Submission Form for NC-Developed Resources

Recommendation Form for National Resources

North Carolina-developed resources are indicated with the state's outline.

Comprehensive Career Development

College Foundation of NC (CFNC)

Looking for particular information? There are several ways to find it on this site. 1.  You can select a role that describes you – Student, Parent, Adult Learner, Military/Military Dependent, Education Professional or Account Holder. 2. You can use the tabs at the top of the screen – My CFNC – your user profile, career portfolio, high school planner, college planner, and financial portfolio (savings account, loans, scholarships).  3.  You can plan – information on high school, college and career planning.  4. You can apply – for college admission and for financial aid (FAFSA, scholarship, grants and loans).  5.   You can get financial information – information on college savings plan, scholarships and grants, part-time work, loans and installment payment plans.  6.  You can learn about saving for college expenses – 529 plan information, forms and account access.

The O*Net

The O*NET program is the nation's primary source of occupational information. Central to the project is the O*NET database, containing information on hundreds of standardized and occupation-specific descriptors. The database, which is available to the public at no cost, is continually updated by surveying a broad range of workers from each occupation. Information from this database forms the heart of O*NET OnLine, an interactive application for exploring and searching occupations. The database also provides the basis for the Career Exploration Tools, a set of valuable assessment instruments for workers and students looking to find or change careers.

O*Net Resource Center-Related Sites

This webpage offers a good organizational framework of career-related  resources including links to electronic tools, job accommodations, U.S. Department of Labor resources, Bureau of Labor Statistics resources, and others.

Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE & ESOL Classroom

This is a ready-to-use, flexible curriculum that prepares adult educators to incorporate career awareness and planning into their instructional and counseling activities.

Women Employed: The Career Coach Curriculum Using Strategies for Success

This thorough, concise, and well-organized career development curriculum is appropriate for instructors and other service providers who work with mid- to higher-level adult learners in the process of choosing a career, changing a career, or exploring education options that match their goals. The range of activities helps learners make smart decisions early on in training or education. The curriculum content presents a logical sequence of topics: 1) Understanding the importance of education to career development; 2) Using personal values, interests, skills and lifestyle needs to evaluate potential career choices; 3) Exploring potential careers to find a good fit; 4) Setting educational goals; 5) Researching and evaluating different schools or training programs; 6) Making a customized career plan; 7) Learning about financial aid; 8) Managing time; and 9) Making short- and long-term plans. The guide provides direction to adapt the curriculum into 16- 8- or 4-class programs.

Exploring Career Information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics- 2010-11 Edition

This webpage provides helpful links to information on industries and occupations that can be used for career development.

ACT World of Work Map

The World-of-Work Map organizes occupations into six clusters (parallel to John Holland's six occupational types), 12 regions, and 26 career areas (groups of similar jobs). It graphically shows how occupations relate to each other according to primary work tasks. The Map is based in substantial research involving analysis of several key databases: expert ratings of basic work tasks from the Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network and ratings from the Department's Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Interest inventory scores of more than 200,000 persons in 640 occupations provide a third source of data.

The Riley Guide

The Riley Guide is a directory of employment and career information sources and services on the Internet. It is primarily intended to provide instruction for job seekers on how to use the Internet to their best advantage, but recruiters and other career service industry professionals will find information here to help them also.

Vocational Information Center  The Vocational Information Center website is an education directory that provides links to online resources for career exploration, technical education, work opportunities, trade and technical schools and related vocational learning resources. 

GCF Learn Free Work & Career

From job interview questions to tips for writing the winning resume, this website is packed with tutorials and activities to help with personal career development and training. 

Career Guides from JobStar

This site is one of the most comprehensive collections of career information, including career assessment, where to look to find trends, career guides in libraries, and links to descriptive information for hundreds of occupational fields. Other sections of this website cover job information and salaries.

Steps to Success University of Waterloo, Career Development eManual

This interactive eManual has been organized into six "steps" to help manage the career development process. A chart provides an overview of these steps, and each step is linked to the corresponding page on the site. This process is designed to help you move from the first steps at the bottom of the Chart up to the top, step by step.

NextSteps.org

This is a guide to career planning, exploration, and decision making for young persons aged 15 to 24 with interactive tools that can be used as they work through the steps and exercises. The career planning process is divided into three steps: Discover Yourself, Discover Your Options, and Make a Decision; and each step also links to additional resources. Users must have javascript and cookies enabled in order to complete the many online assessments and inventories. Teachers' guides are available for download.

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Career Exploration

Career Choices in North Carolina (The Tabloid)

For 25 years, Career Choices in North Carolina has been a tool that has helped guide thousands of North Carolinians down the right path to interesting and satisfying careers. The 2009-2010 edition, while providing resources for identifying your interests and strengths, as well as interviewing skills and résumé tips, briefly showcases more than 285 careers, highlighting the necessary education, salary and future outlook for each occupation.

Career Choices User's Guide, Adult Edition

The User’s Guide is a companion resource to the Career Choices tabloid. It contains activities and information that are organized by career planning topics: self-assessment, career exploration, education and training, job search, and additional resources.

A Parent Resource Guide, American Careers - North Carolina Community College Special Edition

This website is a helpful parent involvement tool  that involves parents in career and educational planning with their children. Source: Career Communications, Inc

North Carolina Career Resource Network

This website includes helpful career management resources for job seekers, career explorers, educators, and counseling professionals.

Family Tool Kit

The activities and information in this tool kit are designed to assist parents in helping their child with the career planning process.

North Carolina Health Career Manual

The North Carolina AHEC (Area Health Education Center) Program has produced this resource for the past 18 years in order to provide the latest information about educational requirements for health careers, North Carolina schools offering degree programs in the health fields, information on scholarships available in the state, and much more. In every listing of the hottest jobs in the U.S. over the next decade, jobs in the health field are some of the ones expected to grow the fastest.  North Carolina Health Careers is only one of many resources available to you through the NC AHEC Program.

