Regarding the Skills Gap:

College administrators are being asked to address the “skills gap” between laid off workers and the new employees needed.  How can colleges develop training programs that will result in jobs for their graduates?

You can read more about this issue via the following links:

1. Go to www. npr.org/blog  and search for “Skills Gap  or NPR: “2 Million   ‘Open Jobs’? Yes, But U.S. Has a Skills Mismatch”
2. Skills for America’s  Future - go to http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/economic-opportunities/skills-for-americas-future
3. http://californiacompetes.org/ is a California Council dealing with the issue of a skills gap. too.

In addition there is an interesting study by the Brookings Institute about the value of a degree (“best return on investment”):

http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/0625_education_greenstone_looney.aspx

WHERE THE JOBS MIGHT BE:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/where.the.jobs.are/index.html?iref=allsearch

On LinkedIn

The business networking site recently combed through millions of user profiles and came up with a list of the top 10 overused terms. These included innovative, dynamic, motivated, extensive experience, results-oriented, proven track record, team player, fast-paced, problem solver, and entrepreneurial.

The professional networking site announced a partnership with Taleo, the country’s largest job applicant tracking system provider, to allow job seekers to auto-fill basic biographical and professional history information from their LinkedIn profile into online job applications. Taleo powers the careers pages of about 5,000 companies, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and United Airlines. Job seekers applying with those companies will soon see that they can use their LinkedIn information to fill out job applications. Applicants already have the option of auto-filling information from the Taleo “Universal Profile” service. Users will still be able to manually fill in their data, or upload their resumes on Taleo-powered sites.

Does anyone reading this blog have a new statistic (survey or study) about  what personality traits make one successful in their jobs?  For the new edition of my career textbook, The Career Fitness Program, I am looking for a recent survey that reinforces studies done over ten years ago.

Here is what is presently in the 9^th edition Chapter 2 related to “Visualize Your Winning Self” : … Read more

I have been busy updating the 10^th edition of my text book and thought I would share with you several print and video references that influence the Trends section  (Chapter 6) of The Career Fitness Program , Exercising Your Options:

1. The Economist (1-6-11) reviewed that fact based book on the Millenials:

Not Quite Adults: Why 20-Somethings Are Choosing  Slower Path to Adulthood, and Why It’s Good for Everyone. By Richard Settersten and Barbara Ray. Bantam; 272 pages; $15.

2. Go to http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66796/joseph-s-nye-jr/the-future-of-american-power for excerpts from Joseph Nye’s (Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor )  new book. … Read more

This month I have been reviewing job searching tools and websites that can benefit my individual career counseling appointments. My students range from 18 to 60 in age.  Some have been attending the community college; some are taking a class and using career services.  This blog will give tips for creatively using the following resources for job search and focus on some unique features:   LinkedIN, Mashable.com, Google alerts and Twitter.  In my next blog, I will explain how I direct my clients to the following websites: … Read more

Many community colleges and universities are enhancing their counseling services for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math majors due to new Federal Grant money becoming available.  The colleges are following the wave of money that went to secondary schoosl during the past 5 years. We think that the increased secondary funding has created more students interested in these fields coming into our colleges now.

Counselors will find the following websites helpful and student friendly.  “Green careers” are incorporated into some of these sites but are not the focus of this list. … Read more

 A new CA Career Café website has been launched.  This is a web-based resource for students, developed by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.  The CA Career Cafe is ready to share with students in counseling sessions and in counseling classes.

This website has a very user friendly visual layout. Many of the materials include links to careers centers at UCLA, UC Berkeley and Stanford.  Here is a brief overview:

Section 1: GET STARTED (http://www.cacareercafe.com/get-started/) to uncover who they are and where they want to be. Self assessments cover  the following areas:

• Identify your strengths, talents and passions.
• Define and match your personality to careers.
• Capitalize on your learning style.
• Focus on your goals.

Section 2:  GET A PATHWAY (http://www.cacareercafe.com/pathways/)  helps students to explore California’s 15 industry sectors.

