Career Explorations

​ Career Exploration I Online: The Career Explorations 1 course is designed to give seventh and eighth grade students an opportunity to explore various Career and Technical Education subjects. Specifically, students will be able to learn about careers involving human-related services. Each unit introduces one particular field and explains its past, present, and future. The goal is to whet students’ appetites for these careers. Students can then explore that career in more detail as a high school student. The student will: examine work, lifestyle, and a career; evaluate the history of health care and the impact that science and technology has had on it; explain why travel and tourism is important to our economy; understand how geographic principles relate to traveler decisions; explain the history of human services and how it functions in society; and analyze careers in the consumer services industry

Curriculum Focus

• Unit 1: Career Management: This unit examines the elements of employment, from the purpose and personal benefits of work to lifelong learning and technology. Students learn about wages and employment benefits, find out how to maintain a time sheet, set lifestyle goals that match their work goals, and attain problem-solving skills. Students will also explore career clusters and begin a project that helps them which career clusters best match their talents and life goals.
• Unit 2: Introduction to Careers in Health Sciences: In this unit, students learn about the history of health care and its shift from a focus on religion and culture to one a more scientific approach. Students also explore important medical discoveries of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the integration of technology into medicine.
• Unit 3: Hospitality and Tourism Systems: Travel and tourism is the largest industry in the world, and it continues to grow each year. Employing 7.5 million people in the United States, the travel and tourism industry depends on visitors traveling to or within the United States. In 2010, sixty million international visitors came to the United States and spent $134 billion. Travel is divided into two broad categories: leisure travel and business travel.The industry is made up of various sectors that provide services to people going on vacation, taking a business trip, or visiting an attraction. These sectors include accommodations, transportation, entertainment and attractions, sightseeing and guide services, dining services, and shopping and retail. Within the travel industry, the types of vacation packages or travel products people buy are either considered commodities or experiences.
• Unit 4: Human Services: In this unit, students will learn about the human services professional who usually works for a government agency or nonprofit organization. He or she provides assistance, counseling, and training to help people change and acquire better coping skills. These professionals do not rescue people; they empower people, and they respect people’s right to self-determination.Some of the populations targeted for help by human services professionals include those living in poverty, those suffering from substance abuse and alcoholism, the homeless, victims of domestic abuse, the mentally or physically disabled, and the elderly. Organizations that seek to help such people and employ human services professionals include federal and state agencies, drug and alcohol treatment centers, nursing homes and elder care facilities, women’s shelters, hospitals, psychiatric facilities, schools and universities, police departments, prisons, courts, and many others.
• Unit 5: Consumer Services: Consumer services organizations are those that provide services to individual consumers, as opposed to businesses. There are many industries represented in consumer services, offering careers in fields such as advertising, apparel, consulting, entertainment, health care, hospitality, law, personal services, online services, real estate, and travel.

The largest part of any consumer services job is working well with people to solve problems, which requires a positive attitude and good communications skills. Because of the wide range of opportunities and types of jobs in consumer services, educational requirements can vary from a high school diploma and on-the-job training to internships and graduate degrees. Some consumer services career paths, particularly in counseling or sales, require licenses or certifications.