Middle school is a great time to discover what you enjoy and start thinking about the future. SkillUpOHVA helps you explore interests, learn new skills, and see how your hobbies can connect to real careers.
From creative fields to technology and beyond, you’ll find tools and resources to help you learn more about what excites you. Have a question or want to share what interests you? Reach out—we’d love to hear from you.
All 7th grade students take a year-long career exploration course focusing on investigating career clusters and general career readiness skills.
All 8th grade students take two semester-long career exploration courses focusing on a specific career area. The 8th grade exploration course offerings are below:
This course is a Project Based Learning course (PBL). This course is designed as an exploration of the business career pathways. Students will get an introduction to business careers so that they can better assess which pathway to pursue. In this course students explore basic concepts in the broad areas of business and marketing, as well as career options in each area. Students study the concepts of marketing, financial management, and human resource management, in addition to other common business-related functions. Students complete projects to develop a deeper understanding of the roles these business functions play.
This course provides a practical guide to skills needed for arts, audio/video technology, and communications careers. Units will cover topics like the evolution of multimedia, animation, and film and career opportunities in these fields. You'll learn about positive work ethics, team dynamics, creativity, fashion influences, photography basics, time management, critical thinking, job acquisition, technology trends, and Internet risks. The course also emphasizes business etiquette and presentation skills.
This course is a Project Based Learning course (PBL) and is designed as an exploration of career pathways in healthcare. In this course students study the concepts of public service, effective communication, planning for emergencies, legal issues in health care, and career options in addition to other common related functions. Students complete projects to develop a deeper understanding of the roles these career functions play.
This course is a Project Based Learning course (PBL). This course is designed as an exploration of the agriculture career pathways. Students will get an introduction to agriculture careers so that they can better assess which pathway to pursue. In this course students explore basic concepts in the broad areas of agribusiness and agriscience, as well as career options in each area. Students study the concepts of horticulture, natural resources, and livestock production, in addition to other common agriculture related functions. Students complete projects to develop a deeper understanding of the roles these agricultural functions play.
This course is a Project Based Learning course (PBL). This course is designed as an exploration of the information technology career pathways. Students will get an introduction to information technology careers so that they can better assess which pathway to pursue. In this course students explore basic concepts in the broad areas of information technology, as well as career options in each area. Students study the concepts of networking information support, web and digital communications, and programming and software development.