1 Florida CHOICES Planner User Guide for Secondary Students Florida Department of Education January 2010 A.Access and Login for Studentspgs 2-4 BIntroduction to CHOICES Plannerpgs 5-9 C.Assessment- Interest Profilerpgs D.Exploring Careerspgs EConnecting Careers to What to Learn in High School pgs F.Connecting Careers to What to Learn Beyond High School pgs G.Connecting Programs/Majors to Postsecondary Schools pgs H.Career Finderpgs I.Creating a Career Planpgs J.Your Portfoliopgs K.Moving and Merging Portfoliospgs 36-38

2 A. Access and Login for Students 1. Go to which will take you to the Florida version of CHOICES. If you see an orange background, you are on the correct page. 2. Select Create a new portfolio under Student Sign In. 3. Select your county and then the name of your school or site. If you are at a middle school and it is not listed, use your district's middle school site name. Example: ORANGE COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOLS. If you don’t find your school, you can use “other.” Go to

3 4. Fill in the information as requested to create a portfolio. The portfolio name and password are case sensitive, so a good guide is to use “lower case, no space” for these. When creating a portfolio and password, you might consider using your first and last name and date of birth for your portfolio. Use your phone number, hometown, or student number for your password. (Note to educators: See page 39 for additional suggestions.) 5. After you have created your portfolio, on all follow-up visits, you can type in your Portfolio name and Password under Student Sign In.

4 6. When you create or sign into your portfolio, you land on the YOUR TOOLS page. Select CHOICES Planner to access the program. (Note: Educators-Select the Educators tab to access lesson plans and other resources.)

5 B. Introduction to CHOICES Planner 1. The CHOICES Planner program has four main pages: Home, Work, Learn, and Your Portfolio. These pages are accessed by tabs that are displayed on the top of all pages in CHOICES Planner, so it makes it very easy to navigate through the program. 2. On the Home page, you will find links to: FACTS.org The Florida Department of Education. The Spanish version of CHOICES Planner. Select “Español.” Guideways, a step-by-step guide through the program. Various features on the Work and Learn pages.

6 3. On the Work page, you can explore careers in a variety of ways: Florida Career Clusters Connect Yourself to Careers- take an assessment Alphabetical List Video List Gold Star (These are careers in Florida that have excellent wages and employment opportunities whose education requirement is no more than two years of post-secondary education/training.)

7 4. Also on the Work page, you will find several other features. The Career Finder allows you to search for careers using your assessment results and other criteria about yourself. The Compare Careers allows for side by side comparisons of careers. The Career Plan Builder allows you to develop your own career plan. (This feature is discussed in more detail in Section I.) The Getting Ready to Work provides information on Resumes, Interviewing, and Cover/Thank-you letters. The Search feature found on each page in CHOICES provides more information.

8 5. On the Learn page, you will find the following education and planning information: Programs and Majors organized by Career Clusters. School Finder which allows you to find schools based on specific characteristics and factors. The Compare Schools which allows for side by side comparison of schools. You can compare admission requirements, cost, and course offerings. Find Schools By allows you to search for schools in Florida and other parts of the country. The Scholarship Finder uses questions about yourself to identify scholarships that you can research. The Find Scholarship By allows you to search for scholarships by their name. The Federal Financial Aid provides information and web links to the various types of federal financial aid. College Planning is information for high school students that are college bound.

9 6. The Your Portfolio page is where your information is stored in CHOICES Planner. The All About You section stores your personal information and assessment results. The Things You Saved section is where your saved career information is stored. In addition, you will also find the Your Plans, Your Journal, and Your Activities pages.

10 C. Assessment- Interest Profiler 1. From the Home page, select the Work tab. 2. Under Connect Yourself to Careers, select the Interest Profiler. Note: The Interest Profiler is the recommended assessment for middle school students to use to identify their career cluster(s) in preparation for completing their ePersonal Education Planner (ePEP).