Davidson County Community College: Career Explorations Handbook 

MECA System(Microcomputer Evaluation of Careers and Academics)

The information obtained from the system will help the user make a sound career decision by exploring the world of work relative to a specific occupational area, providing realistic occupational information and worker requirements for a specific occupational area, assisting in the decision-making process by providing exposure to a particular area of interest, determining several levels of interest, determining several levels of aptitude relative to a specific interest area, integrating academic with technical skills, identifying basic skill competencies related to an occupational interest area, identifying basic skill deficiencies related to an occupational area of interest, and relating interest to technical skills necessary for successful performance within an interest area.

CareerZone Interest Assessment

The CareerZone is an innovative online career exploration and planning system designed especially for today's high-tech youth in New York State.  Please note that occupational outlook and salary data will reflect New York, not North Carolina. CareerZone presents current and relevant occupational and labor market Information in a clear and interesting way, making career exploration and planning fun and easy.  This self-assessment is divided into six broad interest areas including investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional, and realistic.

Oscar

OSCAR is a product of the Texas Workforce Commission/Career Development Resources and is designed to be a vehicle to showcase the O*NET database, with emphasis on providing tools to assist dislocated workers transition to new careers. Please note that occupational outlook and salary data will reflect Texas, not North Carolina.  OSCAR is designed with a friendly look and feel to avoid intimidating any person who was not familiar with computers and menus, toolbars, etc. The interactive program includes the O*NET Work Importance Locator assessment tool, career clusters, the Interest Profiler, and national labor market information.

Ocean Careers

This website allows you to explore over fifty ocean-related careers; find a college, university or training center that specializes in ocean-related education; find professional societies that can provide career guidance and scholarships; find internships and jobs; and find hundreds of related links to continue career exploration.

The Career Key™

Organized according to the three basic principles of good decision making: 1. Know yourself - your strengths, values, personality, and skills.  Take the Career Key test to discover which Holland personality types you are most like. (Take it free through American Education Services (AES) planner by clicking here.) Read about Holland's Theory of Career Choice. 2. Know your options.  Learn more about the jobs that interest you. Learn about education options. 3. Make a good decision. 

The Career Project, Career Resources

This  site was designed with the intention of letting people of all ages, not just students, voyeur into any job they could think of. This becomes even more relevant today with the lack of job security and how many people are having not only one career but on average two or sometimes three different career shifts in a lifetime. 

Pathways to Technology

This is a multimedia project highlighting technology degree programs at community colleges. The Pathways to Technology web site, video series, recruitment toolkit, and outreach initiative are designed for prospective students, returning students, parents, guidance counselors, and community college educators.  (This site requires the user to run QuickTime in order view the technology videos.)
 

JobHunters Bible:  Counseling, Testing, and Advice

This guide from the author of What Color is Your Parachute? incorporates his mega-list of job resources online with many of the self-assessment exercises and job searching hints from the book.

• Web Sites for Job Hunting Research

• Job Hunting Online

• Job & Resume Sites  

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Military Career Information

Today’s Military

This website is produced by the United States Department of Defense. This site is not intended as a recruiting tool for any branch of the U.S. Military. Rather, it was developed as a resource for parents, educators and young adults curious about military service. Here you will find essential military career information, such as promotions, commissioning programs, military law and justice, assignments, and dress and appearance standards expected of military members.

Green Jobs

CareerOneStop’s: Green Careers section provides an outline of green careers in today’s changing workplaces.

The Career Key: The “Green Economy” and “Green Jobs”

The Riley Guide: If you are thinking "green jobs," then you are in the right place to start your search.

• General Resources: Clean / Green / Renewable Energy, Water & Sewer, Power / Energy Oil & Natural Gas, Telecommunications

• Sustainable Design: Also called Environmental or Green Design,this is a multi-disciplinary field that covers many professions including architecture, building and construction, and interior design.

• Energy Industry: This is a central site for 7 different job boards all covering different facets of the Energy Industry, including Hydro/Water and Green Energy.

Self-Assessment Tools and Information

Career One Stop Testing and Assessment Center

Discover how pre-employment testing can help businesses find workers with the right skills. Job seekers can use self-assessments to gauge their skill levels and find where improvement is needed. 

Self Assessment Exercise

NC Career Resource Network: Holland Occupational Themes

The Motivated Skills Test ©

s and Problem Solving

Transferable Skills Sets for Job-Seekers

On-line Transferable Skills Survey

University of Minnesota, Duluth

Monster Work Values Check List

O*NET Descriptors Work Values

Myers-Briggs Preferences in Work Situations and Problem Solving

Career Quizzes and Skills Assessments (from the Vocational Information Center)

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Career Pathways

JobsNOW Portal - This is a user-friendly resource for job seekers; those exploring new career options; and entrepreneurs looking to start, grow or relocate a business in North Carolina.

Jobs Now12 in 6 Overview

Jobs Now 12 in 6 Training Pathways

North Carolina Careers - Career Clusters Guide

A student and parent guide to educational planning using Career Clusters. Career Clusters are groupings of occupations/career specialties that are used as an organizing tool for curriculum and instruction. This guide is designed as a tool to assist in streamlining the path through which students meet their educational goals and are ultimately employed in high-skill, high-wage, or high-demand occupations and nontraditional fields.

Central Piedmont Community College: Pathways to Employment, Career Ladders

Career Clusters

This is the official website for the States' Career Clusters Initiative (SCCI). This website serves as a clearinghouse for Career Clusters research, products, services and technical assistance for implementation of the States' Career Clusters Framework for lifelong learning.

