NEWS RELEASE
November 2008
New Video Highlights Career Choices;
Asks Students, "What's Your Plan?"
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beat music, bold colors and amusing teenage hosts invite Missouri students to explore the world of careers in a new video being distributed this month to schools and libraries statewide. “What’s Your Plan?” is a production of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“We want to get students excited about planning their futures,” said Dr. Bragg Stanley, director of Guidance and Placement at DESE. “We hope the presentations in the video have students thinking: ‘Wow! I never thought of doing that before!’ We hope students build on that enthusiasm with further career exploration and planning.”
The video organizes students’ career options with the national Career Clusters framework. This framework encompasses virtually all occupations from entry through professional levels and divides careers into 16 distinct categories or Career Clusters. Each cluster represents a range of careers that require similar knowledge and skills.
The Career Clusters framework is a useful tool for students, according to Janet Reppert, a regional Career Education Coordinator for the state of Missouri.
“Imagining yourself in a particular career, whether that involves game programming or law enforcement, is a powerful step in planning for the future,” Reppert said. “Having that vision in place can move students to investigate what they need to learn and do for a given career, and then they can move forward with their plans.
“This video can show students the broad range of careers open to them and, we hope, spark their imagination to envision a future in an exciting career. I look forward to using this video with both high school and middle school students,” she said.
Many school counselors encourage students to choose a Career Cluster of interest before or during high school to shape their plans for coursework and to set them up for the smoothest possible transition to the workforce or higher education. Stanley stresses that the framework is flexible enough for students to change their minds.
“Choosing a Career Cluster is about selecting an area for deeper exploration,” he said. “It’s not about locking a teenager into a life-long career plan.”
The video can be watched in its entirety or in self-selected segments, which are about three minutes each. Teenage hosts guide students through the clusters and provide an overview of the range of occupations included in each one. Each cluster presentation also features a professional who offers his or her reasons for choosing the given career area, as well as a discussion of the rewards it offers and the basic skills needed.
“The nice thing about this video,” Reppert said, “is the lively pace that keeps students’ attention. Once the students have found careers that pique their interest in the video, they can visit the Missouri Connections Web site and explore careers and educational options, then chart out a plan for the future.”
DESE is making the DVD-format video accessible to students through public and school libraries, middle school and high school counselor offices, and educators involved with career and technical education. Students and parents also may access the video in a Web-streamed format at the Missouri Connections site, www.missouriconnections.org, where many complimentary resources are available. Schools are receiving the new video this week and public libraries will have it on their shelves in December.
MissouriConnections.org
The “What's Your Plan?" video is just one example of the career exploration features offered on the Missouri Connections site, which was revamped this fall.
Students (grades 7-16), parents, educators and job seekers can all find sections devoted to their needs on the DESE-sponsored site. Topics on the main menu bar include career exploration, education and career planning, college exploration, paying for college, a career search and more.
Students and parents can contact their school counselors for more information about using www.MissouriConnections.org.