Occupational and Employment Information

APPENDIX A

Section 118

Occupational and Employment Information

Section 118 Occupational and Employment Information

Grant Number: V346A00004

Project Title: Career Resource Network State Grants

Institution Name: Idaho State Occupational Information Coordinating Committee

Department: Idaho Career Information System (CIS)

Contact Information

Name: Christine Stoll

Job Title: Director

Organization: Idaho State Occupational Information Coordinating Committee

Department: Idaho Career Information System (CIS)

Street Address: 650 W. State Street, Suite 301, P.O. Box 83720

City: Boise ID Zip: 83720-0095

Phone Number: (208) 334-3705

Fax Number: (208) 334-2365

E-mail:

Allocation of Funds

Allocated percentages of time and resources to the following activities:

Activity / Percentage
Support guidance and counseling / 20%
Make information available / 30%
Provide knowledge and skills / 15%
Tailor educational resources / 25%
Improve coordination / 5%
Encourage customer feedback / 5%

Allocated percentages of time and resources to the following groups:

Group / Percentage
Students / 50%
Parents / 5%
Teachers / 10%
Counselors / 25%
Administrators / 5%
Perkins Administrators/Planners / 2%
WIA Administrators/Planners / 3%

Training Delivered

Career Development Portfolios – My eCIS Folder
Description: This component allows students to save their favorites for future reference or to save educational plans, resumes, or personal comments.
Number of sessions / 30
Number of participants / 600
Target groups / Students, teachers, counselors , administrators
Career Information Delivery Systems
Number of sessions / 50
Number of participants / 70
Target groups / Students, teachers, counselors , administrators, Perkins administrators/planners, WIA administrators/planners
Facilitating Career Development
Number of sessions / 6
Number of participants / 150
Target groups / Counselors , administrators

Publications

The following publications have been disseminated:

Career Development Portfolios*
Type / Electronic
Number of Users / 43,854
Target Groups / Students, teachers, counselors
Purposes/Activities / Support to guidance and counseling. Make information available, provide knowledge and skills, tailor educational resources and improve coordination

National Career Development Guidelines
Type / Electronic
Number of Users / 43,854
Target Groups / Students, teachers, counselors
Purposes/Activities / Support to guidance and counseling. Make information available, provide knowledge and skills, tailor educational resources and improve coordination

Career Information Delivery System

Supported number of CIDS sites at the following organizations:

Site / Number
Elementary Schools / 100
Middle Schools / 75
High Schools / 150
Community Colleges / 6
4-Year Colleges/Universities / 22
Other / 96

Website Information - URL: www.cis.idaho.gov, www.idahocis.org

The following items are available on the website:

● Facilitating Career Development

● Career Development Portfolios

● Improved Career Decision Making in a Changing World

● National Career Development Guidelines

Other Activities

Conference Exhibits
Career information, Internet software, electronic portfolios, on-line curricula have been exhibited at 12 statewide conferences so far.
Type / Conference
Number of Sessions / 12
Number of Participants / 600
Target Groups / Teachers, counselors , administrators
Purposes/Activities / Support to guidance and counseling. Make information available.

Career Fair
CIS staff participated in 3 career fairs, college fairs, and/or school student/parent events to help students and their parents learn how to access the system to explore careers, colleges and get financial aid.
Activity Type / Career Fair/Booth
Target Groups / Students, parents
Purposes/Activities / Make information available, provide knowledge and skills, and improve coordination
Counselor Education Graduate Class
CIS staff participates in Counselor-Education pre-services programs at the University of Idaho, Boise State University, and Northwest Nazarene University.
Activity Type / Training/Workshop
Number of Sessions / 4
Number of Participants / 60
Target Groups / Students, teachers
Purposes/Activities / Support to guidance and counseling. Make information available, provide knowledge and skills, and improve coordination, tailor educational resources.
General CIS Training
CIS staff completed over 62 separate trainings from July 2005- June 2006. These trainings are designed to provide the users with the foundations so that they understand how to navigate the system and have an appreciation for how the information can be integrated within their programs.
Activity Type / Training/Workshop
Target Groups / Students, parents, teachers, counselors, administrators, Perkins administrators/planners, WIA administrators/planners
Purposes/Activities / Support to guidance and counseling. Make information available, provide knowledge and skills, and improve coordination, tailor educational resources, encourage customer feedback.

