Career Cluster Overview

WHITEHALL HIGH SCHOOL IS A CAREER CLUSTERS SCHOOL

What are Career Clusters?

Career Clusters guides students of all ages through a process to realistically prepare them for a promising future. Career Clusters are designed to provide all students with the academic and technical skills they need to reach their career goals.

How does it work?

Career Clusters utilizes career awareness throughout the elementary school years. The program teaches students about a broad range of careers through guest speakers, videos, and field trips.

Elementary Building Blocks for Careers, a teacher resource guide containing career lesson plans aligned with the state standards of education has also been developed to help teachers integrate career education into the elementary classroom.

Career exploration is the focus of the middle school years. Students are encouraged to explore their interests by gathering information about careers, including their requirements and the lifestyles they represent. Students utilize the Middle School Planner, a workbook designed to help both students and teachers explore careers and educational options. Additionally, XELLO, a web-based career exploration and planning tool is available to you and your child to explore career and college options and create a comprehensive career portfolio. Students will log into XELLO using Clever or the username and password obtained from their counselor or teacher.

Career preparation is a key component of Career Clusters and ninth graders, with the help of their parents, guidance counselors and some special tests, choose one of four broad clusters of careers to pursue: Arts and Humanities, Business & Communication Technology, Engineering & Industrial Technology, and Health & Human Services.

Then, they choose one of two pathways within that cluster:

• College Prep, which leads to jobs that require four or more years of college OR

• Core, which leads to jobs that require an associate’s degree or advanced technical training.

High school students take both the standard required courses as well as courses recommended by their chosen cluster and pathway, which means some students get to take courses at the local career and technical institute. A Secondary Resource Guide has been developed to help teachers continue to integrate career education into the high school classroom through lesson plans aligned with the state standards of education.

Career Clusters aims to prepare students for careers based on their specific interests and abilities, so once they choose a career cluster, they’re not locked-in. This flexibility, along with experiences like job shadowing days and internships, helps students decide if a certain career is right for them at a time when their choices won’t cost them money. Career development and life-long learning are the final phases of Career Pathways and are achieved when students continue preparing for their careers through post-secondary education. Students are encouraged to make learning a life-long priority.

CAREER-FOCUSED EDUCATION – CAREER PATHWAYS

The curriculum at Whitehall High School is changing. Our goal is to meet the individual needs of each student while, at the same time, preparing them to find success as an adult. Career Clusters offers different avenues through which students can pursue an education leading to their future career goals. Realizing that the goals of each student are important, Career Clusters establishes a curriculum with two different, yet equal, programs of study. Both the “College Prep” and the “Core” pathways offer a rigorous, practical education to prepare them for the future.

HOW DO CAREER CLUSTERS WORK?

Rather than the traditional “one-size-fits-all” curriculum which may not meet the needs of each student, Career Clusters provides two curriculum programs, each with specialized course offerings. Eighth grade students will begin on their “path” by setting career goals after being oriented in the four career areas:

● Arts and Humanities

● Business and Communications Technology

● Engineering/Industrial Technology

● Health and Human Services

Next, they will choose their academic focus by enrolling in the “College Prep” program (for students whose plans include study at a traditional four-year college or university) or the “Core” program (for students whose interests lie in the pursuit of a career through study at a vocational-technical school, trade school, business school, junior college, community college, or initial entry into the world of work). The student will then focus on a flexible career plan within their chosen path.

WHAT HAPPENS ONCE STUDENTS CHOOSE THEIR “PATH?”

In grades nine and ten, the “College Prep” and the “Core” programs both include a similar core curriculum. Students who change their mind can select a different Career Cluster.

Once a student reaches his or her junior year, differences in the selected pathways become more evident. At that time, in addition to the core curriculum, students select from a list of electives within their chosen Career Cluster (Arts and Humanities, Business and Communications Technology, Engineering/Industrial Technology, Health and Human Services).

YOUR FUTURE - UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM:

In America, billions of dollars are spent each year to provide an education for children and youth, frequently stressing education as a goal in itself. Each June at graduation ceremonies, school officials routinely announce the percentage of students continuing their studies at post-secondary institutions. It was and is assumed that a good education will produce a positive and satisfying lifestyle. In general, this wisdom is still very valid. However, continued education without some vision of a future career goal may lead a student to years of aimless wandering through college programs, incurring extra expenses and a delayed entry into the labor market. Students, families, and schools should be creating realistic career expectations based on achievement, personal choice, and future labor market demands. Consider these facts about the typical four-year college student in Pennsylvania:

1. The most popular major for college freshmen is “UNDECLARED”.

2. Nearly 40% of all college freshmen do not complete their first year.

3. Less than 30% of all college freshmen earn a baccalaureate degree in four years. It takes six years for 50% of the
   students to earn a four year degree.

4. One out of every two college graduates cannot find work in their field. One out of three cannot find college level
   employment.

Shown below is data indicating major changes in the job skill requirements of our economy during the period 1950-2010 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

The percentage of professional occupation positions requiring a four year degree has remained rather constant. Strong growth in the skilled area includes those positions requiring one to four years of post-secondary education. Currently the American skilled labor force has completed 1.6 years of schooling beyond high school. It appears safe to assume that future educational requirements for skilled workers will only increase with technological advances made by our society. For those individuals without skills or plans to acquire them, opportunities are decreasing and the outlook is gloomy. Unskilled opportunities are clearly moving to third world countries.