Career Ladder/Lattice Tool - Competency Model Clearinghouse

Career ladders and lattices are devices that help people visualize and learn about the job options that are available as they progress through a career. Career ladders and lattices consist of a group of related jobs that comprise a career. They often include a pictorial representation of job progression in a career as well as detailed descriptions of the jobs and the experiences that facilitate movement between jobs. Career ladder/lattices are not necessarily organization-specific; they frequently span multiple organizations because movement within one organization may not be possible. 

Sample Career Ladders/Lattices

All the samples use occupations found in the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) list of occupations and includes: Retail, Information Technology, Energy, Construction, Long-term Health Care, Financial Services, Hospitality, Advanced Manufacturing

Careers Under Construction

This website provides a representation developed by California Association of

Health Facilities to illustrate nurse aides and certified nursing assistants as a start to other health careers (July 2000).

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Outlook and Trends

NC Statewide Long-Term Occupational Projection Brochure 2006-2016 (Fastest Growing by Education Level)

NC 2006-2016 Fastest Growing Occupation Brochures by Workforce Board Areas (by Education Level)

NC ESC Occupational Information and Wages

NC Occupations that require a license

This website provides a listing of occupations that require a license in North Carolina. To learn about licensing requirements, click on an occupation name.

North Carolina Career Resource Network Career Briefs

Select any of the occupational groups to view summaries for selected occupations in our state. Occupations are grouped by North Carolina Career Pathway. Approximately 800 occupations are outlined and provide job descriptions, education and licensing requirements, average entry-level and experienced wages, types of businesses and industries that employ workers in the occupation and  projected employment outlook for future job growth with active web links to occupation videos and to O*Net information. Occupational listings en español include the same data as the English listings, except that job titles and descriptions are in Spanish.

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Education and Training

CFNC: Plan For College

Find Your Community College - in North Carolina

North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities

The University of North Carolina is home to more than 215,000 students at its 17 constituent institutions. These students come from different states, countries, and unique backgrounds.

The University of North Carolina Online offers comprehensive descriptions of and contact, application, admission, and tuition and fee information for more than 240 online programs in 22 fields of study offered by the 16 constituent universities of one of the world’s most prestigious university systems

 

Job Search

The Job Seeking Skills Handbook

The Job Seeking Skills Handbook was originally published in 1981 through the efforts of the Interagency Coordinating Committee (ICC). The ICC was comprised of 10 state agencies having primary involvement in employment and training for the citizens of North Carolina. Its purpose is still to provide job-seeking information to the unemployed, the underemployed, and those potentially affected by budget cuts. The Job Seeking Skills Handbook is published by the N.C. Employment Security Commission.

Real Life Tips

Straight from unemployed citizens who know what it’s like and from the Employment Security Commission pros who’ve worked with them, “Real Life Tips” provides guidance and insight for making it through unemployment. Many unemployed citizens have found creative and unique ways to work around their temporary setbacks -- ways to save money, ways to improve their job-hunting, ways to discuss their problems with creditors, and ways to get by. Their tips are well worth sharing with other unemployed citizens in our state.

21st Century Employability and Skills Training

21st Century Employability Skills Training is taught at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, NC.  This website includes a variety of tips and resources for the job-seeker including conflict resolution, cover letter, emailing tips, goal setting, interviewing, motivation, resumes, test taking tips, thank you letter, etc.

North Carolina Career Resource Network: Job Search

Job-Seeker's Glossary of Key Job-Hunting, Career, Job-Search, and Employment Terms

This glossary of job, career, and employment terms is designed to give job-seekers a quick definition -- and then provide links where they can find more details, samples, and information.

FSU Career Planning and Job Search Guides

This website is designed to assist in the career planning and job search process.

USAJobs

This is a one-stop source for federal jobs and employment information with searchable job listings, online applications and résumé postings; Veteran’s section.
 

Quintessential Careers: I am a Career Coach or Counselor

This page is where you will find lots of free expert career and job-search tools and resources you need to assist students.

LinkUp

This is the new and unique job search engine that only lists jobs taken directly from company websites. They are typically unadvertised outside of company websites and can be difficult to find if you don't know where to look. When you search for a job on LinkUp, you are actually searching over 21,020 company websites. These are always current openings - if a company adds or removes a job from their website, so does LinkUp.

The Riley Guide: How to Job Search

Entrepreneur Career Guide (from the Vocational Information Center)

Business and Finance Career Resources (from the Vocational Information Center)

Job Search Manual

A free Internet resource from SunRaye Enterprises

Job-Hunt.org

An online job search tutorial

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Job Search for Teens

CoolWorks

Discover jobs at camps, amusement parks, state parks, resorts, and other cool places to work. Review openings by category or state.

The Riley Guide: Teen, Seasonal, & Kinda Cool Opportunities

This section provides links to a great variety of job options, resources, and opportunities for teens to consider.
 
Groovejobs

Search for part-time jobs by zip code or city/state, then select how many miles you are willing to travel. Also browse internships and volunteer opportunities.

Teens 4 Hire

This online job matching service connects teens with employers who want to hire them. Create a profile, then apply online for job openings. Requires registration to search job listings.

Student Jobs

Explore U.S. Government internships, co-ops, summer employment, volunteer opportunities, and permanent part-time or full-time positions.

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Job Search for Older Workers

RetirementJobs

Designed for job seekers 50 and over, you can search full- or part-time job openings, get career advice, post or get help with your résumé, and learn about age-diverse employers.

Jobs4point0

This is one of the leading sources of job opportunities for candidates 40 and over. Search job postings by great companies that value diversity of experience.

Workforce 50

(Previously SeniorJobBank.com) Designed for job seekers 50 and over, you can search for full- or part-time job openings, temporary assignments, or volunteer work.