Fall Career Development Workshops
Seven Fall Workshops were conducted in September at the following locations: Coeur d'Alene, Lewiston, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Twin Falls, Boise, and Nampa. CIS and The Division of Professional-Technical Education (PTE) jointly sponsored the workshops. Total attendance for the workshops was 338, compared to 261 from the previous year.
Activity Type / Training/Workshop
Target Groups / Teachers, counselors, administrators, career development professionals, Perkins administrators/planners, WIA administrators/planners
Purposes/Activities / Support to guidance and counseling. Make information available, provide knowledge and skills, and improve coordination, tailor educational resources, encourage customer feedback.

Narrative Questions:

Question 1: What activities did you provide to encourage improved student academic achievement at the secondary level?
Current research shows that when students engage in informed career planning activities, academic achievement increases. eCIS (career information on the Internet at www.idahocis.org) is the primary information resource used to enable those activities. It is currently being used in 225 secondary schools in Idaho representing approximately 93% of the school districts. Current state and national information about occupations including the Military, education and training programs including apprenticeship, colleges and universities, financial aid and scholarships, career pathways, job search and resume writing is being accessed through CIS by 113,980 people in Idaho. This accounts for almost 12% of the population in the state. Located within the software students and clients have access to an online portfolio that can be used to save favorites, set career goals, record education and work history, plan for classes, and participate in *assessments and *academic test prep. As of May 30, 2006 the combined total number of times eCIS has been accessed for the 332 current sites was 224,299. The total number of CIS Portfolios created for current sites was 43,854. In addition to the information, users have on-line access to scholarship, school, graduate school and occupation sorting programs. Assessments include skills, interests and work values. Students use CIS information and assessments in career centers, a variety of classes and at home with their parents to explore career opportunities, determine the education or training required for occupations of interest, and select postsecondary schools that offer degrees and certificates in those programs. Idaho’s sixteen occupational cluster information and Career Pathway files help middle and junior high school students learn about broad career fields including helpful high schools courses they can take to begin preparing for those career fields. To assist teachers on-line learning activities are provided relating to all aspects of career development. They can be sorted by subject matter, career development competency and Idaho Achievement Standards needed for graduation in Idaho.

* The availability of certain assessments and academic test prep is limited to those schools or agencies that have purchased these modules in addition to the basic CIS system.

Question 2: What activities did you provide to encourage increased levels of student transitions to postsecondary instruction?
When students make education and career plans based on realistic information, they are much more likely to continue on to postsecondary education. Through CIS on the Internet, we provided information on 503 occupational descriptions including 474 occupational videos and 240 in Spanish. Each occupation is linked to the education and training that intends to prepare people for that occupation. Each education and training program is then linked to schools in Idaho and the nation that offer degrees or certificates in those programs including apprenticeships. By exploring occupations, students can easily see how much and what kind of education is necessary to be successful representing the critical connection between education and work. CIS provides the information to students that is necessary for making informed choices and to transition from high school to postsecondary institutions, the military or the workforce. Students can begin exploring occupations by sorting on wages, educational requirements and 19 other variables. The can learn the educational requirements for any occupation of interest, see the related educational program that will prepare them and find a school that offers a degree or certificate in that program. They can sort colleges and universities on a number of variables and then see the program offerings, tuition and fees, admission requirements, and access the web site for each. In addition, students can sort and locate scholarship resources to help them pay for college.
Question 3: What activities did you provide to encourage parental involvement in student career exploration, career choice, and educational preparation?
Our goal is for people in Idaho to know that eCIS (career information on the Internet) is available and accessible to parents as well as students from any location--school, home, library, internet cafés, etc. We provide bookmarks with the URL address to teachers and counselors so they can share them any time they meet with parents. Students are also encouraged to create an on-line portfolio (My CIS Folder) so they can have their own unique name and password and save items of interest including assessment results. On-line career development activities within each electronic folder are designed to be used by students with their parents. When asked, a great majority of parents expressed appreciation for the ability of being able to access information, save assessment results, and participate in career development learning activities with their children at home through eCIS. In addition to relying on teachers and counselors alone, parents are directly notified that eCIS information is available at home at every opportunity including career fairs, college fairs, school parent nights, exhibits, CIS presentations and faculty and staff training. CIS staff participated in the South West Idaho College Fair helping students sort and explore colleges and universities with their parents. Finally, the Idaho Attorney General will again send a letter to the parents of all high school juniors and seniors in Idaho encouraging them to use CIS information with their sons and daughters at home to explore career options make educational plans and find money to go to school.

