Promoting Career Exploration for Students
Career stories promote career exploration by connecting learners to the interview narratives of workers with real-world experience and advice. Interviewees frequently mimic mentors. This supports the notion that ‘if a student can see it, they can be it.’ Career journey stories allow learners to imagine themselves working in specific roles and industries. Personal paths and steps taken toward a particular career or within an industry/field are often shared.
Drawing from multiple interviews, this digital resource provides 16 unique career cluster highlight videos to support career-connected learning and to help students discover their pathway to a selected career.
Career Pathways & The 16 Career Clusters
Our economy has hundreds of occupations and numerous ways of grouping them. The classification system commonly used is the National Career Clusters Framework. This framework groups occupations into 16 Career Clusters based on similarities in foundational knowledge and skills. Each cluster has identified pathways with specialized knowledge and competencies. Students will want to follow specific pathways and practice the required skills to prepare for particular careers. By informing learners of career clusters and pathways, educators can support students in
(1) career awareness,
(2) seeing how their studies apply to future career goals, and
(3) taking valuable early steps along their intended pathway.
Career Awareness & Opportunity Knowledge
Integrating authentic career stories into learning cultivates career awareness and nurtures opportunity knowledge. NS4ed conducted hundreds of interviews from diverse perspectives recording original career stories. These complete interview recordings are embedded into the Pathway2Careers Program.
NS4ed also created highlight videos that include interesting interview excerpts shared over NS4ed’s YouTube Channel. Share an NS4ed Career Story video with your students, and you might introduce them to an inspirational career journey narrative that could influence the trajectory of their lives. Recordings featured in this resource introduce learners to sincere career story interviews.
