An Evaluation of the Wisconsin Career Pathways Web Site: A Comprehensive Plan for Ongoing Development. Margaret A. Rubin, 2014: Applied Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, Abraham S. Fischler School of Education. ERIC Descriptors: Career and Technical Education, Career Exploration, Career Guidance, Evaluation, Web Sites. This research study was designed to provide for the ongoing development and improvement of the Wisconsin Career Pathways Web site. The Web site aids secondary educators in the development of secondary-to-postsecondary programs of study, assists middle and high school students in career exploration and academic planning, and helps middle and high school counselors and advisers guide students for success in college and careers by providing them with access to school-wide and individual student Web-site activity. The Web site was developed in phases following a year of planning during the 2008-09 fiscal year. The concept of programs of study is a relatively new and emerging school-reform initiative, and the Wisconsin Career Pathways Web site project was initiated as a Web-based dynamic data-driven resource to help Wisconsin stakeholders. The Web site has been in a constant state of development, expansion, upgrade, and improvement since the launch of its 1st phase in 2010. A developmental evaluation approach was utilized to address the evolving nature of the Web site. The writer developed online surveys to gather input from 3 stakeholder groups: technical college career-prep administrators, middle and high school counselors and advisers, and secondary program-of-study builders. Following quantitative and qualitative data analysis of the surveys, the writer developed a preliminary plan for the Web site's ongoing development and followed up with a focus-group session of interested survey participants representing each of the stakeholder groups. Based on the analysis of qualitative data collected at the focus-group session, the researcher finalized the preliminary plan. The final plan includes a discussion of the data collected and analyzed as well as recommendations for ongoing development and improvement of the Web site. The sequential mixed-methods approach was instrumental in exposing the satisfactory components of the Web site. In general, the data reflected satisfaction with the Web site, namely its user-friendliness, which was one of the project team's earliest goals for the Web site. The Web site is seen as an essential resource for Wisconsin stakeholders. To keep moving forward with Wisconsin's program-of-study and college and career planning initiatives, addressing the unmet needs of stakeholders will not only increase Web-site usage but will lead to a clearer understanding of those initiatives. Based on the results of this study, the researcher developed a comprehensive plan. The plan suggests that improving the online program-of-study builder tool, providing more training, building reporting capacity, developing a marketing plan, and increasing Web-site interactivity based on push-notification technology are necessary actions for the ongoing development and improvement of the Web site. The findings of the study will be submitted to the Wisconsin Technical College System.

There is an extensive amount of research on career development, but most of the constructs studied have focused on content-oriented variables rather than process-oriented variables. While some of the studies have examined samples from ethnic minority populations, the majority of studies use ethnic minority populations as comparison groups, studying between-group differences as opposed to within-group differences. The literature is especially deficient in the are of Latino career development. The current study will examine how family and culture influence the career development of Latino emerging adults. This study will explore the influence of socioeconomic status and acculturation on the career salience and career maturity of Latino emerging adults. The quality of the parent-emerging adult relationship will also be explored for its influence on career development outcomes in this population. One hundred fifty Latino undergraduate students ages 18-24 will be recruited for participation in this study. The participants will complete questionnaires regarding demographic information, acculturation, the quality of the parent-emerging adult relationship, career salience, and career maturity.