Section 3:  GET EXPERIENCE (http://www.cacareercafe.com/get-experience/) is to practice and build workplace skills.  If they need to solve problems that get in the way, they can choose GET HELP (http://www.cacareercafe.com/get-help/). 

Section 4:  GET HIRED (http://www.cacareercafe.com/get-hired/) includes specific steps to find a job.

There are also HOT CAREER TIPS (http://www.cacareercafe.com/hot-tips/) to encourage students do little things to make a big difference (There are a total of short120 tips ) and COOL CONNECTIONS (http://www.cacareercafe.com/cool-connections/) to make helpful career contacts.

 I look forward to hearing what you think about this resource!

Community College Career Counselors work with many students who plan to transfer to four year colleges.  Students often select “liberal arts” majors such as English, History, Psychology, Political Science or Sociology and come to career counselors to find out what kind of jobs or careers they might explore related to their majors.  We often refer students to university career center websites.

Since I am in California, I have some favorite University of California and a few other University Career Center sites that I share with students.  Career assessment and exploration tools and the answers to “what can I do with a major in….” can be found at university websites such as the following:

• http://iccweb.ucdavis.edu/ – UC Davis
• career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm UC Berkeley
• http://careers.ucr.edu/careerPlanningCounseling/CareersMajor/Pages/careersMajor.aspx – UC Riverside
• http://www2.ucsc.edu/careers/handouts/majors/economics.html – jobs you can get with an Economics Degree from UC Santa Cruz Career Center
• http://career.ucsd.edu/ UC San Diego
• http://www.career.uci.edu/ - UC Irvine
• http://www.sfsu.edu/~career/ – San Francisco State University
• http://www.fresno.edu/careerservices/students/career_exploration/occupation.asp – Fresno Pacific University is a private college in California with an excellent career center
• www.assist.org – click on “majors” which will show majors and direct links to University of California campuses and California State University campuses.

If you have some favorite University Career Center websites from other states, please share with me.  Here are a few of my favorite university websites from outside of California:

•  http://www.uncw.edu/stuaff/career/majors/index.htm – University of North Carolina at Wilmington
• http://www.pdx.edu/careers/choosing-majors-and-careers -Portland State University, Oregon
• http://careerservices.rutgers.edu/CareerHandouts.shtml – Rutgers University, New Jersey

This blog is for career coaches and counselors and anyone who wants to know more about what Career Counselors do in Community Colleges.  In previous blogs I have mentioned that Career Counselors have individual one hour appointments with current students or college alumni but we also teach career classes.  Career Classes are usually one hour (or unit) to three hours per week for one semester.  One unit classes are either about Understanding Yourself and Assessing Yourself or about The World of Work and Job Search Strategy.  A three unit class would cover all those topics.  If you go to different college’s career centers you will find how they promote workshops, classes, and individual appointments.

The following websites are good examples :

• http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/careerinfo/announcements.htm at Employment Center
• http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/cdw/career.aspx?id=1882- from Career Development services
• http://www.miracosta.edu/instruction/careerservices/index.html
• http://lacitycollege.edu/services/career/index.html
• http://www.sbcc.edu/careercenter/ChooseAMajor.php
• http://www.mcc.edu/9_casd/casd_career-res-cntr.shtml

Many of the college websites direct students to do research and one of the popular websites is Wetfeet.com.  In re-visiting Wetfeet, I noticed the section devoted to real life work stories that college students  find useful.  It turns out that all of the stories can be found at an interesting “emagazine” at http://www.junglecampus.com/.  One of the other well received websites having great career “stories” is found at Road trip Nation.

Many colleges (especially University Career Centers) subscribe to NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers)  for up to date job trend information.  A sample from this excellent resource can be found at  http://naceweb.org/KnowledgeCenter.aspx?fid=210877&menuID=366&ispub=False&nodetype=3&navurl=

Finally, one big reason I am so positive about being a community college career counselor is  that part of my job is promoting obtaining a college degree:

In an analysis reported by the AP of U.S. Department of Labor statistics, people without a high school diploma remain more than three times as likely to be unemployed than are college graduates, with 1 in 7 people with just some high school education unemployed and only 1 in 22 people with a college degree unemployed.  Furthermore, a comparison of unemployment rates by education, comparing pre-recession (December 2007) and August 2010 reaffirms the value of a college education:

• 7.8 percent to 14 percent for people who did not graduate from high school
• 4.7 percent to 10.3 percent for those with just a high school diploma
• 3.9 percent to 8.7 percent for people with some college
• 2.1 percent to 4.6 percent for those with bachelor’s or more advanced degrees

In my next blog, I will highlight some other great websites for helping students to choose, change and confirm their college majors.

