(posted Wednesday, September 5, 2007)

New School of Education web site offers Indiana residents free service for gauging career path.

The newly-revamped website for a center in the Indiana University School of Education can help students get on a path toward an occupation at an early age. The new site for the Center for Research and P-16 Collaboration (at http://p16education.indiana.edu ) includes the “Career Information System,” or CIS, an information delivery system that allows users to enter information about themselves and learn what careers might interest them. Additionally, it points users towards college programs and financial aid while providing up-to-date salary information about each career. Many of the occupations listed, ranging from animal trainer to lens grinders to x-ray technicians, include short video presentations highlighting the careers.

“It’s really a tool to get students engaged in thinking about careers that match their interests,” according to Cathy Brown, director of the P-16 Center and associate dean for research and development in the School of Education.

The CIS is free to anyone who has an Indiana zip code or area code. Created by “intoCareers,” a center in the University of Oregon’s College of Education, 15 states now offer the CIS as the official career information delivery system. In most of those states, users must pay a small fee. IU’s P-16 Center is offering the service at no cost through a barter arrangement with intoCareers. The CIS uses a program developed by an IU School of Education professor. The School of Education is waiving the license fee in exchange for the use of the CIS. “There are other sites that you can get that do somewhat similar things, but you have to pay to really access the site,” Brown said.

Users who register can create a portfolio, saving information about areas of interest. Students can share their login information with a school guidance counselor and parents. The P-16 Center is reaching out to train counselors for using the CIS.

The program is aimed at students in middle school and up. It is designed to give a good overview of many career possibilities and what goes into preparing for those careers. “It’s a whole-picture kind of experience, Matt Dever, information specialist at the P-16 Center said. “We can get kids early, starting to think about what it is they’re going to need to do.”

 Brown added that such early thought about career interests can make a huge difference in student outcomes.  “There are lots and lots of data that show that the earlier kids start thinking about careers and planning for a career that they’re passionate about, the less they smoke, the less they do drugs, the less they get pregnant before they graduate, the longer they stay in high school, the more likely they are to go to college,” she said. “All the kind of things we want to promote through the P-16 Center.”

Brown also said offering such a valuable service for free is a great asset for developing the state workforce.  “Whether we get them to come to IU, or Ivy Tech, or to Vincennes, or do some kind of technical education that leads to a career,” she said, “the more we’re improving the economy of the state and the lives of the citizens of Indiana.”

Media Outlets:  the following comments are available as mp3 files on the IU School of Education Website at http://education.indiana.edu/news/tabid/5663/Default.aspx. Look for the story headline under “Podcasts.”

Brown describes how the CIS helps students determine career interests:
“It leads you down a path of exploring careers that can be matched to your interest as determined by that tool. So students can register, and then they can give their guidance counselors to that. They can give their parents access to what they do. They start a portfolio of the kinds of careers they might be interested in. Then it also provides programs of study that would lead to those careers, what institutions have those programs of study. It’s really a tool to get students engaged in thinking about careers that match their interests.”

Brown says the CIS addresses an important need—getting students engaged in learning:
“There are lots and lots of data that show that the earlier kids start thinking about careers and planning for  a career that they’re passionate about, the less they smoke, the less they do drugs, the less they get pregnant before they graduate, the longer they stay in high school, the more likely they are to go to college—all the kind of things we want to promote through the P-16 Center.”

Dever says the system does more than just list job possibilities.
“By that avenue, connect them to colleges, salary information, cost of living information. It’s a whole-picture kind of experience. And the neat thing about it is we can get kids early, starting to think about what it is they’re going to need to do in order to do the types of things with their lives that they’d like to do.”

Dever describes how any Indiana resident can get starts on the CIS:
“You can log on using ‘option 2,’ which permits you to choose your city or zip code and your area code, and you have full access to the site at that time.  You can create a personal folder by clicking on ‘My CIS’ which is the upper right corner of the screen, and create your own user name and password and save your work and it allows you to come back. But Indiana residents have the ability to use the full range of tools in the system.”

For More Information, Contact:

Chuck Carney
Director of Communications and Media Relations
Office:  (812) 856-8027
ccarney@indiana.edu