University graduates stand at the dawn of their careers, seeking meaningful employment in a labour market that is characterised by volatile change and globalisation. This new world of work requires flexibility, versatility, and creativity ‒ skills not traditionally required of an employee. Graduates today are required to develop a skills-set that enables pro-active career behaviour and, furthermore, aid the employer to utilise such abilities as business solutions. There is a lack of consensual scientific knowledge available on employability, despite the rise in its importance to the 21st century employer and graduate employee. This is especially true for the South African context. Accordingly, the main aim of this study was to investigate the employability and psychological career resources of graduate students to identify the strengths and development areas of the sample. A self-administered questionnaire consisting of standardised instruments, specifically the Psychological Career Resources Inventory (PCRI, developed by Coetzee, 2008) and the Graduate Employability Measure (GEM, developed by Bezuidenhout, 2011), was distributed to a random sample of 113 final-year students from the Faculty of Economic and Management Science of the University of Pretoria. The results indicate a strong employability profile with few clear-cut development areas. Students believe themselves to have high levels of career resilience (mean = 4.94; SD 0.75), whilst also having a strong inclination to the openness to change dimension (mean = 4.86; SD = 0.59), pointing to an overall all adaptable orientation to their careers. In terms of the psychological career resources profile, the sample presented with high scores on all dimensions namely: career preferences, career values, career purpose, career harmonisers, and career drivers. This prevailing positive perception regarding psychological career resources can be seen as balanced, and thus facilitates adaptive, proactive career behaviour, which, in turn, influences general employability. This result is validated by the high mean scores on all employability dimensions. It is also evident that there are no significant differences to be observed between men and women across all dimensions measured, indicating that men and women are equally likely to be proactively involved in their career-management in order to develop the skills required to be seen as employable. Furthermore, there is evidence of significant relationships between the majority of psychological career resources dimensions and those of the graduate employability dimensions. These results are expected to add valuable insights to the field of career management literature and human resources practices alike, which, in turn, will inform graduates regarding their prospects. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur 18–19-åringar värderar karriär. Detta görs utifrån de tre begreppen; autenticitet, balans och utmaning och det mångriktade karriärbegreppet. För att kartlägga och förstå värderingen av karriär används en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod. Urvalsgruppen är gymnasieelever i södra Sverige. Studien bidrar till karriärforskning i svensk kontext och bland unga som är på väg in på arbetsmarknaden, vilket inte i stor utsträckning har undersökts tidigare. Begreppen autenticitet, balans och utmaning i KCM var relevanta för urvalsgruppen, där autenticitet värderas högst. Studien presenterar nya infallsvinklar som nyanserar 18-19-åringars värdering av karriär i förhållande till KCM. Studien visar att 18–19-åringars definition av karriär är i linje det mångriktade karriärbegreppet. / The purpose of this study is to examine how 18-19-year-olds assess career based on three parameters, authenticity, balance and challenge, and the protean career concept. To identify and understand the assessment of career quantitative and qualitative research methods are used. The sample are high school students in southern Sweden. The study contributes to career research in a Swedish context and among young adults who are about to enter the labor market, which has not been examined to a large extent. The concepts authenticity, balance and challenge in KCM were relevant to the sample, and authenticity was valued most highly. The study contributes with new approaches to 18-19-year-olds assessment of career in relation to KCM. The study shows that 18-19-year-olds’ definition of career is similar with the protean career concept.

Libraries can play a much important role in imparting career guidance. In formal education, library is described as ‘heart of education’. The library system in higher education is committed to provide independent learning environment to student. From the book houses the libraries have gone to an individual residence to share the shelves of knowledge. Therefore, it can be inferred that the success of career guidance in educational institutions depends upon the efficient library system. Therefore the system of education has to take care of strengthening the library system and thus disseminate career information. Librarians with their abilities in knowledge organization and dissemination skills can play a profound and enduring role in encouraging and assisting young people to follow their hearts and to pursue their dreams. In developing countries like India college librarians can play a major role in the career development of the youth who comes to the library for guidance and support in their study and to prepare for their future career opportunities.

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / The contribution of an MBA degree on career mobility in South Africa is of importance and exhibits strong interest from academics, business and public space. Many people believe that an MBA can help for any managerial position especially in cooperate business set up in terms of upward career mobility and skills acquisition. This study wanted to find out if indeed qualifying with an MBA degree helps graduates to move upward, get better salaries and benefits and feel more skilled.This study was conducted using graduates from the Turfloop Graduate School of Leadership, University of Limpopo, who graduated between 2007 and 2011. A total of 44 participants responded. The results mainly indicated that the MBA qualification does help in helping graduates feel better capacitated and ready for managerial positions. The qualification also helps with higher positions and/or salaries. However, for candidates to realise those better positions they mostly need to move to other organisations or even other provinces.The study recommends that another study focused on more universities that offer MBA in South Africa be carried out to compare the career advancement of graduates from all these universities. Another one that focuses on the reasons why career progression is not mostly realised in organisations within which candidates worked prior to getting an MBA degree is also recommended.

This study is an interpretive investigation of the life-career histories of 53 women in engineering; and a case study of one woman's account of present-lived career and her quest for identity in engineering over an eight year period (1992-1999). This study had two broad aims. First, it aimed to give voice to women's stories derived from their own reflective accounts, and to compare and contrast their perspectives with feminist writers' reviews of non-traditional girls' and women's career experiences, and with the organisational career story of itself. Second, it aimed to evaluate the adequacy of my convergence of a socialist feminist "unified systems" theory of social relations (Jaggar, 1983, 1989; Jaggar & Rothenberg, 1984, 1993) with Super's segmental life-span, lifespace theory (Super, 1980, 1990, 1994) to explain women's career and personality development. Further to this theoretical convergence, I elaborated on Super's original models and evaluated their usefulness for my gender analysis of career from four perspectives. I conceptualised "career" as both "subjective" and "organisational" (Dale, 1972; Hughes, 1937) and, using Benhabib's (1986b) terminology, created four perspectives by further differentiating career into either "generalised other" or "concrete other" (see Figure 1.1). Drawing on the findings of my exploration of the women's careers, I extended the range of Jaggar's/Super's explanatory theories of career and personality development (Figure 2.2) in an elaboration of Supers archway model (Figure 8.1). I found that my combined Jaggar/Super career archway and spider web model (Figure 2.3) represented the life-space tensions in each individual woman's career decision-making in engineering. / The life-career rainbow was a valuable subsidiary model (Figure 2.4) in highlighting the complexities of gender as an overarching socio-cultural factor for theoretical and conceptual analyses of career and its effect on salient role relationships and personality development at each life-stage. My convergence career ladder represented the organisational career statuses and the successive development of the subjective career and identity through the completion of developmental tasks (Figure 2.6). My case study Cecilia, in common with other participants, I found to be an accomplished "feminine ambivalent" (Douvan & Adelson, 1966) and "paver of the way" (Josselson, 1987), yet she (like several others) floundered in the milieux of engineering. Her story indicates the continued need for engineering educators: to acknowledge the significance of women's subjective constructs of career to effect transformative change by promoting equity and excellence; to recognise ways in which the subjective and the organisational constructs of career can complement one another; and to implement changes which facilitate such complementarity. This study fills a space in the research literature on non-traditional girls' and women's career development. It also has potential to assist those who wish to gain a better understanding of the career pathways of women in engineering.

