Career Exploration
K-12 career exploration starts with Char-Em ISD!
In elementary and middle school, a number of fun and interactive activities and events help connect young children with future career ideas. Events like career speakers, career days, visits from Char-Em Street STEM mobile trailer, and career vehicle days, when students can get up close to vehicles that are unique to certain careers like police, fire and ambulance, are a few examples. Fun summer camps further connect interests with careers. These activities provide insight into various jobs as well as the personal interests and strengths needed for that career.
In high school, emphasis is placed on further understanding career pathways, exploring employment opportunities and future trends, and engaging in activities that are individualized on the basis of a learner’s interests, aptitudes, and preferences. Students can explore all of the Career Tech programs offered in 11 districts. Students from any Char-Em ISD district can enroll in any high school program, in any district!
For most people, the career exploration process continues throughout a person’s educational and work life. Visit the Career Staircase interactive tool to discover K-12 career and college readiness activities in Char-Em ISD!
Education Development Plans
An Education Development Plan (EDP) is a personal document in which a student identifies career goals, lists interests and skills in line with meeting those goals, and records the experiences, education, and accomplishments he or she wants to pursue to successfully attain them. The purpose of the EDP is to provide every student with an ongoing and periodically updated record of career planning that will serve as a guide for entering a career of choice. Students in Michigan are required to develop an EDP in the seventh grade.
Career Pathways
Career Pathways are one of the most efficient ways to help students sort through thousands of different occupations. These are six broad groupings of careers that share similar characteristics and whose employment requirements call for many common interests, strengths, and abilities. Michigan’s six pathways encompass the entire spectrum of career options, providing opportunities for all students and all ability levels. They include:
- Arts and Communications
- Business, Management, Marketing, and Technology
- Engineering/Manufacturing and Industrial Technology
- Health Sciences
- Human Services
- Natural Resources and Agriscience
Career Tech Effect
Among the many ways Char-Em shares information about CTE is a new podcast, the Career Tech Effect! Hosted on Char-Em ISD’s Leaders in Education podcast channel, the Career Tech Effect features students, educators, professionals, business leaders and others sharing about how career tech has made an impact in their lives. Listen in now to the Career Tech Effect!
Xello
Xello is an on line career guidance and planning system that has been designed with one goal in mind: to help students plan their future. Â Visit Xello
Career/College Options
Graduating from high school is a big step. After all, students spend 13 years in school from kindergarten to 12th grade. Their days had been structured and devoted to learning, and now, they need to figure out what to do after high school and how to thrive on their own, without that structure. There are plenty of after high school options within your reach. Here are some options:
- 2 yr CollegeÂ
- 4 yr College/University
- Trade or Vocational Technology Schools
- Military
- Workforce
- Apprenticeship
- Entreprenuership