Student Services Monthly Email Items

These are some items from my monthly email to Oklahoma CareerTech Student Services Contacts.  I hope you find some useful information in it!

OKCRC Annual Conference

The OKCRC Annual Conference will be November 6 at Moore Norman South Penn Campus.  The conference will begin at 8:30 am with sign-in, coffee and conversation.  The big change this year is lunch will be on your own.  A map with restaurants in the area will be supplied at the conference.  There is no cost to attend the OKCRC Annual Conference--register today. Click here to register

Oklahoma Labor Market Information

Want to see the top 30 fastest growing jobs in Oklahoma or the declining jobs in Oklahoma?  Go to the Oklahoma Employment Securities Commission website at:

http://www.ok.gov/oesc_web/Services/Find_Labor_Market_Statistics/Projections/trends2018.html

OSCA Fall Conference

Oklahoma School Counselor Association (OSCA) conference will be Friday, November 14 at Northeastern State University Campus in Broken Arrow. If you are interesting in attending and to register go to http://okschoolcounselor.org/  for more details.  The keynote will be delivered by Dr. Carey Dimmitt and the address will be “What Works in School Counseling” and in the afternoon there will be concurrent sessions from which to choose. 

Resources

Our Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center (CIMC) does a newsletter update twice a year.  Go to: https://www.okcareertech.org/educators/cimc/about-cimc/news/cimc-update  and read their short updates.  You can find out about new products, what they are working on and recipes!  Here are two recently updated products (revised 2014) you may be interested in.

Basic Strategies: Meeting Everyone’s Needs

CS1110 

“Diversity is the one true thing that we all have in common. Celebrate it every day.” This anonymous quote expresses the purpose of the book Basic Strategies: Meeting Everyone’s Needs—to help parents, teachers, counselors, and students meet the needs of the ever-increasing diversities they will encounter in today’s world. The book includes sections dealing with diversity and disabilities. It also discusses gender equity, harassment, and bullying

                                     

Career Exploration Guide   CS3205

Students in grades 6-8 connect what they are learning in the classroom to the world of work. An interest inventory and student activities help students to see the importance of preparing for a career.  

Inforgraphic

This pdf document is an infographic on Professionalism in the Workplace.  Even though the heading says: Preparing College Graduates for the Workplace, the information is good for any student striving to be in the workforce. 

Source: York College of Pennsylvania. Center for Professional Excellence

 Click here to download a copy of the
Professionalism in the Workplace infographic.

Red Ribbon Week

October is always a busy month for student services personnel. Well REALLY... what month isn't busy?

Fall break interrupts the flow of our work, but gives us a moment to refresh and catch our breathe!
The fall Oklahoma mornings are divine, as the sunlight shines on the red leaves atop the trees. I seem to find comfort in small things, like the hot chocolate I stopped for on the way to work today. Those small things, are not so small when the job is busy and demanding.

Students with attendance and grade deficiencies are starting to pop up and we are striving to proactively help those students achieve. We see where their choices and influences could be leading them and often it's scary!

Red Ribbon week comes at the end of busy October, the 23rd-31st.  If I'm being honest, there were plenty of times, as a school counselor, I really wanted to skip the whole thing... I had too much to do! However, as we are starting to see those students who are struggling, there are also students who will never show us any warning signs. Red Ribbon week is a great time to openly communicate, educate students, discuss how drugs and alcohol affect them and highlight resources within your community who can help.

The national theme this year is "Love Yourself -Be Drug Free!" I really like how this theme lends
itself to the conversations of self-care, time-management, positive self-talk and future career/academic plans. The Red Ribbon Campaign has also given students and schools other incentives to celebrate and possibly win $1,000 and ipad.

Head over to Red Ribbon Blog for more details and ideas for your schools Red Ribbon Week Opportunities. 

Then make sure you find a small thing for positive comfort and refreshment in. I have a massage after work today... perhaps that's a big small thing?!

What's in a name??

The Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA): long name, overwhelming support, potentially amazing results for the American workforce.

In  July 2014, President Obama signed into law a long overdue update to the federal job-training program known as the Workforce Investment Act of 1988. The new WIOA is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy. 

 

Why is it important? 

 

Helping more Americans become attached to the workforce; this Act looks to bridge the skills gap we keep hearing about in America. It can provide funding to Oklahomans who are in post-secondary training in a program that leads to industry recognized credentials. It will help job seekers and workers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and match employers with skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy.

 

 At risk youth, for the past 15 years,  have depended on funds from the Workforce Investment Act Youth program to assist them with developing job skills, providing career guidance and funding for school. The new WIOA provides additional funding for youth who are out of school, determining their next steps. 

 

The new WIOA promotes the use of career pathways and sector partnerships to increase employment for in-demand industries and occupations. States will now be required to map out how they will provide training, employment services, adult education and vocational rehabilitation through a coordinated, comprehensive system. 

