Career Education for Improving Employment Skills

David R. Wetzel

Continuing education is necessary to improve work place skills and knowledge, along with establishing an action plan to achieve career goals.

Career education prepares adults for improved job skills in all sectors of career fields. This type of continuing education supports the lifelong learning efforts of employees in professional, managerial, sales, service, clerical, trades, and labor. This education for adults comes in many forms such as college courses, workshops, community education, continuing education units, and on-the-job training.

Career education is often referred to as technical education or vocational education, because adult learners develop expertise in a particular set of job skills or technology applications within a career field. These work related programs and courses are typically offered in classroom instruction settings or via online learning. Adults who enroll in these programs or courses do so for a variety of reasons to meet career goals and objectives.

Interesting Facts: Career Education and Work Related Courses

Career development is designed to support adult learners who enroll in vocational schools to improve their employment skills and knowledge. The following is a statistical summary of facts regarding adults who enrolled in career education courses (National Center for Educational Statistics, Career and Technical Education Statistics, 2009).

Occupational Reasons

• Because Employer Required Courses – 63 percent

• To Maintain or Improve Skills or Knowledge – 95 percent

• To Learn New Skills or Methods – 83 percent

• To Earn a Raise of Advance in a Job or Career – 19 percent

• To Change Job or Career – 10 percent

Subjects

• Basic Education or self improvement – 8 percent

• Business – 34 percent

• Computer Science – 15 percent

• Education – 9 percent

• Health – 32 percent

• Science – 10 percent

• Social Sciences and Services – 6 percent

• Vocational Trades – 10 percent

• Other – 10 percent

Online Learning – 31 percent of adults enrolled in continuing education use the Internet to complete courses

Note: The total does not add to 100 percent in any heading area, because respondents to the survey were able to select more than one category to explain their reason for enrolling in education courses.

Vocational Schools: Career and Technical Education

Vocational schools are designed to provide adults with methods for improving their employment or knowledge skills through career and technical education. The following are characteristics of well designed schools, which adults must consider prior to enrollment.

• College courses taught with relevance to the work place requirements, not general knowledge courses.

• Development of employee skills, which range from job skills improvement through workplace ethics.

• Career pathway courses that link work place skills with advancement to management skills.

• Education programs that provide continuing education units for renewal of certification or licensure.

• Education for additional training and degrees; especially courses related to workplace training, skills upgrades, and career advancement.

When enrolling in vocational schools, verification of accreditation type is essential. These career schools are typically accredited two ways, national or regional accreditation.

• Regional Accreditation – these schools are normally academic oriented and non-profit, such as community and junior colleges.

• National Accreditation – these schools are normally for-profit schools, which offer vocational, career, or technical programs.

Accreditation type is important for adults who may want or need to transfer between schools. National accreditation school credits typically do not transfer to other schools. Regional accreditation school credits will typically transfer to other regional accredited schools. Transfer of credits is always on a case by case basis and final decision resides with receiving school.

Career Development: Planning for Success

A career development action plan is considered by many to be a road map of how an adult moves up the ladder in a career field through continuing education. This plan must be in writing to allow an individual to view actions necessary to advance with a chosen career field. An important point to remember is that the action plan is not written in stone. There must be room for amendments as time passes and new opportunities present themselves.

When developing a career development action plan, there are certain areas which must be considered and include:

• Short Term Goals – to be accomplished within the next year and five years.

• Long Term Goals – to be accomplished beyond five years.

• Barriers to Achieving Goals – things which must be overcome to achieve goals such as arranging for transportation, child care, financial aid, and employer assistance.

Making Connections Between Career Education and Improving Work Skills

Adults considering enrolling in career or technical schools to maintain or improve their employment skills are not alone. There are millions of adults enrolled in continuing education programs and courses around the country today who all have the same goals in mind, maintaining or improving work skills and knowledge. Successful adults are those who plan how to complete courses and have developed specific career goals.

careers, Jobs Indonesia, Indonesia Vacancy