RetiredBrains

This website helps older boomers, seniors, and retirees find work after retirement. Also provides senior-focused information and links to charitable organizations and nonprofits looking for volunteers.

Seniors4Hire

This website is an online community for those 50 and older as well as the companies that want to recruit them.
 
YourEncore

A network of retired and veteran scientists and engineers, this website connects some of the best minds in a variety of disciplines with major employers.
 

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Career Development for Diverse Audiences

NC Department of Corrections: Offender Workforce Development

Career One stop: Military Transition

Connect veterans, transitioning service members, and their families with career planning, training, job search, and other resources to help smooth their transition to civilian life. Read more about the Key to Career Success.

Information Resources for the Homeless: Released convicts

IMDiversity

This website is a one-stop career and self-development site devoted to serving the cultural and career-related needs of all minorities. Sponsored by The Black Collegian, this is an excellent resource for all minority and diversity candidates. The many "villages" include resources and information specific for each group, and those without a separate village can find information in the global village.

Reintegration of Ex-Offenders (RExO)

Formerly known as Prisoner Reentry Resources, this PDF from the U.S. Department of Labor lists government and community resources to help ex-offenders find employment, job training and other assistance.

The National Institute of Corrections
The NIC's online library lists articles and studies related to employment and other issues for juvenile and adult ex-offenders.
 
Employment Information Handbook for Ex-Offenders
This PDF produced by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2005 has more than 30 pages of information to help recently released ex-offenders prepare for a job search and transition back into life.

Goodwill Industries International Inc. People with Criminal Backgrounds

National H.I.R.E. Network
 

Multicultural Career Counseling Competence: 5 Key Tips for Improving Practice (NCDA)

U. S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy

CFNC: Students with Disabilities
 
The Riley Guide: Employment Resources for the Disabled

ERIC: Career Development of Diverse Populations (Article)

The Riley Guide: Resources for Women, Minorities and Other Audiences
These are resources specifically set up to meet the needs or address the interests of various groups, such as women, persons of varied nationalities or ethnic backgrounds, etc.

Enhancing the Career Development of Individuals Who have Criminal Records, Article, Career Development Quarterly, March, 2010.

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Resumes

North Carolina Career Resource Network: Resumes and Cover Letters

This resource provides lots of tips and resources for completing resumes and cover letters.

How to Write a Resume.Net

Learn how to make a top-notch resume fast using "phrase builder" technology to help build compelling headlines, qualifications, achievement statements, and more.  Use "one-click formatting" to automatically reformat your entire resume with the click of a button and easily choose the layout that is best for you.

Optimal Resume

OptimalResume is the technology leader in online career services and is headquartered in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park. In 2005, the company launched OptimalResume™, its award-winning web-based resume builder, developed in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. OptimalResume's flexible product line not only has applicability for career centers, but also for workforce boards, outplacement firms, corporations, associations, libraries, and more. With state-of-the-art private-label or co-branded platforms, job seekers at all levels can now create high-quality resumes, web resumes, cover letters, portfolios, video introductions, skills assessments, and also perform interview practice online. Create an account and get 24 hours free access to Optimal's Resume award-winning suite of career tools.

Pongo Resume

This website includes tools, templates, and support to write professional resumes and cover letters, ace tough interviews, and secure a great job.

Indeed

Based on your search criteria, Indeed pulls job postings from all the other job posting websites. It includes personalized job alerts sent to your email on a regular basis. Since 2004, Indeed has given job seekers free access - instantly, in a single search - to millions of jobs from thousands of company websites and job boards. Indeed was selected by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 Websites, by PC Magazine as one of the Top 100 Classic Web Sites and by PC World as one of the Best 50 Websites. Indeed's search engine for jobs is now a global destination in many languages.

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Cover Letters

The Riley Guide: Resume and Cover Letters 

Purdue OWL:  Workplace Writers

This page provides links to resources for workplace writers and people writing during the job search process.

Cover Letters Theme Page

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Job Interviews

Interview Tips

Interview checklist

North Carolina Career Resource Network

Networking is like planting a vegetable garden:  First you must plant and cultivate before you can harvest.  This resource provides tips on making the most of your networking experience.

North Carolina Career Resource Network: Interview

This website provides tips on selling oneself as the best qualified candidate by expanding on information contained in the resumé and by demonstrating that experience, skills, and abilities meet the employer's requirements. 

The Riley Guide: Network, Interview and Negotiate

About.com- Dress for Success

This website provides tips on dressing properly for interviews.  The site also includes links to additional resources on appropriate dress in the work environment.

Dress for Interview Success 

This article offers a brief review of the basics related to dressing for interview success, including the differences between campus fashions and work fashions.

Dislocated Workers Toolkit, NC Department of Commerce:  With this kit, you can quickly access web-based information by following the embedded hyperlinks. Hyperlinks will appear in blue and are underlined. These hyperlinks will either take you to a different place within this tool kit or they will take you to an external website by opening a separate window: Employment & Training, Job Seeking Skills, Job Search, Job Transition, Health Insurance Resources, Self-Employment Resources, Age 55 & Older.

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Career Portfolios

FSU Career Portfolio Guide

Amby's Portfolio Sampler

Tutorial:  Career Portfolio

University of Victoria

Building a Personal Portfolio

Building a Personal and Career Portfolio guides teachers and students in planning and preparing individual portfolios. By following the steps suggested, the resulting portfolio becomes an up-to-date record of the student's accomplishments that can be used inside and outside of the school learning environment. 