This summer I have been looking for any positive signs in the job market.  The main positive information seems to indicate that there will be opportunities in the Federal Government in a few years.  The government has conducted research of current employees and found that many plan to retire in the next 3 -5 years.  Here is a summary of what I have found with some web-links for you to use.

United States Federal Government Trends

• http://wherethejobsare.org/WTJA/about/
• Federal Government Needs Massive Hiring Binge, Study Finds
  Steve Vogel – The Washington Post
  The federal government needs to hire more than 270,000 workers for “mission-critical” jobs over the next three years, a surge prompted in part by the large number of baby-boomer federal workers reaching retirement age.
• Federal Government Must Hire Tens of Thousands of New Workers to Fill Mission-Critical Jobs
  Great news for job seekers this Labor Day: the federal government is hiring tens of thousands of new employees. Based on a survey of 35 federal agencies representing nearly 99 percent of the 1.9 million federal workforce, Where the Jobs Are 2009: Mission-Critical Opportunities for America outlines government-wide projected hiring needs for the next three years.
• By 2018, we will need 22 million new workers with college degrees—but will fall short of that number by at least 3 million postsecondary degrees

Links of Interest Related to the Federal Government

• Best Places to Work
• Making the Difference – some special programs
• USAJOBS – Federal Government Job Information

• http://cew.georgetown.edu/jobs2018/ –  National research on job and education outlook for the next 10 years:  Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018.
• http://www.dhs.gov/xstudents/ – Homeland Security related government jobs and information for students

HOMELAND SECURITY JOBS:

• Find Career Opportunities

• Use the Job Finder
• Leadership Journal
• The Blog @ Homeland Security
• Homeland Security Tweets
• Homeland Security Videos

Other current ways I am keeping current about the job market:  belonging to the California Career Development Association and staying tuned to their tele-interviews:

September 9, 2010 at 10:00 am Pacific Time
H.B. Gelatt on:
The Process of Illumination in a Nutshell
The Process of Illumination (POI) is a process of illuminating and expanding our collective worldview one worldview at a time. Since beliefs are the foundation of a worldview, I am promoting beliefs that are more open (receptive to change) and more inclusive (comprehensive in scope). My theme is the minute you make up your mind that the way you see things makes a difference, it will make a difference in the way you see things … and do things. My opinion, in a nutshell, is that the way we see things is the most important and most neglected factor in determining our future and the future of the planet.

AND . . .

September 16, 2010 at 10:00 am Pacific Time
Charles Waldrop on:
Starting a Successful Ex-Offender Entrepreneur Program (including setting up a non-profit and partnering with community organizations)
Many ex-offenders want to start their own businesses. Learn the primary steps, methods, contents, and highlights to equip ex-offenders for this challenge. The speaker will discuss concrete examples from his recent entrepreneur classes, including required texts and results obtained. Discover the important elements, steps, methods, contents, and highlights of starting a successful ex-offender entrepreneur preparation program.

AND . . .

September 23, 2010 at 10:00 am Pacific Time
Carmen Croonquest on:
Recipe for Happiness for the Helping Professions

For interviewee biographies, valuable prework exercises, more information and to register for these events, visit the Careerwell website: http://careerwell.org

Earn FREE* Continuing Education Hoursby participating in these tele-interviews.

*Free for listeners who are members of participating organizations. Everyone who participates in these free tele-interviews will dial a regular toll number (not toll-free/1-800). Any long-distance charges you incur depend on your long-distance plan and service provider, which will charge you directly, as customary.

Listeners are encouraged to do the exercises before the live tele-interview to get the most out of it.

