Wednesday, January 29, 2003
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Wednesday, January 29, 2003 |
Career fairs help students plan for futureDeciding what to do with the rest of one's life can be a daunting task for many students. Finding the right career that fits with a student's interest is the key to developing a fulfilling professional life but pinpointing a particular profession is easier said than done. Fayette's middle schools are doing their part to help students plan a successful future for themselves by hosting yearly career fairs. Fairs scheduled for February include Whitewater Middle, Feb. 21 from 8:30-10:15 a.m.; J.C. Booth Middle, Feb. 28 from 8:30-10:30 a.m.; and Rising Starr Middle, Feb. 28 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Unlike a job fair, which is designed to showcase positions for which a person can immediately be hired, career fairs offer exploratory opportunities for students to learn as much as possible about a variety of career fields. With so many career options available in today's job marketplace, students often discover an area of interest that they had never considered. The school's guidance department is responsible for coordinating career fairs. Counselors work hard to include as many different career fields as possible that might be of interest to the school's student population. In order to ensure that students are getting valuable information from the fair, they are required to survey several presenters in their area of interest. General survey questions often include salary range, education needed, opportunities for advancement and effect of economy on the career field. Although middle school students are several years away from graduation, the fairs are important at this level because they spark the thinking process and help students begin preparing for the appropriate course of study when they enter high school, according to Janice McLeroy, counselor at Rising Starr Middle School. "Students at this age are still so influenced by their parents, relatives, friends and TV figures that they don't realize all of the career options that are available," said McLeroy. "We want our students to see so much more that is out there, and developmentally this is the time to strike." Although many students plan for careers that require a college education, McLeroy points out that technical careers are going to be the fastest growing field for the next 25 years. The old school of thought that vocational schools were for those students who could not make the cut for college is slowly waning as technical colleges are preparing students for the future. McLeroy says that Rising Starr's career fair for eighth-graders will help them see the options in the technical fields and the pathways to get there. "When a ninth-grader begins high school on the track that he or she chose through the four-year planning meeting, there is very little room for change during that four-year period," said McLeroy. "Those that fail to plan, plan to fail." While career fairs help expose students to careers they might not know about, parents are still the most influential people in their children's lives says McLeroy and she encourages parents to get involved in their children's career planning. There are many websites and books that are user-friendly and easy reading. McLeroy suggests that an easy first start on the Internet would be to visit the Georgia Career Information Center at www.gcic.edu. This Web site allows users to explore more than 450 career clusters with specific career profiles and jobs under those clusters. Users can also take their findings and explore college/technical requirements for those job areas.
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