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Career Readiness Certification

North Carolina's Career Readiness Certification

This website provides information on North Carolina ’s Career Readiness Certification (CRC), designed to meet the needs of both employers and job seekers in this transitioning economy.  For employers, the CRC offers a reliable means of determining whether a potential employee has the necessary literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills to be “job ready.” For job seekers, the CRC serves as a portable credential that can be more meaningful to employers than a high school degree or a resume citing experience in a different job setting.  The CRC is based upon WorkKeys, a nationally recognized, skills assessment tool developed by ACT Inc.

Transitions to Post-Secondary

General Guides

Breaking Through Practice Guide

JFF developed the Breaking Through Practice Guide to help practitioners serve adults who have low literacy and math levels and who want to succeed in postsecondary education. The Practice Guide highlights innovations from community colleges that participating in the Breaking Through initiative between 2005 and 2009. The Practice Guide has four components, each devoted to a “high leverage strategy” that community colleges and other programs can adopt to increase their success with low-skilled younger and older adults: accelerated learning, comprehensive support services , labor market payoffs, and aligning programs for low-skilled adults.

The Community College Advisor Training Toolkit

This publication offers a comprehensive, cost-effective way to guide students through the maze of academic, financial, and personal challenges toward college credentials and successful, family-supporting careers.

Achieving Success: The Latest News in Promoting Community College Success

This quarterly newsletter is designed to help Achieving the Dream colleges, partners, state-level stakeholders, and other interested individuals stay abreast of developments in the initiative. Each issue contains updates from the Achieving the Dream states, resources on student success in community colleges, and a focus on a single policy topic of concern to Achieving the Dream college and state teams.

One Step Forward Initiative: Guide to Adult Education for Work, TransformingAdult Education to Grow a Skilled Workforce

In Fall 2007, the Workforce Development Strategies Group at the National Center on Education and the Economy received a grant from the Walmart Foundation to identify a set of quality indicators for Adult Education for Work—programs geared to helping low-skilled workers acquire the basic skills they need to succeed in the 21st-century workplace and to enhance U.S. firms’ competitiveness. This Guide was based on research conducted by the WDSG and a research paper commissioned by NCEE and written by Forrest Chisman of the Council for the Advancement of Adult Literacy (CAAL).

College for Adults

This web site, designed by the National College Transition Network (NCTN) for independent study or as a supplement for in-class study, teaches study skills, links to sites with academic online preparation, and guides prospective college students through offices such as Admissions and Student Support. GED classes and tests by themselves do not prepare adults for college. They do not teach adults how to write term papers, read college texts, understand college terminology, take notes at a lecture, or how to navigate the college environment. The NCTN's College for Adults website helps to fill these gaps.

How to Build Bridge Programs that Fit into a Career Pathway: A Step-by-Step Guide Based on the Carreras en Salud Program in Chicago

This guide, developed by the Instituto del Progreso Latino and other partners, highlights how to develop a career-based bridge program. It draws on the specific example of health careers. This guide can inform program development for ESL and ABE students.

National College Transition Network

The Network's goal is to support ABE staff, programs and states in establishing and strengthening ABE-to-college transition services through technical assistance, professional development, collegial sharing, advocacy and increased visibility for this critical sector of the adult basic education system.  The website contains a variety of helpful resources and tools.

Self-Help Information - Texas A&M University

This website includes study skills, career related resources, and personal counseling tips.

GED: Beyond the Basics

This is a project designed to assist programs in the transition of adult education students to employment and postsecondary education and training. The Florida GED Plus program initiated the movement towards enhancing the GED curriculum through incorporating higher-level skills and college preparation materials.  The website includes sample lessons plans.

Bridges to Careers for Low-Skilled Adults: A Program Development Guide (2005) PDF (717K) provides concrete guidance on how to develop and implement "bridge programs" that help adult students improve their basic skills and succeed in college.

Helping Adult Learners Make the Transition to Postsecondary Education (2005) PDF 101K) discusses the challenges ABE programs must address to develop and implement transition services, provides examples of emerging efforts, and discusses the implications of this transformation for policy and practice.

Improving Lives: State and Federal Programs for Low-Income Adults.

This website provides an overview of programs that affect low-income adults and their ability to enroll and succeed in postsecondary education. It includes detailed descriptions of programs selected as exemplars of effective state and federal policy.

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NC Transitions Projects

NC Transition Projects

List of 2010-2011 transition projects

Financial Aid

Paying for College - A Financial Aid Primer

The Smart Student Guide to Financial Aid

This guide was established in the fall of 1994 as a public service. This award-winning site has grown into the most comprehensive source of student financial aid information, advice and tools -- on or off the web.

Contextualized Instruction

Breaking Through: Contextualization Toolkit

This publication is a tool for helping instructors assist low-skilled adults gain postsecondary certificates and degrees through contextualized instruction.  The toolkit addresses types of contextualized learning offered, how to do contextualized learning, strategies for engaging students in contextualized learning courses or programs, sustaining the contextualized learning course or program, and contextualization tools.

Common Core Standards

Construction Math Toolkit

This math toolkit combines fun, industry-required math lessons with supplemental academic and career guidance information. The titles of the sections are: Acoustical Ceiling, Cost Calculations, Cylinder Volume, Electricity and Ohm’s, Octagons, Principles of Square Roots, Ration and Scale, Roofing & Right Triangles, Rule of Quarters, and Soil Excavation.

HRD Core Training Components

This PDF documents includes charts outlining six HRD core training components along with their related competency areas and suggested learning objectives.   The learning objectives listed in this document come from a compilation of recommended employment skills standards from several national research projects.

GED Career Bridge to Hospitality Curriculum (All sections)

This website includes the full curriculum for bridging GED instruction to hospitality careers.  The site includes resources on workplace context, employment, vocabulary, GED Math, GED Writing, Reading Passages, GED Science and Social Studies, resources, and a student handbook.

The Florida GED PLUS College Preparation Program is designed to help adult students earn their GED credential with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to be successful in college and careers. The website includes a program implementation guide and curriculum resources.

