Promoting Career Awareness and Exploration in Middle School

1. Promoting Career Awareness and Exploration in Middle School DataTools Summer Workshop, July 2006

2. Globalization The net change resulting from an increase in movement of humans, money, resources, and power throughout the global economy

3. The World is Flat Main messages • advances in technology and society around the world have “leveled” the playing field of economic competition • rapid change and emerging abilities mean that major changes are inevitable

4. Friedman’s Assertion: The United State’s position as the world’s economic and intellectual superpower is being challenged… We can either find new ways to work within the new global environment that will allow us to maintain our place, or succumb to those who will.

5. Rising Above The Gathering Storm—National Academy of Science Our nation’s economic “…vitality is derived in large part from the productivity of well-trained people and the steady stream of scientific and technical innovations they produce.”

6. Rising Above The Gathering Storm:Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future “A substantial portion of our workforce finds itself in direct competition for jobs with lower-wage workers…who live just a mouse-click away...”

7. The DataTools project is funded by U.S. dependence on imported IT workers • Companies who bring foreign workers to the United States pay a fee for their visas (H1-B visas) • Part of these fees go to fund programs (such as ITEST) that intend to encourage more American students to consider and enter technological careers

8. Supply of IT Workers A couple analogies describe the issue of not having enough workers trained in STEM disciplines arriving in today’s workplace: The “pipeline” Students go in, scientists, mathematicians, and engineers come out. The “career highway” Students are viewed as cars on a highway. Many lanes with on and off ramps (plus rotaries for changing directions) are available. Some know exactly where they are going, but many are on sightseeing trips…

9. Current status Interviews with 6th and 9th graders in 2000 show that most have only a shallow understanding of how school relates to work. Students showed limited awareness of the knowledge and skills needed for work and little sense of how to develop them.

10. Developing Career Awareness In elementary school, children are just becoming aware of the world of work and careers. Children go to school; adults go to work.

11. Developing Career Awareness • In middle school, students begin to discover their own skills, interests, and values. • Career exploration activities can help them match these early interests with potential careers.

12. What can middle school teachers do? Give students opportunities to assess their own interests and abilities and to become aware of and explore different occupations.

13. What can middle school teachers do? Provide students with plenty of experiences in which they use technology to evaluate situations and craft solutions.

14. Essential IT Skills for Middle School Students • Advanced Keyboarding Skills • Internet search strategies • Correct Usage of Common Applications • Ability to integrate several technologies into content-based projects

15. What can middle school teachers do? Encourage students along the academic path(s) that will prepare them for training in their fields of interest.

16. What can middle school teachers do? Utilize cooperative groups and assign technology-based projects. Overtly refer to the development of workforce skills, and include them in project rubrics.

17. What can middle school teachers do? Remind students of the realities of living expenses, taxes, workplace environments, and unexpected financial emergencies.

18. What can middle school teachers do? Encourage students to choose their initial job experiences very carefully…

19. Gaining IT skills ensures great career flexibility Most fields of work now use at least some form of information technology. Therefore, students can study to become a __________ (fill in the blank) who uses technology, or they can prepare themselves with IT skills, then choose from a wide range of fields in which they can specialize.

20. Our goal for DataTools Classrooms As is reasonable, we would like you to purposefully insert comments, discussions, and activities into your course that will raise student awareness of careers—especially their technological aspects—and encourage students to visualize themselves as capable, productive members of our changing society.