Career Connections

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Career awareness and education are important supporting elements of USD 259's mission to help "all students acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for success. . . ."  While USD 259 has established career awareness and education activities, the Board of Education's recent commitment to administering the ACT Explore to all 8th graders and the ACT Plan to all 9th graders, and availability of the new Kansas Career Pipeline (KCP) creates the opportunity to enhance those activities. Beginning with the 2008-09 school year, USD 259 will implement a district-wide Career Awareness and Education Plan. This plan brings together information from ACT Explore, ACT Plan and KCP to create a coordinated and comprehensive plan, grades 7 to 12. Activities are identifed for each grade level and are designed to transition students from broad career awareness to detailed knowledge of occupations that relate to their unique interests and skills. Students enrolled in career and technical education courses as 11th and 12th graders will complete additional research on occupations specific to that content area. Methods for presenting career awareness activities can vary from building to building, program to program, and teacher to teacher. The KCP is a powerful tool, provides an abundance of information, and supports the delivery of career awareness activities with a high level of consistency and quality. The system is also aligned with the Kansas Career Fields and Clusters Model, with links to those materials integrated into the website, and supports goals of the Kansas State Plan for CTE (Perkins IV).