Ridgewood sixth-graders learn about self and career choices
Ridgewood Middle School Counselor Leslie Dulgar [Foreground] and Career Center Student Ambassador Rachel Burkey [Background, in blue shirt] work with sixth grade students, helping them research specific jobs in the career clusters which map to the students current interests and experiences. This two-day activity, which took place Dec. 12 and 13, is part of a career readiness initiative at the middle school.
In a continuation of their career development work within the Ridgewood Local School District, representatives from the Coshocton County Career Center took the district’s sixth grade students through a two-day career discovery activity on Monday, December 12th and Tuesday, December 13th. The activity allowed the eleven and twelve year olds the chance to learn about four career-tech programs at the Career Center, as well as the opportunity to discover how their own personal interests and experiences might map to potential careers of interest.
On the first day, students were given the chance to rotate through four career-tech areas that offered a short hands-on activity. Culinary Arts, Electronics, Automotive Technology and the school’s newest program, Early Childhood Education, were presented by student ambassadors, who each represented their program. The ambassadors spoke at length about their own interest in the career field, why they decided to pursue career-tech training, and what they planned to do after completing the program and graduating high school. They took the youngsters through a hands-on activity designed to reinforce what is taught in their program. After this, the sixth-graders were invited to complete a six-page interest survey, in order to help them determine which of the Federal Labor Department’s sixteen career clusters may offer a job or career that would be a good fit for them.
On day two, the sixth-graders were invited to explore two career choices with both hardcopy and online reference materials available in their classroom. They looked at the levels of expertise, associated pay and educational requirements of those jobs. They also discovered the projected growth or need for those workers in the future labor market.
“We’re using a career exploration series called ‘Career-For-Me’ by a company called CFK, out of Auburn, California, to help us work with the students at Ridgewood Middle School,” says Career Center Career Development Coordinator, Ginger Reiss. “It’s similar to the activity we took the school’s fourth-graders through last month, only a bit more in-depth.” Reiss says that even though the students’ interests and experiences will change and grow as they mature, activities such as these are a good start and help expose them to the reality of the working world, which helps them build a realistic understanding of training requirements, earning potential and job outlook, even at their young age. “The more these students become exposed to different careers and people who are in those careers, the less-likely they are to be intimidated when the time comes to truly make their own college and career decisions.
