Elementary Career Counseling by Dr. Jennifer Curry, PhD, NCC, College of Sciences and Education, Louisiana State University

Parents and Guardians: This is a great blog post that describes why elementary students are not too young to begin career exploration!

A few years ago, I was giving a presentation to graduate students from various education disciplines. I asked, “At what grade level should we start to promote career and college readiness in schools?” Overall, the group consensus was that career and college readiness should begin in high school. I was disappointed, although not surprised, by this answer. The misconception that high school is the time to begin career and college preparation is nothing new, but vastly incorrect. Like any area of development, career development is sequential and builds over time. For example, we don’t expect students to arrive to high school and take algebra, geometry, or calculus without any prior math courses. Can you imagine how they would react? Yet, there are some schools and districts where the same thing happens with career and college development; some students are not given a cohesive career curriculum until they are in late secondary education and are still expected to know how to make thoughtful career and college choices. In order to properly prepare, students should have access to quality, elementary career and college curriculum that is consistently delivered through a comprehensive school counseling program. Indeed, students in elementary school love career exploration and their natural curiosity, imagination, and sense of adventure lend to creative investigations of the world of work. School counselors should seek to make career and college exploration fun and exciting. Following are some essential ways to engage students, parents, and teachers in the most formative years of career development: pre-kindergarten through 5th grade.