Adult Learning Activities

The purpose of this site is to help adults improve basic skills like reading and spelling using real-life stories on topics of interest to adults. There is a separate section for teachers and adult educators that can be accessed by selecting the For Adult Educators link at the top of the homepage.  The stories are based on real life situations of interest to adults. Many came from television news stories.  Topics include working, law and government, family, school, health and safety, housing, money, science and technology, services, going places, and nature. The site is free and does not require registration or sign-in.

Basics: ESOL Toolkit for General Construction, Landscaping, Painting and Plumbing

This website includes hands-on, contextualized instructional materials for:

• General Construction: 1. Measurements & Dimensions, 2. Heavy Equipment, 3. Work Schedules, 4. Worker Rights

• Landscaping: 1. Trees and Shrubs, 2. Lawn Care, 3. Walkways, 4. My Yard

• Painting: 1. Choosing Your Colors, 2. Choosing the Right Paint, 3. Buying Paint, 4. Preparing to Paint, 5. Painting Safety

• Plumbing: 1. Help, Call the Plumber, 2. A Plumber's Tools, 3. A Plumber's Career, 4. Plumbing System Plan, 5. Pipe Fittings and Parts

Hotel T.E.A.C.H. Project Curriculum

This conxtextualized curriculum for the hospitality field includes modules on 1: Identifying Your Learning Goals, 2: Greeting and Welcoming Guests, 3: Communicating with the Guests, 4: Explaining Hotel Services to Guests and Providing Information, 5: Understanding and Resolving Guest Problems, 6: Internal Customer Service, 7: Understanding Workplace Expectations, 8: Career Advancement and Getting Ready for the Interview.

Basic Skills for Work

The increasing complexity of work processes requires higher literacy, numeracy and communication skills even at the lowest work levels, especially to meet quality and safety aspects.  The main products of the Basic Skills for Work project, funded by the European Commission, are basic skills training materials and curricula for five sectors: hospital and care, construction and environment, tourism and leisure, cleaning, railway transport.

Bridging the Employment Gap: Janitorial

This manual is part of Bridging the Employment Gap for Learners with Low Level Literacy Skills, a two-phase project begun in 2001. Phase 1 of the project focused on students with the lowest level literacy and basic skills, especially the developmentally challenged population. In Phase 2 the focus was expanded to include all Essential Skills Level 1 learners.  The manuals include instructor notes, learning activities and learning demonstrations. The materials include five main units safety, understanding hazardous product labels, understanding signs, mopping following a pattern, garbage: bags and recycling, and step-by-step learning activities.

Bridging the Employment Gap: Clerical

The manuals include instructor notes, learning activities and learning demonstrations for contextualizing literacy skills with clerical positions.

Bridging the Employment Gap: Grounds Maintenance

The manuals include instructor notes, learning activities and learning demonstrations for contextualizing literacy skills with grounds maintenance jobs.

Bridging the Employment Gap: Kitchen Help

The manuals include instructor notes, learning activities and learning demonstrations for contextualizing literacy skills with kitchen assistant jobs.

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Bridging the Employment Gap: Retail

The manuals include instructor notes, learning activities and learning demonstrations for contextualizing literacy skills with jobs in the retail field.

Bridging the Employment Gap: Ready for Work

Ready for Work focuses on “soft skills” needed by all employees. Ready for Work was developed in response to requests from employment counselors and job developers.

Research-based Health Literacy Materials and Instruction Guide: This guide is designed to assist students functioning at beginning ABE and ESL reading levels.  The Instruction Guide includes: Section 1 – Health Professionals; Section 2 – Health Professionals; Section 3 – Emergency Care; Section 4 – Self-care and Non-emergency Care; Section 5 – Preventive Care – Regular Checkups; Section 6 – Preventive Care – Physical Activity and Good Nutrition; Section 7 – Making and Keeping an Appointment; Section 8 – Talking to Health Professionals; Section 9 – Talking to Health Professionals; Section 10 – Filling Out Medical and Family History Forms; Section 11 – After a Visit to a Health Professional – Tests; Section 12 – After a Visit to a Health Professional – Medication/Drugs; Section 13 – Medication Warnings; Section 14 – Information About Medications; Section 15 – Following Directions and Dosages for Medications; Section 16 – Other Drugs; Section 17 – Paying for Health Services; Section 18 – Getting Healthier.

Research-based Health Literacy Materials and Instruction Guide: This web-based edition is aimed at Intermediate level ABE and ESL students.  The Instruction Guide includes: Section 1 — Health Professionals; Section 2 — Seeing Health Professionals; Section 3 — Getting the Health Care You Need; Section 4 — Improving Your Health - Physical Activity; Section 5 — Improving Your Health – Nutrition; Section 6 — Drug Use; Section 7 — Making Good Health Decisions.

Medicine Plus

MedlinePlus is the National Institutes of Health's web site for patients and their families and friends. Produced by the National Library of Medicine, it provides information about diseases, conditions, and wellness issues in language you can understand. MedlinePlus offers reliable, up-to-date health information, anytime, anywhere, for free. MedlinePlus presents interactive health tutorials from the Patient Education Institute. Learn about the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment for a variety of diseases and conditions. Also learn about surgeries, prevention and wellness. Each tutorial includes animated graphics, audio and easy-to-read language.

ProjectCARE

This website includes four lessons (including activities, vocabulary practice, and evaluation) about caring for others while improving their communication with medical personnel. Topic areas are depression, Alzheimer’s disease, alcohol abuse and Aacoholism, and death and dying. The website provides audio and video for listening practice, vocabulary development, project ideas and links to related-health information. There is an accompanying book as well as free activities available to learners.

