What does it mean to be life and career ready?
Career readiness is a process that informs individuals about career opportunities, helps them identify their talent, become aware of how their talent transfers into a wide range of occupational opportunities, and enables them to make effective decisions on the academic and post high school pathways that will enable them to pursue their career and life goals.
~Coalition for Career Development Center
Extended Learning Opportunities in Maine
What are ELOs?
2023 ELO Student Interviews
Job shadowing is the opportunity to observe an employee performing their daily work routine in their work environment. It allows a student to explore specific careers and to get a realistic picture of the tasks performed for that job. This experience is observational only (no work tasks performed), is time limited, and has no expectation of pay.
An internship is a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development directly related to the career field. Internships give students the opportunity to gain valuable applied experience and make connections in professional fields they are considering for career paths. Internships are offered by an organization for a determined period-of-time. Internships may be paid or unpaid.
Registered Apprenticeship is an industry-driven, high-quality career pathway where employers can develop and prepare their future workforce, and individuals can obtain paid work experience, classroom instruction, mentorship, and a portable credential. Registered Apprentice must be at least 16 years of age (except when a higher minimum age standard of 18 years is otherwise fixed by law or a sponsor) and employed to learn in an occupation approved by the Maine Department of Labor, Maine Apprenticeship Program.
Mentorship is a formal relationship with professional expectations where an experienced person provides a younger or less experienced person help and advice over a determined span of time, especially at work or school. There is a guidance expectation, mentor to mentee, for a pre-determined length of time.
Any instructional practice that effectively uses technology to strengthen a student’s learning experience and encompasses a wide spectrum of tools and practices. Examples include virtual interviews with industry professionals and self-paced online courses through the LMS Canvas program.
Work that is done without pay to help people, government, or nonprofit organizations in a community. Often, students will choose to complete community service hours with a community partner they connected with through a virtual interview conversation or job shadow.
A course of study done by a student independently, but with the guidance and support from an instructor. This is appropriate for students who are interested in a deep dive into a specific aspect or topic of a career.
See Mrs. Sanborn TODAY to find out how YOU can experience an ELO!