The 5-Step Career Compass Program

A Career Readiness and Life Skills Course for High School Students

The 5-Step Career Compass Program was designed to provide students with an internally-defined “compass” with which they can discover their unique talents, define success in their own terms, and develop skills for accomplishing their goals. This program was taught to two groups of juniors who volunteered to participate in a 10 session course during one study hall per week. The students’ response to the Spring 2004 pilot program was outstanding. The below ratings are based on a 10-point scale. Students stated that they:

• Would strongly recommend this course to other students (9.2)
• Have taken steps to improve a bad habit (9.0)
• Were more able to do centering (stress-reduction) techniques (8.3)
• Had a clearer vision of the future they want to create (8.9)
• Are more able to notice and control their thoughts (7.7)
• Have a stronger sense of direction and focus on their mission (7.8)
• Have taken one or more actions toward their chosen profession (7.2).
• Know how to use the “5 degrees of separation” technique for networking (7.9)

Comments about what they learned from the course include powerful statements, such as, “I learned:

• …I am a person who wants to be successful in life.”
• …how to focus my energy into what I want.”
• …how to change some of [my] bad habits.”
• …how to release stress.”
• …that there are many different talents, goals, and aspirations that I have and didn’t know about.”
• …a lot of issues I have that would stop me from doing or achieving my goals.”
• …that I am not someone who was put on this world without a purpose.”
• …I might not be an all bad person [as] some people say.”

Expanding the Successful Pilot into a Sustainable Curriculum Elective

Starting in the fall of 2005, Core Learning Services, Inc. will expand this successful pilot into an elective course that will be offered in the 2005-2006 school year. Our goal is a replicable course that builds upon what we have learned about students’ life skills and career readiness needs.

The course designer and instructors (Sharon Seivert and Arlene Reed-Delaney of Core Learning Services, Inc.) will train two or three teachers to deliver a 40-session program. These sessions will be videotaped for training purposes. Seivert, author of The Balancing Act: Mastering the5 Elements of Success in Life, Relationships and Work and The 5-Step Career Compass Program, will provide teachers with training in course content and group facilitation skills; Dr. Reed-Delaney will provide training in improving test-taking and studying skills.
Sustainability of this program will also be ensured by a Teacher’s Guide, web based services and testing, and regular measurements that are intended to insure course quality.

Problems to be Addressed by – and the Goals of – The 5-Step Career Compass Program

The full course will expand upon the pilot curriculum to address the problems and to achieve the goals summarized in the grid below:

The primary problems that The 5-Step Career Compass Program plans to address include:

1. Low sense of self-worth; self-sabotage. As one of the graduates of the pilot program stated: “What I learned from this course is that I’m not as bad a person [as] some say I am.” Low self-worth leads to a downward spiral of self-destructive activities and habits that conspire to defeat students. This is an identity and values-based course, rooted in expanding self-knowledge and developing the self-esteem that can reverse this spiral before it causes irreparable life and career damage.
2. Lack of direction and specific goals upon graduation. High school students often leave their senior year unable to articulate what they want to do with their lives and the kind of career path they hope to follow. In this course, students will use a logical, step-by-step formula that has proven helpful to mid-career adults in setting a new direction. Although students may not arrive at final answers by the time the course ends, they will learn the important questions they need to continue asking themselves.
3. Unexamined definitions of “success.” Unfortunately, high school students are bombarded with the social message that “success equals money.” This idea is so pervasive that it has become a given that is reinforced daily by peers and media. To compound the problem, many students emerge from middle schools with the message that they were “not good enough” academically. Understandably, they are concerned that they may not have access to the kind of college education that could provide them with the means to a better life.
4. Little recognition of innate gifts with which they can create real success. An in-depth study by Arthur Miller and Ralph Mattson of 3,000 people demonstrated we are born with innate gifts that show up early in our lives. Their data underscored that happiness is connected to doing what we are “designed to do.” In this study, “There was not one exception. Pressures from family, education, the culture and media notwithstanding, the data held true. That which motivated you when you were young continues to motivate you.” This course will help students recognize these innate treasures, rather than discounting them. (Unfortunately, most of us think that if something is easy for us, anyone can do it).
5. Inadequate tools to achieve career and life goals. Even with significant talent, a strong will, and the best intentions, it may still be difficult for these students to navigate the many obstacles that will lie between them and their career and life goals. The 5-Step Career Compass is a practical tool, a methodology that has already demonstrated its viability in adult populations. Once high school students learn it, they will be able to use it again and again, throughout college, the workplace, and life itself.
6. Ineffective habits for studying and test taking. Many students have self-sabotaging thoughts and habits that conspire to defeat them while studying and test taking. According to Dr. Arlene Reed-Delaney, many do not realize that test-taking is a serious game – and they need to learn the “rules of the game” to win. In this course, Dr. Reed-Delaney will give students many practical tips designed to improve their performance.
7. Lack of accessible role models and networking contacts. Unfortunately, the color-barrier has not yet been broken in many professions. When minority students look around them, they may not see – or have networking access to – the role models they need. Seeing people who look like you in the career and life roles you seek is a subtle, but vital, encourager of success. This course will draw from the communities of Core Learning Services, Inc. and the school to provide students with helpful professional contacts.
   