 

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act streamlines and modernizes the maze that was federal job-training programs so that workers can access the right training, immediately. 

 

In short, this will ensure better career services to job seekers and federal funding for training will lead to a better, workforce in our country.   

 

For access to these funds and services, youth between the ages of 14-21, as well as adults who need training, can contact their local Workforce Office to determine eligibility.  

 

Please click here for a full information on new Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

 

 

 

 

 

Career Advisor - a little something for every counselor

Each month we send a newsletter to school counselors in Oklahoma containing information relevant to not only to them but to school counselors everywhere. Here is the link to our webpage where the current edition, as well as archived editions, is located. We hope you find the information it contains useful and even find something that makes you smile! Happy reading…

 

http://www.okcareertech.org/educators/career-and-academic-connections/bulletin-board/career-advisor-newsletter

What Place Does Career Development Have in Your School?

Today's students are entering a highly competitive global workforce. Nearly 90% of the fastest growing jobs in the US require education beyond high school. Almost all jobs in the future will need some form of certification or post-secondary degree. Are your students going to be college and career ready? Are they learning enough about themselves and how to make informed career decisions? Do they have personal career plans and access to career information?   

The Oklahoma Career Information System (OKCIS) is an Internet based career information delivery system customized for Oklahoma that combines a wealth of career, education and labor market information into one comprehensive, easy-to-use career exploration, career planning and job search tool. Have you introduced the Oklahoma Career Information System to your students?

OKCIS TRAINING Oct. 3 – Stillwater, Oklahoma
CareerTech, 1500 W.7th Avenue

Whether you have never used OKCIS or if you just not familiar with the new features and updates in OKCIS this Fall, we are providing an opportunity for you to learn more about providing the best career information to your students. On October 3 in Stillwater, we will host two OKCIS training seminars. From 9 am-12 noon we will cover new features, updates and a general overview of the basic and Junior OKCIS programs. In the afternoon from 1:30-3:30 pm we will look at the completely redesigned OKCIS Administrative tools.  Come for the morning on basics and updates or the afternoon session for a demonstration of the redesigned Administrative tools, or come for the whole day. Just sign up online and let us know you are coming. Click this link to register online today.

Your Perspective Matters!

We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.
Food for thought...  

We look at situations and events with a personal perspective, and we interpret what other people say and do, according to our own set of past experiences.  Our culture, faith, and values help us to form our beliefs about ourselves, about others, and about the world in general.  Our interpretations of our societal environment (whether looking at it from the academic, workforce, or leisure perspective) is framed with meaning.  The meaning we give events, the way we make sense of our world, is based upon our personal set of core beliefs.

The Core beliefs system typically comprises three frames of reference:

• How I think about myself
• How I think about others
• How I think about the world

So…our minds are constantly trying to make sense of the world by forming judgments and opinions regarding every situation and interaction we encounter in our daily lives.  Those judgments and opinions will be affected by our core belief system. 

The core belief system may be influenced by:

• Past experiences
• Childhood upbringing
• Societal station in life
• Culture
• Faith
• Values
• Societal norms
• Current circumstances
• Character traits, including genetic influences

Through the expansion of our individual awareness regarding academic, workforce, or leisure perspectives, we will benefit via new ideas and resolutions to current challenges and proposed opportunities, whether in the present or to be encountered in the future.  By not seeking different perspectives to promote new ideas, we limit potential opportunities.  Offering and accepting opportunities to ask questions and reflect on shared ideas expands the boundaries of an individual’s reality and by extension, can promote feelings of encouragement and inclusive validation.

Sometimes it is a matter of simply taking another look at something to find POSITIVE BEAUTY.

Counselors are more important than ever!

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, U.S. Department of Education recently penned a letter about school counselors and the importance of school counseling.

Check out this letter at:

http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/secletter/140630.html

 

Some quotes from that letter are:
“I want to call attention to the urgent need for highly effective school counselors and discuss the importance of amplifying the impact of school counselors on students’ academic success, social-emotional well-being, and college and career readiness.”

 

“School counselors are pivotal in helping students manage their academic programs as well as the inevitable life events that may threaten students’ ability to succeed in school.  Yet, as the Civil Rights Data Collection recently found, one in five American high schools operates without any school counselors on staff.”

 

“Schools that do employ counselors may not use them to full advantage.  Despite the critical role school counselors play in supporting students’ college and career readiness, they often are asked to perform many “non-counseling” duties that can distract from their core work and ultimately leave students without the individualized attention they need to complete their academic course work, successfully navigate the college admissions and financial aid processes, and/or prepare for productive careers.”

 

I believe counselors are more important than ever.  In my experiences with business and industry, I have heard them also talk about the importance of career counseling and career development, more so than previously.  Yet we still see when resources are in trouble, counselors are often first on the chopping block.  Duncan made some fine points in his letter-now if we can only see those points be put into practice.