When it comes to building digital skills, every staff member has an important role to play. As an advisor, you help learners gain the skills and confidence they need to navigate websites, explore careers, and launch online job hunts. You also teach digital literacy skills that will help them achieve their education and career goals. Often, you do these things at the same time!
Here are some tools that you can use to help students explore careers and build key digital skills. Are you using resources you’d like to share here? Contact us (dani_scherer@worlded.org) and we’ll add them!
Career Planning and Job Search Resources for Advisors
Check out our brand-new collection of Career Planning and Job Search Resources for Advisors Working in Adult Education for a long list of tools to help students explore career options. Here’s what you’ll find in the collection:
- Advice on when, why, and how to use each resource based on learners’ current literacy and digital skills, as well as their needs and goals.
- Tips from other advisors, including ideas on how to use the resources to support English language learners, learners with disabilities, and learners in corrections.
We organized the list to support a career planning process with three stages: self-exploration, career exploration, and career planning. Below are a few of our favorites for each stage, but we hope you’ll explore the whole collection and add the tips to your advising services.
- Self-exploration: Check out the Indigo Pathway Career Pathway Self-Assessment and Skills Matcher. Both tools ask a series of questions to generate customized career and occupational suggestions. Indigo Pathway’s assessment makes suggestions based on behaviors and motivators. The Skills Matcher focuses on an individual’s transferable skills and how these could be used in future jobs. The two tools provide complimentary data sets. Consider using both tools, along with an advisor and student favorite, O*Net’s Interest Profiler.
- Career exploration: Take a look at RoadTrip Nation's online course or My Skills My Future. RoadTrip Nation’s course deepens self-knowledge. The course also guides students through a process of learning about careers through informational interviews. My Skills My Future allows learners to enter past occupations and explore related jobs for possible upwards or lateral moves. The tool also provides information on pay and labor market growth projections.
- Career planning: Explore the MassHire Career Information System and MassHire JobQuest. Both tools can help students find jobs and start the application and interview process. MassHire Career Information System is a comprehensive platform for educational and career exploration and planning. The platform has options to save your work and progress in a personalized portfolio. JobQuest provides local job listings, as well as a variety of job support resources and workshops.
Build Students’ Digital Literacy Skills While Advising
As you share online career resources, make sure learners can navigate sites on their own. The following tools can help you blend digital literacy support into your career advising:
- Digital Learn offers high-quality tutorials for learners.
- TSTM Digital Literacy includes teaching materials and briefs.
- Northstar Digital Literacy offers nationally-recognized assessments that lead to targeted lessons on computer skills.
Join us in January for Digital Tools With a Purpose: Advising for Career Planning and Job Searching. Keep an eye on the SABES calendar to sign up. If you haven’t yet, be sure to create an account on the SABES website and set your notifications to notify you about “Program Support: Advising and Support Services” offerings.
We're Here for You
The PSPDC is here to support you through the beginning of the year, and all year long! For questions, support, or coaching on using the guide or building digital literacy skills through advising, please contact Dani Scherer at dani_scherer@worlded.org.
