CareerOneStop offers detailed information about many different Ag occupations, including these (select your state for local information):

You can also watch videos to learn about even more Ag careers on CareerOneStop. Select the Agriculture and Natural Resources tab and you’ll find a wide range of agriculture-related occupations represented, including:

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Teachers: Try this Pi Day STEM career activity

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Career counselors, Students, Uncategorized
Pi on Blackboard

If you’re a teacher, chances are you’ve found some fun ways to slip math into unexpected spots of your curriculum on Pi Day, otherwise known as 3.14 or March 14.

Pi on BlackboardPi Day also offers a great opportunity to get kids thinking about careers. Lots of students are aware that STEM careers are some of the hottest career options they’ll have after graduation.  And lots can name stem careers such as Engineer, Scientist, or Video Game Designer.  This Pi Day, you can introduce students to a slew of STEM careers they may not have ever heard about.

Get started at the Occupation Profile on CareerOneStop’s GetMyFuture.org. Students will find quick access to career information such as job outlook, average pay, education requirements, and more for more than 800 careers. You can challenge students to use the Profile to research STEM careers, and prompt them by identifying some little known but high-interest options, such as the following:

  • Actuaries: The people who analyze statistical data and make risk calculations for insurance and other purposes—in other words, the people who can predict how long any one person might live.
  • Biochemical Engineers: The scientists who mix biology, chemistry, and engineering to solve problems of life and death—in people, plants, and animals.
  • Biostatisticians: The only people in the world who know what biostatistical theory is—and can apply it to the study of life sciences.
  • Cartographers and Photogrammetrists: The people who collect, analyze, and interpret geographic information using GIS and other mapping systems (some of which they design themselves!)
  • Cytotechnologists: Studiers of cells who detect evidence of cancer and other issues.
  • Environmental Economists: Economic researchers who focus on environmental protection and the natural environment.
  • Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomists: Scientists who make sure that machines, objects, and other facilities, best fit and work for the people who use them.
  • Industrial Ecologists: People who draw from the physical and social sciences to maximize the use of natural resources in the production and use of goods and services.
  • Information Security Analysts: The computer scientists responsible for protecting computer networks and information.
  • Mechatronics Engineers: The people who research, design, develop, or test automation, intelligent systems, smart devices, or industrial systems control.
  • Pathologists: Scientists who  study the nature, cause, and development of diseases—and occasionally perform autopsies.
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Need a summer internship? Forward, March!

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Career counselors, Entry-level workers, Students
Group of interns

Group of internsCollege students, start your engines. If you’re hoping to work in an internship this summer, it’s time to rev up your internship research and application efforts: March is the peak month for internship recruiting and hiring for summer interns in the U.S.

While January and February see a good amount of internship planning and posting, activity ratchets up in March, slows down in April, and then really drops off by May, according to career research published by Burning Glass Technologies in their third annual review of the internship job market.

In addition to timing of recruiting, a key finding of their study is that employers expect interns to arrive with work-ready skills in their subject area, rather than offering students a training experience to gain those skills on the job. Students may need to prepare in their program of study more and earlier than expected— to qualify for internships. This goes for both college and graduate students; about 70% of internships are posted with education requirements at the level of “some college” through bachelor’s degree, while about 30% target graduate students.

The study highlighted the career categories with the highest numbers of internship postings in 2016. They note that the Business Operations category posted the highest number of opportunities, at nearly 59,000. However, they found that while this grab-bag of general skills may be all that’s required for some internships, a number of others require this set of widely-applicable skills in addition to specific subject matter expertise, such as engineering.

The top 10 categories of skill-specific internships nationwide, with their respective number of postings are:

  1. Marketing 35,498
  2. Engineering 33,116
  3. Sales and Business Development 28,227
  4. Media, Communications and Public Relations 28,140
  5. Data Analytics 26,438
  6. Finance 26,257
  7. IT Development 26,227
  8. Arts and Design 20,275
  9. Project and Program Management 20,186
  10. Human Resources 18,783

The study offers also includes details on specific skill sets wanted by employers in each type of internship, for example, within engineering, the most in-demand skills are electrical engineering, computer engineering, Auto CAD, mechanical engineering and project management. You can also find  the top category of internship for every state in the U.S. in a helpful map.

Learn about internship opportunities on CareerOneStop, and more ways to develop hands on experience. Check out our website for young adults, GetMyFuture, for job search and career planning resources, that can help you “find a career that makes you happy every morning you wake up.”

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National Engineer’s Week: Dream Big

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Career changers, Entry-level workers, Parents, Students
engineers working together

It’s National Engineers Week, and that means thousands of students in elementary and high schools across the country are learning about the importance of the field of engineering.  This year’s theme is “Dream Big” and promotes the following idea:

Every project, great or small, starts with a dream. A dream to create and build. Engineers engage their creativity and technical know-how to transform dreams into reality. They are dreamers across the professional spectrum from transportation, to agriculture, to medicine and beyond.

engineers working together

So what does an engineer do?

As National Engineers Week notes, there are all kinds of engineers—they work in transportation, agriculture, medicine, manufacturing, and many other industries. So there’s no one thing that engineers do. But in most fields, engineers:

  • Design, build, or improve engines, machines, or structures
  • Are skilled at math, science, and technology
  • Have a bachelor’s or master’s degree
  • Are paid well
  • Have good job opportunities

Learn more about different kinds of engineers using the Occupation Profile on GetMyFuture.org.  Click on any of the links below to find details about any of these engineers, including what they do on the job, how much they are paid, what kind of education they typically need, and what their job prospects look like:

Founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, National Engineers Week now has a catchy title—EWeek—and is supported by a formal coalition of more than 70 professional associations and more than 50 corporations and government agencies. Read more about National Engineers Week at DiscoverE.

