Elementary, middle school, junior high, high school and technology centers chose from 28 concurrent sessions with topics including ICAP, OK Career Guide, Oklahoma Promise, student trauma, drug trends in Oklahoma, engagement strategies and elementary career awareness. Some sessions were livestreamed to allow further access and can be found at Conference Playlist.
Alton Carter, author of “The Boy Who Carried Bricks,” which won the 2016 Oklahoma Book Award, and “Aging Out,” gave the keynote speech. Carter’s books are about his life’s journey from foster care through adulthood.
Oklahoma CareerTech’s online career development education system, OK Career Guide, has expanded to include opportunities for businesses and soon will expand to include opportunities for younger students.
CareerTech launched OK Career Guide in 2015 to help students explore careers, pathways and educational opportunities.
OK Career Guide is customized for Oklahoma and is designed to help students of all ages discover interests and skills and the careers to which they can lead. They can also find scholarship and education opportunities.
Schools and technology centers can also use the website to discover what their students’ top interests and skills are. They can use that information to host events promoting areas of interest or to promote specific industries.
In August OK Career Guide added a component for business and industry, Connect 2 Business. The online communication tool fosters community development by connecting businesses to students, job seekers and schools. C2B, which businesses can use for free, can target students with matching career interests and help businesses offer services to schools.
With C2B, businesses can create profiles that secondary and adult students will be able to search. The profiles will include information about the businesses – including their missions and contact information – and services the businesses can provide to teachers and students: speakers, tours, equipment and job and career fairs.
C2B will also match business employment opportunities with students who have the right skills and interests. Businesses can list several kinds of opportunities: internships, externships, job shadowing, apprenticeships, full-time employment and part-time employment.
Oklahoma CareerTech will soon launch a pilot of the elementary platform in OK Career Guide. The pilot will focus on two modules, energy and health careers, for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
Students can learn about careers through game-based missions in which they explore, learn and solve problems and build their career awareness foundations. This pilot group will help Kuder Career Planning System and OK Career Guide by providing user feedback for a statewide rollout later in 2018.
Oklahoma CareerTech’s vision is to secure Oklahoma’s future by developing a world-class workforce. Its mission is to prepare Oklahomans to succeed in the workplace, in education and in life.
OK Career Guide fits well into both CareerTech’s vision and its mission. It is just one of the ways Oklahoma CareerTech delivers education, training and partnership opportunities to businesses, schools and individuals in our state.
More than 400 counselors attended the For Counselors Only Conference, sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education and the Oklahoma State Department of Education for the 14th year.