Introduction
Not all school children and their parents can afford further education because it requires many financial resources as well as significant mental and psychological efforts. It is a severe problem because higher education is considered essential for a person’s professional success in the future. Even though they enroll in a college, it does not guarantee that everything will be excellent. It refers to the fact that many factors can be difficult for both novice and experienced students, which sometimes results in dropouts. Among these factors, the wrong choice of a professional career seems to be of great significance.
This negative phenomenon is integral to the modern educational system, which makes it necessary to improve the situation. Thus, it is essential to pay attention to strategies that focus on career-related services for college dropouts, while the CCIS model should be used to create a module introducing students to career information resources.
Plans and Strategies for College Dropouts
To begin with, one should note that many reasons result in college dropouts. For example, it refers to the wrong choice of college, loss of interest in further education, financial problems, difficulties in mastering courses, and many others. Even though all these causes have a significant impact on students, the wrong choice stands out against the others. According to Zunker, it is a popular idea today that students should be involved in lifelong learning (394). Thus, such a great variety of these causes and the focus on education denote that versatile plans and strategies should be used to address the phenomenon under analysis.
A few plans and strategies can focus on career-related services for college dropouts. These strategies should influence many educational and personal aspects to be effective. Firstly, individual aspects refer to the role of family and family education. In other words, appropriate early childhood interventions help improve children’s mental abilities and prepare them to make the right choice when it comes to choosing a college.
Secondly, it is possible to implement a systemic strategy that manifests itself in introducing appropriate changes to the educational system. It refers to the reevaluation of college policies and objectives to make them meet the job market needs more precisely. In addition to that, it is possible to enrich education with modern technologies that are said to improve educational results significantly. Finally, various programs that are to strengthen the reputation of higher education and successful careers prove to be effective (Zunker 394). Thus, these are popular plans and strategies that can be used to address the phenomenon under analysis.
It is believed that an effective educational program should include particular strategies. A comprehensive approach to the problem is said to be the most useful because it influences different aspects. Thus, it is reasonable to address college dropouts in advance rather than to deal with their consequences. It refers to the fact that early career-related education proves to be useful for this goal. When a child and their parents think of a future career from childhood, it strengthens the possibility that this child will choose the right college. It increases the role of parents in avoiding college dropouts. In addition to that, various career planning activities at schools are helpful in this situation.
When teachers and tutors make children involved in the discussion of their future careers, it helps these children make a reasonable choice (Zunker 391). While the two examples above impact the psychological reasons for dropouts, many schools also address educational ones. It relates to the fact that some schools offer specialized courses that prepare students for college standards. Thus, an effective instructional program should address various aspects of college dropouts.
A Module to Introduce High School Students to Career Information Resources Using the CCIS Model
The CCIS (Curricular Career Information Service) is “an innovative program for delivering educational and vocational information” that was initiated in Florida in 1975 (Zunker 401). This program provides students with various career planning guidelines. In addition to that, it is a multimedia-based program that uses an instructional model to help students make their own decisions. The CCIS has proved its efficiency, which explains the fact that numerous career centers widely use it. The program consists of many modules, each of which is responsible for introducing information of a particular kind, from basic principles of the program to career planning advice for African Americans.
Furthermore, the CCIS model can be sufficient to introduce high school students to career information resources. These are all those websites, services, and other phenomena that provide young people with useful information on possible professions, their advantages and disadvantages, ways to get them, and others. Everything that is needed for high school students is included in an appropriate CCIS module.
It can be called The Power of Information: Where to Find It and How to Use It. This title reflects the basics of the whole module, meaning that information is the principal asset when it comes to decision-making. The CCIS module will be based on two significant objectives. The first goal will be to help students find and identify the most credible career information resources, including career centers and websites. The second objective will be to teach these students how to analyze this information to choose the most suitable career path.
Furthermore, the module will include a few activities that will help achieve the goals mentioned above. Firstly, it will refer to a slide presentation that will offer a list of useful career information resources that can be found either online or on-site. Secondly, the students will obtain the possibility to use Career Key to find a job that will be from their fields of interest. Thus, at the end of this module, the students will have the following knowledge and competencies. On the one hand, they will be familiar with a high number of resources to find and analyze the existing information on available careers. On the other hand, they will have competency in how to use an application to find jobs.
Conclusion
Choosing the right career path is a complex task, which results in many people who make mistakes here. The situation becomes even severer when it becomes clear that young people should make this decision. Thus, it is one of many reasons that increase college dropout rates. At present, many plans and strategies are useful to address the phenomenon under consideration. The most effective of them should be included in an educational program to impact various aspects of the problem. What is more, the CCIS model proves to be useful to introduce high school students to career information resources. It is possible thanks to a carefully developed module that includes specific objectives, activities, and outcomes.
Work Cited
Zunker, Vernon G. Career Counseling: A Holistic Approach. 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2014.