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Explore a career in market research

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Career changers, Career counselors, Job seekers, Students, Uncategorized
business team working

business team workingHave you ever thought you knew what would sell a product better than the people in charge? A career as a market research analyst will put you in touch with consumers to learn what they really think about and want in the products and services they purchase.

What they do

Market researchers ask questions like: How is the target market going to see this product? and Which features are most important to consumers? For example, for a new breakfast cereal, market researchers might determine that parents are most interested in the nutritional qualities, while children will respond to colorful packaging and a free item in the box.

This is a field that uses surveys, polls, observational studies, and data analysis to help determine the potential for selling a product or service, or to create a marketing approach that will appeal to customers. Technology provides impressive immediacy in the market research field; social media can be used to conduct research faster, reach more people, and gather more comprehensive data, with more accuracy, than previously possible.

Market research is conducted at local, regional, national, and even international levels. It’s enormously important to business strategy, as researchers study competitors, customer demographics, consumer habits, and product pricing, and analyze the factors that affect product or service demand.

Virtually every industry uses market research to target its products and services; high-profile industry users include healthcare, manufacturing, construction, natural resources, retail, hospitality, media, finance, higher education, food and beverage, agriculture, entertainment, and more. Sharpening messaging about a product, or shaping a product based on what consumers like, gives this field an almost limitless platform.

Movie makers sometimes select a movie ending based on market research about which ending creates more buzz in the audience. Political candidates want to know the most important messages to emphasize to engage their target constituents. Businesses want to know whether an audience is more likely to buy version A or version B of a new product.

If the combination of creativity, understanding the market, and data analysis hits your sweet spot, this may be a great career fit for you.

Learn more about a career in market research

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Hats off to school counselors

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Career counselors, Parents, Students
National School Counseling Week, Feb 6-10, 2017

Did you know this week is National School Counseling Week?

National School Counseling Week, February 6 to 10, 2017The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) sponsors the week to bring attention to the unique contributions of professional school counselors in schools across the country—as well as to highlight how students benefit from the work that school counselors do. National School Counseling Week celebrates the impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career.

The ASCA notes that school counselors are crucial to students’ long-term success because they:

  • are actively engaged in helping students examine their abilities, strengths, interests and talents;
  • work in a partnership with parents as they encounter the challenges of raising children in today’s world;
  • focus on positive ways to enhance students’ social/personal, educational and career development;
  • and work with teachers and other educators to provide an educational system where students can realize their potential and set healthy, realistic, and optimistic aspirations for themselves.

“School counselors work with all students to remove barriers to learning by addressing students’ academic concerns, career awareness in post-secondary options and personal/social skills,” said Kwok-Sze Wong, Ed.D., ASCA executive director. “Comprehensive school counseling programs help to increase student achievement and provide a much-needed resource for students, parents, teachers, and administrators. School counselors are integral to student success.”

CareerOneStop resources for school counselors:

School counselors can find a variety of resources on CareerOneStop to help them work with students. They can:

  • Visit GetMyFuture.org for CareerOneStop’s collection of online tools and resources to help young people explore careers, learn about education options, and search for jobs. This website just for youth includes an Interest Assessment, Occupation Profile, and Scholarship Finder, among other resources.
  • Check out the Video Library to find hundreds of career videos to share with students interested in exploring their career options (more than 100 of the career videos are newly revised).
  • Find Outreach Materials such as posters and brochures to share with parents and youth.

Thanks, school counselors, for all you do!

 

 

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Career resources for youth: how to get started

Posted on by CareerOneStop Posted in Career counselors, Entry-level workers, Students
GetMyFuture.org website logo

Information overload is one of the biggest downsides of the information age: sometimes it seems like there are so many available resources, data, information, and advice, it can be hard to know where to get started.

GetMyFuture.org website logoCareerOneStop’s GetMyFuture website for young adults is no exception—it provides a wealth of information to help young people explore careers, plan and pursue their education, and launch an effective job search. But both young users and the counselors or others who work with them can have trouble knowing what resources to look at first.

To help, GetMyFuture includes a User Guide. Some people like to dive right into a resource and explore on their own—if that’s you, then by all means dive right in at GetMyFuture.org.  But if you’re a person who likes some guideposts to help you explore, the User Guide is a great place to start. It offers three step-by-step walkthroughs of GetMyFuture resources:

1) Follow steps to find a career that’s right for you:

  • Take an Interest Assessment to find careers that match you best
  • Look up your career matches in the Occupation Profile to learn:
    • how much you might earn
    • how much school you might need
    • what you might do in a day
    • if there are likely to be job openings in your area
  • Set career goals to help you enter and succeed in a career that’s right for you

2) Follow steps to make a training plan:

  • Once you know your career goal, use the Occupation Profile to find out the level of training needed
  • Check out Education to sort out the best training option(s) for your goals
  • Use the Local Training Finder to find schools and programs in your area; visit school websites for application information and training costs
  • Learn about different ways to pay for school
  • Take a look at Is education worth it? to learn more about the trade-offs and pay-offs of furthering your education

3) Follow steps to apply for a job:

  • For an entry-level job, check this first jobs list to see what you think you’d like to do
  • Put together your work documents to be ready to apply
  • Make a personal data record to take when you fill out applications
  • Create a resume
  • Practice how to answer interview questions
  • Try several ways to find job openings to up your chances of getting hired
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