When the above-listed problems combine, students are more likely to encounter life and career problems. Therefore, the goals of this program are to:

1. Increase sense of self-worth and recognition of personal gifts. One of the major goals of this program is to help students discover the value of their innate talents, thereby improving self-esteem. We help them understand that they are an original, and that success lies in their uniqueness, rather than in being a copy of somebody else. By addressing career and life issues from the vantage point of students’ core identity and values, we can help them establish a strong life and work direction, more clearly envision a future, and set long-range goals that will significantly increase their likelihood of success. A strong self-image and sense of self-control are vital components of mental health (and deterrents to depression and/or other self-destructive behavior
2. Improve study habits and test taking skills. Hot tips for improving studying and test-taking habits will be taught by Dr. Arlene Reed-Delaney within the context of The 5- Step Career Compass Program. Students from the pilot program have already reported using the stress-reduction techniques they learned to improve their test taking performance. Dr. Reed-Delaney will help us capitalize upon this discovery by providing our students with many practical techniques that will help them “win” in this “serious game.” She will show students “how to hold the key in their hands so that it turns the lock.”
3. Shift career paradigms. This program supports schools’ encouragement of students to ask themselves a wide variety of career questions. In addition to: What jobs can I get?”; and, “Where can I make the most money?” we add questions such as “What are my gifts?”; “What does success mean to me?”; “What course of study and what career would use my gifts and make me happy?” We will also help them determine their financial needs and “how to get from here to there.”
4. Make high school studies more relevant to the future. Many students may have already received the message that they are scholastically mediocre. This course will help students determine a stronger context for their studies – one that suits the life they want to build and shows them how their studies can get them there. They will develop a personal vision that will help them keep their eyes on the prize and will provide them with a stronger motivation to excel in school.
5. Create a powerful personal vision and individual definitions of success. Another goal of this program is to shift students’ focus to personal definitions of success and a long-term future that is built on that definition. It is said that “without a vision the people perish,” and research has demonstrated how true that is. (In one study, low-income inner city students who articulated a vision proved to be upwardly mobile, while middle class suburban students without a vision wound up being downwardly mobile.)
6. Increase resilience by learning a tool for life and work. The 5-Step Career Compass will help students navigate the ever-changing college and workplace environment by helping them develop their resilience (ability to manage difficulties along the way). Moreover, students can return to this “compass” every time they change jobs, which is likely to be frequently. Current late-boomers have had 10 jobs by 36 years of age. With the volatility of the American marketplace, there is no reason to suspect that today’s graduates will experience any more stability in their careers.
7. Continually improve the program for future students. With the help of Nick Huntington, this course will include sophisticated pre-testing and post-testing to determine its effectiveness. We also will monitor and adjust the course from quarter to quarter based on facilitator and student feedback. Finally, we will solicit evaluations at the end of each course that will allow us to continually improve the course design and materials for each generation of students.
8. Provide professional development for teachers. One or two teachers on the faculty will be selected to teach this course. The quality of this course depends largely on the character of these teachers; they must “walk their talk” in order to teach this course well. These teachers will be mentored by Core Learning Services, Inc. staff in professional seminar delivery, tutored in the content of The 5-Step Career Compass Program, and will complete the program before delivering it. Note: These teachers will be reimbursed by CLS for their initial training time; moreover CLS is currently seeking CEUs from the MA Dept of Education for these teachers.
9. Generate parental participation and support. To augment the effectiveness of the program, we will involve parents from the outset, so that they understand our objectives and can better participate in their children’s development of these life and career skills. Parents will receive a Parents Guide and be invited to pre- and post course sessions where they will sample course content for themselves.
10. Develop a wider networking community for students. Networking is a key to career and life success. This program seeks to increase the networking power of these students by teaching them proven networking techniques, giving them assignments to connect with professionals in the field they are contemplating, active matchmaking through communities involved with Core Learning Services, Inc. and the school, and by bringing in a rich diversity of professionals to befriend the students.
11. Replicate course for permanent inclusion in school curriculum. This course is designed so each school will be able to replicate it easily. Not only will the teachers be trained, but the original course will have all 40 sessions videotaped. We also plan to develop web based services for the teachers and graduates of the course (so they have continued access to the material and credits for professional development)..

Summary

Core Learning Services, Inc. piloted an innovative career readiness and life skills program that proved very successful. The 5 Step Career Compass Program provides students with an internally-defined values-based “compass” with which they can become more self-aware, discover their unique talents, define success in their own terms, and develop skills for accomplishing their goals. The fervent wish of everyone involved in this project is that participating students will use The 5-Step Career Compass Program to discover their own greatness, then set a strong course toward living satisfying and successful lives.