If you have ever heard the term ”TMI”, you will know what I mean when you begin a career exploration process. Boy, who thought of all these websites!! Sometimes too much information can be as bad as too little information.
The Departments of Education and Labor have joined up to create a new website: www.opportunity.gov offering “New Educational Opportunties for Unemployed Workers.” One of the webpages is “Department of Labor Tools” which centralizes some great resources for us to access. Check it out and see what you think.
President Obama has asked every American “to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training.” That really is a great challenge because we know that increased knowledge and skills result in increased employment opportunities. The worker-skill gap has to be reduced for our workforce to meet the needs of business and industry.
We continue to preach the value of Life-Long Learning to career and workforce professionals. As you pursue your own professional development, you can better encourage those you serve to meet this challenge.
This article is intersting to me as I work daily with a diverse population and have many students in my caseload that are intersted in academic self improvement for financial independence. Numerous people have obtained specialized training, only to change their minds later and go in a different direction entirely. I’m happy that my clients are interested in improving themselves, but I also am frustrated that they seem to not understand labor market info., and that the jobs requiring advanced education in our local area, are not hiring do to the economics. I wish I could make certain clients see that after obtaining their expensive education, where do they think they are going to work?! These are the communication skills I need to work on: How to persuade someone that their most recent career goal may not be an entirely great decision, unless they are willing to move.
To JodyJobe:
I completely understand your frustration! I work in a college career center, and many times students seem completely oblivious to the job market! It seems as though they expect to come to our office, and leave with a job “in hand”. I guess they think the job market statistics do not apply to college students and career centers.
I was impressed with the extensive information on the opportunity.gov site. I’ve recently been approached to submit occupational research data for Onet, which was on the site. Has anyone had experience with submitting data for otehr Onet projects? Last year I completed a DOL project request, which lasted two years, so if anyone has information on how much time and resources are usually required, I’d appreciate it.
http://www.opportunity.gov/ seems to be excellent resource for those who have the help to apply for federal grant monies. I’ll be using that! Ms. Jobe, your first comment struck me as more important, however - here goes. I was sitting in a career training course a few months ago, and I observed that many of my cohorts were sharing information about the different websites they use to assist clients/students with work. While I was interested in what they had to share, I noticed that some had commented that they hand their clients a list of work websites and information to help them. I like to call this “unconscious dismissal” of the client. In other words, we sometimes don’t know how to help, so we bombard them with too much information, which in turn overwhelms the client. It has been my experience that you should give the client no more information than you can handle, and no more information than their reading level can handle- often overlooked! Give the client a reading exam prior to distributing info to them, if you feel they have limited education. If uncertain,you just have asking a few simple questions - Did you graduate high school? Were you born in a foreign country? How many hours a week do you read for pleasure (2-4 more is good). Futhermore, we often get frustrated about our clients inability to understand the job market. Well, as I reflect on this I often think how I don’t either! You see, I read labor market stats and understand fundamental macro/micro economics and still see mixed messages. Remember “Green Jobs?”
I tel myself that I should be more concerned with local labor market for those who are not willing to travel to work. Have you asked them if they are willing to travel? Have you checked to see what new companies are building what, where? That’s the real market. Stats just help.