Workplace Health and Safety ESOL Curriculum

This curriculum contains eleven lessons teaching health and safety principles and how to address these issues in a workplace setting.

Embedded Learning Portal

The Portal in general can provide practitioners with numerous realistic workplace materials and sample tasks that can be used as they are or adapted for different populations.  This resource from the United Kingdom provides an excellent approach to work-related contextualized literacy instruction and can be adapted to many levels of literacy and English language acquisition.

Ingenious Ways to Use Career Information

While there is ample career information available, pouring over virtual or actual pages of writing often does not hold students' attention for very long. Consider the following ideas as possible ways to enhance the use of career information.

National Career Development Guidelines (NCDG) Framework

The guidelines are organized around a framework of three domains including: Personal Social Development, Educational Achievement and Lifelong Learning, and Career Management. The framework and its associated goals offer a continuum of skills for young people and adults that should help them develop skills necessary to get the most from education life and work. Though the guidelines are not associated with particular grade levels, most of the supporting activities are geared to high school and middle school students. Use these guidelines to identify activities and strategies for developing high-quality career programs.

National Career Development Guidelines Workforce Career Development Model Crosswalk

National Career Development Guideline Lesson plans

Where the Jobs Are

English Activity #1

English Activity #2

Science Activity

Applied Academics: Applications of Mathematics

British Columbia, Ministry of Education

Technical and Professional Communications 12

XpMath

The database was designed to help the user explore a wide variety of jobs. It includes descriptions for 291 major jobs. These jobs together employ 88 percent of the American workforce. Job descriptions answer questions such as these: What do people in this job do all day? What math topics will I need on the job? How much does the job pay?

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The Futures Channel: Real Math, Real Science Real Careers

What is Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM)? STEM focuses on student's engagement and skills from the earliest grades in science, math and technology to help foster interest for their later school years and careers. These resources and materials allow teachers to connect STEM career awareness to existing lessons and standards-based curriculum. They do this by utilizing career based video; providing guiding questions for the teacher and or student; and supplying additional resources, lesson plans, student activities, etc.  The website offers over 1,000 video-based learning connections to stimulate student interest in STEM careers. Each connection has instant access to subject recommendations, lesson plans, related websites, teacher guides, state standards and a powerful cross-curricular search function.

STEMcareer

Learning about the relationship among STEM initiatives, student access, and career readiness led to www.stemcareer.com as a brokering site to support STEM advocates.

STEM Transitions

The integrated project materials developed by the STEM Transitions initiative are intended as context-based teaching resources that demonstrate the convergence of technical and academic concepts. Over 60 projects have been developed for use in the community college classroom, although many of them can be easily modified by instructors for use at the high school level. The “projects” offer integrated content that can be used in its entirety or as a resource from which to extract a wide variety of teaching materials to enrich existing curriculum. The projects are designed for use in both technical and academic courses. Where necessary, technical background material is provided for math and science instructors along with implementation options for these two academic areas. Some projects highlight math concepts, others highlight science concepts, and some feature both math and science concepts in addition to the technical content presented.

Teachers' Domain

Teachers’ Domain is an online library of more than 1,000 free media resources from the best in public television. These classroom resources, featuring media from NOVA, Frontline, Design Squad, American Experience, and other public broadcasting and content partners, are easy to use and correlate to state and national standards. Teachers’ Domain resources include video and audio segments, Flash inter-actives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities.

Job Interview Lesson Plans

This website is sponsored by Thirteen Ed Online, public television's web service for teachers.  It features everything from standards-based lesson plans and classroom activities to a multimedia primer, online mentors, and reviews of curriculum-based web sites.

Career (News) - Wall Street Journal

This webpage contains a variety of career-related news articles that could be contextualized with a variety of content areas, such as reading, writing, charts and graphs, math, etc.

Office/Computer Skills Inventory Assessment

NCDA: Annual National Career Development Month Annual Art Poster and Poetry Contest

The most recent NC winners are listed here.

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College Entrance Exam Preparation

Accuplacer/Compass Prep Web Resources

This 30-minute interactive tutorial was created by CUNY's Office of Undergraduate Education to help students prepare for the CUNY Assessment Test in Reading. The tutorial includes a sample reading passage, suggestions about how to strategize for the test, an explanation of the types of reading questions asked on the test, and an overview of common mistakes.

Crosswalk between TABE and Compass

This crosswalk was developed by Kentucky Adult Education and attempts to coorelate TABE and Compass scores in reading, writing, and math.

Accuplacer Reading One

This is a tutorial developed by the New England Institute of Technology Academic Skills Center.

Reading Two

This is a tutorial developed by the New England Institute of Technology Academic Skills Center.

Sentence One

This is a tutorial developed by the New England Institute of Technology Academic Skills Center.

Sentence Two

This is a tutorial developed by the New England Institute of Technology Academic Skills Center.

English Sample Test

This is a tutorial developed by the Riverside Community College, CA. 

Accuplacer Reading and Sentence Writing Questions

This is a tutorial developed by the Yuba Community College District, CA (YCCD) Assessment & Testing Center.

Accuplacer Practice

This is a tutorial developed by the New England Institute of Technology Academic Skills Center.

Basic Computer Skills Curriculum

This includes lesson modules covering basic computer skills developed by computer teachers from Adult Basic Education programs in the St. Paul Community Literacy Consortium. 

Communicating at Work

Communicating at Work is a free web resource for immigrant adults. Interactive features, dialogues, scenarios and quizzes are designed to help adult learners improve their communication skills with supervisors, co-workers and customers.