Easy, Online Registration

REGISTER HERE to listen to live tele-interview and/or receive link to audio recording.

brought to you by . . .
California Career Development Association

facilitated by . . .
Dr. Sally Gelardin
Ed.D., International & Multicultural Education
National Certified Counselor
Distance Credentialed Counselor
http://careerwell.org

This blog is written for Career Coaches and Career Counselors who might be interested in some topics most useful for career counseling in the Community College.  In my previous blog, I mentioned that some colleges have comprehensive career centers and others were understaffed and mainly maintaining career services online and by way of offering career classes.  In California, we have created a network for sharing career counseling and career center resources.  The network is coordinated by a statewide career development advisory to the Community College Chancellor’s office; their website is found at  http://www.cccareers.org/

I will now highlight some really good resources that can be found at this site.  Under the area of “Resources for Career Centers” look at the section related to Faculty and Staff.  The resource titled “Partnering for Success” is a great power point explaining how Career Centers, Career Counselors, Academic Counselors and Faculty can work together to help students learn about career options.

Found in the ”Career Counselor’s Resources” is a helpful website for undecided students found at www.missingmajor.com.  (This Advisory contracted with Monstertrak to create this website.)  Try clicking on the sections at the bottom of the page:  Explore the Possibilities, Get Experience, Overcome Obstacles.  Most of these are links to career related services at a variety of colleges.  This site was created to help community colleges that did not have the financial resources to create and maintain their own career websites.

The last section to check out is called “Great Ideas.”  Most of the links ARE great ideas.  These Great Ideas were sent via email to all California Community College’s Career Centers so that they could inform students and faculty about trends, sample classroom activities and career information. For example there are federal funds to help community colleges educate students in “STEM” related disciples.  (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.)  Career Centers that need to find funding for career services can seek supplemental funding if they develop services specializing in such disciplines.  The Great Idea related to STEM includes the following:

STEM businesses (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)  fuel much of California’s economic growth and job creation, but our state is having a difficult time producing enough qualified candidates to fill the high-demand, high-wage positions in many STEM companies. The shortage could be so acute in the coming years, that it may leave many STEM jobs in the state unfilled, which would have a devastating effect on California’s $1.7 trillion economy. While California needs more STEM trained and educated employees, fewer students are enrolling in courses to help them land STEM jobs. In fact, of the 123 STEM occupations requiring a post-secondary education, nearly half will face labor shortages. Lack of STEM talent is not just California’s problem, but also a global challenge. Let’s watch this video clip to hear what the Director of Fast Future Research has to say about STEM jobs. (View 2-minute video.)

• Why are STEM jobs and industries so important? (They are the industries of the future and will drive innovation and economic growth.)
• What are some of the STEM industries mentioned? (Nanotechnology, biotechnology, green technology, new vehicles)

Exercise
You may think you’re not a science, technology, or math person, but think again. You use STEM everyday. It takes STEM skills to use, produce, and maintain cell phones, music, videos, games, sports equipment, buildings, and cars. STEM is everywhere.  As we move forward in our high-tech economy, almost every high-wage job will require some STEM knowledge and skills. Let’s look at a few futuristic Help Wanted Ads to see what kind of jobs lie ahead and what knowledge and skills these jobs might require.

• Distribute Help Wanted 2020 and review the instructions.
• Give students time to complete the activity.
• Discuss the answers. (Prediction and descriptions are from Converge Magazine.)

(1. Teleport Specialist, 2. Weather Modification Police Person, 3. Wind Farmer, 4. Alternative Vehicle Developer, 5. Biometric Identification Specialist, 6. Space Architect, 7. Experimental Petrologist, 8. Data Miner)

I am a much better counselor having such resources sent to me or having a website to view to get updated materials to share with my college.  I deliver workshops on such topics, I speak in classes, and I share with all counselors so that they can share with their students.

In my next blog I will share with you a few of the “best practices” Career Center websites.  If you have community colleges career center websites to suggest I include, please send them to me with a short explanation about why you think they are so good or useful:  write to me at Lraufman@elcamino.edu.