Question 4: What activities did you provide to support career guidance and academic counseling at the secondary level?
Teachers, counselors and administrators in Idaho report that CIS information, assessments and learning activities through eCIS is the primary resource used in their career guidance and academic counseling programs. New this year is the eCIS opening web page designed specifically for secondary students. We provide 101 on-line career guidance curriculum units to counselors so they can work cooperatively with participating teachers to deliver instructional units to students. Further, CIS provides academic counseling programs with information about 4,000 two- and four-year colleges and universities, the ability to sort those institutions on items of personal preference and a graduate school-sorting program. Beyond that, CIS provides the information that is necessary for career guidance and academic programs to successfully help students make career decisions, educational plans and transition into postsecondary education and work. The following information is delivered to approximately 93% of Idaho school districts: Descriptions of 2000-3000 words in length, each containing 16 separate topics of information on 503 occupations, over 700 descriptions of educational programs of 300-500 words each, links to all colleges and universities in Idaho and the nation, financial aid and scholarship information for money to attend school, Military work life and occupations, and supporting information that includes Career Clusters, Career Pathways, writing college essays, getting accepted by a college, making educational decisions, and financial aid basics.
Question 5: What activities did you provide to support career guidance and academic counseling at the postsecondary level?
CIS information and assessments identified in the above Item were delivered to colleges of technology, community colleges and universities in Idaho at 26 locations. It was also used with clients at 24 Job Service Local office, 29 Vocational Rehabilitation Local officer, 8 adult correctional facilities and 28 other organizations, many of which serve postsecondary and adult populations. These groups access a front page in eCIS that is specifically designed for adults. CIS information on the Internet is used at these sites to help postsecondary students research scholarships, choose majors, and see occupations related to those majors. Like we do for secondary schools, CIS staff provides training and technical assistance to all of these sites. In addition, our seven fall career development workshops were conducted in cooperation with and on the campuses of the college or university in each region of the state. Break-out sessions specifically designed for adults and postsecondary students focused on using career information to explore and select college majors, find scholarship money help pay for school, make successful career decisions, prepare resumes, prepare for job interviews and design a plan to find work.

Question 6: What activities did you provide that support Departmental Initiatives (e.g. CCTI, State Scholars)?
All CIS information development, information delivery and career development training activities support Departmental Initiatives including No Child Left Behind, the College and Careers Transitions Initiative and the State Scholars Initiative. There is widespread evidence recently documented in The Educational, Social and Economic Value of Informed and Considered Career Decisions that exposure to career information to help make good career decisions with related educational plans is linked to students taking more rigorous academic courses, getting better grades, participating more and longer in education and dropping out of school less often.

When students and their parents access CIS information and counselors and teachers get high quality career development training, the link between postsecondary education and being successful in the labor force becomes obvious. Students become more motivated because they more clearly understand alternatives to their career future. Students, their parents, faculty and staff all need facts about education and work to make successful career decisions. People simply cannot choose what they do not know. CIS activities, with assistance from the ACRN grant, provide these facts and empirical evidence of strong link between education and work. By providing accurate information about academic and technical programs and linking those programs to related careers, CIS assists and helps to ease students' transition from secondary to postsecondary post-secondary education. CIS reinforces OVAE's mission to prepare young people for high-demand jobs in and information- and knowledge-based economy. We specifically identify high demand occupations by growth rate and numbers of annual openings, show the educational programs that prepare people for those occupations and show the schools that offer them whether it is a technical college, community college, university, apprenticeship programs or Military training.