Career awareness program participants indicated greater awareness of interests and skills demanded by jobs, greater knowledge of the skills required, greater awareness of job preferences, and a better idea of job satisfaction. Participants also talked more about the world of work with others. (Author/BEF)

The career exploration fair is a collaborative community project designed to promote career exploration. The fair provides students with direct exposure to a variety of occupations and brings the notion of career development into focus. (Author)

Using data from a study of the work experience of 12 pre-16-year-old students, argues that work experience has expanded rapidly without proper debate about its purposes, potential or structure. As experience-based learning, it relies heavily upon debriefing to maximize its learning potential. Although difficult to accomplish, and surrounded by…

Evaluates the effect of a computer-assisted career guidance system on the career maturity of 38 students in a rural middle school. Was investigating whether a relatively brief interaction with the program affects the career maturity of such students. Results indicated significant gains in career maturity among students in the treatment group. (RJM)

A pilot project brought 17 high school students with developmental disabilities to a college campus for job sampling. Participants were mentored by 23 college students. Preliminary data indicate the project had benefits for young adults with and without disabilities and supported the use of a community-based service-learning model. (Contains…

When groups of junior-high gifted, regular curriculum, and special learning needs students (N=265) were compared on attitudes toward career decision making, students' level of academic ability appeared to exert a strong positive effect on career maturity. Scores for male and female groups were almost equal. (Author/JDD)

Describes students' attempts to use rhetorical analysis to study the professional communities they intend to enter. Asks whether analyzing discourse conventions can help students feel like initiates in their chosen profession, and explores how such analyses might contribute to writing-across-the-curriculum as a whole. (RS)

Describes Marshall University's summer camp where young people participate in activities that help prepare them for important career choices they will need to make when entering college. Benefits for the university include: recruitment, enhanced community partnerships, better informed incoming freshman, and publicity for the career center. (JBJ)

Compared Career Key (CK) with Career Decision Making System (CDMS) to find out how helpful students find these instruments in learning about suitable occupations and to explore extent to which they stimulate career exploration. Findings from 221 eleventh graders revealed that students gave CK positive ratings on helpfulness. Neither CDMS nor CK…

Through participation in community service programs, adolescents assume meaningful roles and respond to real needs of their society as well as to their own need to be needed. Presents arguments for expanding opportunities for young adolescents to contribute actively to the community, including incorporation of community service in the curriculum.…

Describes experiences in career exploration in a third grade classroom based on the Foxfire approach to instruction. Students researched careers by writing letters and interviewing real career people. They also set up "junior businesses" in the classroom, which involved designing business cards and purchasing products to sell. Students…

This article describes how educators can use motion video on CD-ROM to provide more information to youth on employment and to represent the complexity of employment environments. The Youth Employment Selections program for helping students and adults with disabilities to understand critical attributes of many jobs is profiled. (Contains…

This article describes a motion video CD-ROM program designed to assist youth with severe disabilities in the selection of job preferences. Traditional vocational interest inventories for individuals with disabilities and video and CD-ROM career exploration programs for typical youth are presented, then the specialized CD-ROM program is described.…

This article describes the establishment of Individual Development through Employment, Assessment, and Learning (IDEAL), a summer transition program for adolescents with blindness or visual impairments in Pennsylvania. The program emphasizes independence, work exploration, and social skills development. Data from participants, parents, and staff…

Describes the Environmental Science Day segment of the week-long Math Options Summer Institute, a program providing career awareness support to eighth-grade girls who choose to pursue careers in mathematics, science, engineering, and technological fields. Considers the authentic, experiential tasks used to introduce students to fieldwork involving…