Career Planning and College Major Exploration
We assist teachers, counselors, parents, adults, students, and teens to -:
·
Assess Holland Codes, Vocational Interests, Motivational Gifts, Behavior Styles, and Learning Styles
·Identify Career and Educational Goals
·Perform Career Research
We teach that there are three phases within the career planning and exploration process.
Phase 1 - Awareness, Knowledge, and Assessment
·Adults and teens complete one or more of the following assessments -
·Career Assessments
As a result of self-assessments, adults and teens identify the most widely chosen -
·Holland Code(s)
·Learning style(s)
·Motivational gift(s)
·Vocational interests, abilities, skills, and values or
·DISC personality styles
Phase 2 - Exploration, Problem Solving, and Goal Setting
·Adults and teens perform career research
·Adults and teens identify potential careers
·Adults and teens begin narrowing career options by -
·Identifying career interest
·Identifying the desired salary path
·Identifying the working conditions desired
·Identifying possible educational courses required
Phase 3 - Career Planning
·Adults and teens perform research to identify educational courses
·Determining major courses required
·Determining type and size of college or university desired
·Determining college or university location
·Determining financial requirements
·Adults and teens put what they know into action
·Performing information interview
·Performing career shadowing
·Performing internship / apprenticeship
Learning Styles
At Learning for Life, we also teach that as parents should identify our children's learning styles. Learning styles can help us to establish effective learning environments and to encourage learning - readiness. A learning style is everything that controls how we take in, concentrate on, understand, process, store, remember, and use new information. A learning style is one's natural learning strengths, individual gifts, and bents. A child's learning style develops from different factors and represents the most natural style of learning. There are different learning styles, for example -
·Analytic and global
·Auditory, visual, tactual, and kinesthetic
·Concrete, abstract, sequential, and random.
DISC Personality System
Thirdly, as individuals, we are unique in the way we interact, communicate, respond, and behave. Yet, there are observed patterns of behaviors called personality or behavior styles. The DISC Personality System tells about our temperaments, strengths, weaknesses, and motivations. In addition, understanding behaviors styles will also help us to understand the behaviors, motivations, and communication styles of others. This results in less conflicts while producing better teamwork and cooperation. The DISC was an acronym for -
·D - Dominant/ Driver
·I - Influencing/ Inspiring
·S - Stable/ Steady
·C - Compliant Correct
Each behavior type has its own characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, fears, and contributions to the team, organization, or family.
I hope that this information was helpful. If you have addition questions, contact me again.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mary Askew has a Doctor of Ministry degree in Career Development. Dr. Askew has been a workshop speaker at the Arizona Families for Home Education Curriculum Fair, Association of Christian Schools International Convention, and Arizona Charter School Association Conference. She has completed Exploring Careers and College Majors Workshops for homeschool families in Tucson, Mesa, Prescott, Phoenix, and New River. In the Fall of 2002, Dr. Askew was also a Career Services Consultant for Grand Canyon University.
