As you begin to plan your career path you will need to make choices about the kinds of skills you are interested in developing and the labor sector you want to work in.
First, it will be useful to consider what constitutes a good job…
What is a good job? A very general definition of a good job is any job which pays above minimum wage and has the potential for wage increases overtime in relation to skill development. It will be important to decide what other criteria you want to consider when you look for a job that pays above minimum wage and offers advancement. Professional and Middle-Skill career paths are the best way to access a good job.
∗ good jobs available to those with a high school degree have decreased, but those available to middle skill individuals, meaning those with vocational or technical training, or an associates degree, make up a large percentage of the New York jobs market..
∗ good jobs for workers without BAs concentrated in those states with the highest and growing populations, specifically California,Texas, Florida, as well as in Wyoming, New Jersey, Maryland and Connecticut.
Skills and Qualifications:
The first decision you will need to make is what kind of education you want to pursue.
The primary avenues for developing skills and qualifications are: Academic Education, Vocational Training, and Work Based Learning Programs. Either of these pathways will help you develop the credentials and qualifications you will need to participate in the labor market.
As a member of the workforce, you will bring a variety of skills to the table, from the skills that you learn through your education and job training, to the skills that you develop through experience. The skills that you develop through experience are called soft skills, while the skills that you develop through formal programs are called hard skills.
Skills That Travel and Transferable Skills:
Skills that Travel: It is important to understand the relationship between skills and qualifications and geography. Certain credentials are in higher demand in some areas, and lower demand in others, based on the environment, population, economy, and industries in that area.
For example, if you are a certified park ranger, your skills are going to be most useful in a natural rather than an urban setting, likewise, if you are an urban planner, your skills will most likely require you to live in a city or metropolitan area.
Certain skills, like nursing and firefighting, are relevant most everywhere. If you prefer to live in a certain kind of environment, it is important to consider what industries will be useful in that area.
Transferable Skills: are those skills which can be transferred from one profession or role to another one, these may be your official credentials, or soft skills that you develop through experience.
Framework for professional learning:
CAREER AWARENESS + CAREER EXPLORATION + CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Experience-Based Job Research:
Internships and externships are a way of investigating a field of work which you are interested in pursuing, but are not necessarily ready to commit to.
An externship is generally a casual relationship in which you shadow an employee in a work environment for a number of days. As an extern, your role is to observe others working, rather than working yourself. It is a good way to see what the different roles in a workplace are, and what the work environment feels like. You can use this experience as data to help you make decisions about your education and career.
An internship is a good way to test out how you feel in a certain field of work and a work environment, but unlike externships they do require you to commit for some part of a year and to bring some relevant skills to the job, because you will be engaged in work as opposed to observation.