NGL Cymru - Teaching Resources - Key Skills in Vocational Areas

Key Skills in Hospitality and Catering is one of several interactive resources for teachers and learners at all levels from the The National Grid for Learning Cymru (Wales). Although registration is on a voluntary basis, registering will provide you with access to some additional services that will allow you to personalize your access to NGfL Cymru

JumpStart

Jumpstart's aim is to identify high-quality personal finance materials for educational use. The Clearinghouse is a database of personal finance resources available from a variety of education providers such as government, business and non-profit organizations.

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Research and Evaluation

A Cross-Case Analysis of Career Pathway Programs that Link Low-Skilled Adults to Family-Sustaining Wage Careers (2007) PDF (1.2M).
The overarching research question for this study was: what programs, policies, curricular practices, institutional and support strategies are being implemented to support the transition of low-skilled adults through career pathways that align with postsecondary career and technical education?

Adult Education and Postsecondary Education and Postsecondary Success (2007) PDF (350K).
This Policy Brief compares the long-term postsecondary education outcomes of GED holders to those of their counterparts who have received a high school diploma or who lack a high school credential. The author makes recommendations for expanding the adult education system with the goal of college readiness and success in mind.

Building Pathways to Success for Low-Skill Adult Students: Lessons for Community College Policy and Practice from a Longitudinal Student Tracking Study (2005) examines the unique experiences and the educational and employment outcomes of adults who enter community college with limited education.

I-BEST: A Program Integrating Adult Basic Education and Workforce Training (2005) PDF (232K).
The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges' Offices for Adult Basic Education and Workforce Education supported ten demonstration projects pairing ESL and professional-technical instructors in the classroom to concurrently provide students with literacy education and workforce skills.

The New England ABE-To-College Transition Project Evaluation Report (2005) PDF (800K)
Looks at the experiences of its program participants and examines the outcomes of the project. The evaluation included quantitative and qualitative analyses of data gathered from participating students and programs.

Return to Learning: Adults' Success in College is Key to America's Future (2007) PDF (6.4M).
A report released by the Lumina Foundation for Education, calls for colleges to, among other things, provide more convenient and affordable access for adult learners and to work to get older students out of non-credit programs and into courses that lead to degrees and certificates.

Transitioning Adults to College: Adult Basic Education Program Models (2006) PDF (267KB). The New England Literacy Resource Center surveyed adult education centers with transitions components to capture and categorize emerging models of ABE-to-college transition programs.

Noteworthy Practices

Adult Basic Education to Community College Transitions Symposium Proceedings Report (2007). This publication recaps an OVAE-sponsored symposium held in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 14, 2006, that recognized the importance of adult learners and the needs they present as they pursue college and careers. Nationally recognized adult education experts shared their ideas about how to help adult learners transition successfully to postsecondary education and employment. PDF (2.01MB)

The Adult Basic Education Career (ABE) Connections project (2007). An OVAE-sponsored project that will demonstrate how ABE programs can operate within career pathways to prepare students for postsecondary courses leading to a degree or occupational certificate targeted toward an industry important to a regional economy MS Word (530KB) | PDF (108KB)

The National College Transition Network features resources for program planners, teachers, counselors, researchers, and policy-makers interested in college transitions for ABE students. Provides information on developing transition services, recruiting and assessing potential students, and building relationship with colleges.

Opening Doors demonstration sites are testing various combinations of innovations in curriculum and instruction, supplementary financial aid, and student support services to address high rates of attrition among low-income community college students and the shortage of reliable evidence about which strategies are effective in improving student retention.

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Career Development Theory

Understanding and using John Holland's Theory of Career Choice is a highly recommended part of one's career planning. It is the most popular and researched career theory used by professional career counselors.

Developmental Theory Dr. Donald Super's Life-Career Rainbow worksheet (PDF, from the University of Oregon Career Information Service

Integrated Life Planning by Dr. Sunny Hansen; her holistic approach is described at her website and she also wrote a book called, Integrative Life Planning: Critical Tasks for Career Development and Changing Life Patterns

Learning Theory and Planned Happenstance by Dr. John Krumboltz summarizes some of the background research underpinning the role chance plays in career choice.  The article is on page 14 of this UK career guidance newsletter PDF.

Transitions Through Life, by Dr. Nancy K. Schlossberg.  Her website and transition tips are relevant to other transitions in addition to career transitions.

Cognitive Information Processing (CIP) theory

This theory was developed through the joint efforts of a group of researchers at the FSU Career Center's Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling and Career Development (Tech Center). This theory is an emergent career theory, designed to examine how individuals engage in career problem solving and decision making. In particular, CIP theory describes career decision making like a recipe, which involves several ingredients as well as a process for integrating these ingredients to come out with an end product.

ERIC: Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Career Development

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Career Development Associations

The North Carolina Career Development Association (NCCDA) is comprised of professionals engaged in the field of career counseling and development. NCCDA is organized and governed in accordance with the by-laws of the National Career Development Association. NCCDA is a division of the North Carolina Counseling Association. 

The National Career Development Association (NCDA) is a founding division of the American Counseling Association (ACA). The mission of NCDA is to promote the career development of all people over the life span. To achieve this mission, NCDA provides service to the public and professionals involved with or interested in career development, including professional development activities, publications, research, public information, professional standards, advocacy, and recognition for achievement and service.

The Career Development Quarterly (CDQ)

This is the official journal of the National Career Development Association (NCDA). The purpose of CDQ is to foster career development through the design and use of career interventions and publish articles on career counseling, individual and organizational career development, work and leisure, career education, career coaching, and career management.

Career Development Resource Store

NCDA offers carefully selected products for all career development professionals. Use the alphabetical listing, or Search feature to search by author, title or keyword.

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Career Videos

America's Career InfoNet-Cluster and Career Videos

This website includes career videos on hundreds of jobs.  The videos may be played in Windows Media Player or Real Player.  Over 300 videos are available in Spanish

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Motivational Videos

Webcasts

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Workplace Survival and Success