In 1989, Ohio's State Board of Education was empowered by legislation in Senate Bill 140 to prepare a plan of action for accelerating the modernization of vocational education. This bill offered unique opportunities to Improve vocational and career education's responsiveness to the- challenges of the 1990's and beyond.
The resulting document, Ohio's Future at Work, outlined specific imperatives and goals that are key to the career development of students before entering the ninth grade. A focus on lifelong learning needs and the provision of career-focused education for all students are two primary imperatives for students.
A crucial emphasis in Ohio's Future at Work is the development of an individual career plan (ICP) by students before they enter the ninth grade. The ICP is a learning process for students that actually begins in kindergarten and continues through the eighth grade, at which time students initiate an ICP document. The ICP process and document help students identify and explore their initial career goals. In their ICP document, eighth grade students identify the educational plan needed to achieve those goals both at the secondary level and beyond. High school students have additional opportunities to explore and verify their educational and career goals and to formally review, revise, and add to their ICP document annually.
The elementary years are vital to the ICP process because skills are developed at this level to prepare students to make educational and tentative career decisions in the middle grades. In the elementary grades, an emphasis is placed on self-awareness, employability skills, decision making and goal setting, community involvement, economics, and the reduction of bias.
The following pages focus on twelve key topics. Each topic is defined and has one to three learner goals assigned to it. Following each learner goal are numerous indicators to further define the goal. Furthermore, activities are suggested to help students master the learner goals for each key topic.
Each elementary building should have a career development liaison. This person meets regularly with the career coordinator for the Vocation Education Planning District (VEPD) and fulfills responsibilities as assigned to ensure that the teachers in that elementary building implement career activities.
One method of delivering career activities is through career events that may or may not be part of a specific curriculum. Most of the activities listed on the following pages are career events. Another method of delivering career activities is through infusion. To infuse, a teacher matches an objective in any curriculum area to a career objective. More information on infusion can be obtained from the VEPD career coordinator or the building liaison. Infusion activities are appropriate for mastery of the learner goals.
Parental involvement is an important factor in students' mastery of the learner goals. Activities that facilitate parental involvement have been starred (*) on the following pages.
Other issues that are key to the successful completion of the ICP process are school relationships to the community outside the school and staff development for implementation of career development activities.