This thesis examines the capacity and desire of older workers to provide discretionary effort and skilled contributions in what some researchers consider to be the predominant form of new career, the 'boundaryless career'. Features of the 'boundaryless career' include multiple employers, and the demise of the organisational loyalty that was embodied within the image of the 'company man'. The research is justified by the fall in Australia's fertility rates and the simultaneous ageing of Australia's population. In combination, these are predicted to produce significant shortfalls in skilled labour, which experts believe will require organisations to better manage and utilise its older workers. The case study and pattern matching methodology involved interviews with forty volunteer older workers who worked in the headquarters of Australia Post, which enjoys a formidable local and international reputation. 'Career plateau' was a term used by many to describe their perception of their current career position and prospects. Their descriptions of their work situation and their ambitions, at work and in retirement, were analysed for patterns which were then compared with literature on career plateaus, motivation and job design, and the 'boundaryless career'. This analysis was overlaid onto a foundation of contemporary management practice with regard to older workers, current business environments and issues, and views on the skill sets needed for the future. This foundation emerged from a review of academic literature, business and government reports and from an ongoing review of the Australian Financial Review over the six years of the study. Contributions to theory and practice are claimed in the parent theories of career plateau, and older worker motivation; together with the focus theory of boundaryless careers. Although there are legitimate organisational constraints on optimising the older worker contribution, older workers do not contribute to capacity, and organisations do little to optimise their contribution. Joint organisational and individual worker attention to skills maintenance and career management over an entire working life will likely be 'boundaryless' for both organisations and the older workforce.

This study examines the relationship between career management and career advancement, and the moderating effects of mentoring support. Organizational career management practices (OCM) includes four dimensions (e.g. potential, feedback, succession, and development), which improve employees¡¦ skills and abilities, prepare them for higher level responsibility within the organization and contribute to career advancement. In addition, individuals, who are willing to manage their careers, have better awareness of themselves, developing appropriate strategies (e.g. networking, self nomination, increase visibility) to attain the opportunities of career advancement. Furthermore, mentoring support, such as providing challenging assignments, suggesting strategies for accomplishing work objectives, would enhance proteges¡¦ networking strength, and increase their visibility to powerful decision maker within the organization. It may moderate the relationship career management and career advancement. In this research, we use empirical data taken from 225 employees and through further data analysis we draw some research conclusions as follows. 1. The experiences of organizational career management facilitate the development of employees, and help them more realized their potential, which is related to career advancement. 2. Individual career management is positive related to career advancement. 3. Though hierarchical regression analysis, the results reveal that mentoring support is a moderator of organization career management, individual career management, career advancement.

This study examined the influence of career preparation courses on student achievement at MacArthur High School, San Antonio, Texas. MacArthur is the only high school in the district to use the 6.5 scaled registrar’s grade point average (RPA) system, as opposed to the standard 4.0 scaled grade point average. Final computations were converted to the standard 4.0 scale for uniformity. The intent of the study was to determine if there was a relationship between enrollment in career preparation courses and grade point averages, absenteeism, and dropout rates. Moreover, the study sought to determine the relationship between students enrolled in career preparation courses and students not enrolled within these three areas of investigation. Data were collected from the student records of the population of the study, which consisted of 532 students, and was used in conjunction with descriptive and co-relational statistics, including ANOVAS and Scheffes. The results of this study support that career preparation students in the study possessed a higher grade point average. Additionally, this study supported the literature review regarding career preparation student absenteeism and dropout rates. The career preparation students spend more time at school, which enhances their propensity for learning. The study also compared career preparation students to students not enrolled in career preparation courses by grade point average at MacArthur High School. The results of this portion of the study showed that the non-career preparation students, the health occupation students, as well as the trade and industry students, all possess a higher grade point average than do the business and marketing students. This is attributable for the most part to skill sets needed for scientific definitions, higher math skills, and enhanced scientific knowledge. Further study should be done to ascertain the extent of individual factors in determining success in other district high schools.