11 4. Answer all 180 questions as they relate to your interests. Remember this is not a test, there are no "right" or "wrong" answers. 5. Your results are displayed. Further down on the page is information on all the Interest Areas and Career Clusters 6. Now select Check out careers matching your interests. 3.Select Start answering questions. The estimated time to complete this assessment is minutes. Note: If you are interrupted in the middle of this assessment, you can return later and continue without having to start over.

12 7. You may repeat steps 1-2 to take other assessments such as: The Work Values Sorter, The Basic Skills Survey, or Cluster Finder. These assessments are found on the Work tab under Connect Yourself to Careers on the right side of the page.

13 D. Exploring Careers 1. Follow steps 1-6 in SECTION C. Click on Check out careers matching your interests from the Interest Profiler results page. 2. Select the title of a career that you want to learn more about.

14 3. Use tabs on the top left to explore labor market information about each occupation. (Shown is the What They Do tab which gives a description of the occupation.) The Compare Careers feature allows for side by side comparison of two careers. 4. Choose the Add to Portfolio link at the top right of the page to save careers of interest. Click the back button to return to the previous page.

15 5. The Is This for You tab shows the desired work traits for this occupation. 6. Continue clicking on the Skills You Need, Money and Outlook, and Connections tabs to get more information about the career. Some occupations also have a Military Options tab.

16 2. Select the career pathway. 3. Then select the Recommended Courses. E. Connecting Careers to What to Learn in High School 1. Follow steps 1-3 in SECTION D.

17 4. Review the recommended courses for the career you are interested in pursuing. You can print the pathway with courses for grades 9-12 to use as a template for completing the ePersonal Education Planner (ePEP). Note: Use the Add to Portfolio link at the top right of the page to add the pathway to your portfolio. You can click the back button twice to return to the occupational reports to continue your exploration.

18 F. Connecting Careers to What to Learn Beyond High School 1. Follow steps 1-2 in SECTION D. 3. Under Beyond High School choose a program of interest to you. 2. Select the What to Learn tab.

19 3. Read the program description. If this is something you are interested in, then select Add to Portfolio to save this program of study to your portfolio. How to connect programs of study to post secondary schools will be covered in SECTION G.

20 2. Under Find a School Offering This Program, choose the type or length of program and select GO. ( Note: Florida is the defaulted state, but you can change your search to another state.) G. Connecting Program/Majors to Postsecondary Schools 1. Follow steps 1-3 in SECTION F.

21 3. Select the title of a school. 4. Use tabs on left side of the report to explore schools. The Compare Schools feature allows for a side by side comparison of two schools. Add schools you are interested in to your portfolio by selecting the Add to Portfolio.

22 H. Career Finder 1. The Career Finder helps you narrow down a list of hundreds of careers to only the ones matching the characteristics you want. The Career Finder is located on the Work page. 2. Start by clicking one of the characteristics you'd like in a career.

23 3. To get the list of careers that match your Interest Profiler assessment results, choose Interests under My Characteristics. 4. Then select Use Interest Profiler Results under Interest Profiler.

24 6. Repeat steps 3-5 for other assessments you have taken such as Values and Basic Skills. The more characteristics used, the more finite the list of careers. 5. Click on See Your Matching Careers. 7. Students can choose other characteristics such as Education, Money and Outlook, Skills, and Career Facts to search for careers. 8. Use the Shortcut Career Finder to search for careers using just education, salary, and field of work.

25 I. Creating a Career Plan 1. From the Work page of Florida CHOICES Planner, choose Career Plan Builder.You can use these plans to build an ePEP in FACTS.org.

26 2. Select Create a new career plan. 3. Select Start your plan now.

27 4. Choose one of the careers from your portfolio list and select Add. 5. Confirm your career choice by answering questions about the career you chose. If you are satisfied, select Save and continue.

28 6. You will see a list of suggested courses for you to pursue in high school. If you are satisfied with your choice, select Save and continue.

29 7. Review the educational paths and select Add for the program to use in your plan. 8. To confirm your educational path, select Save and continue.

30 9. Explore the suggested schools by selecting the name of the schools. 10. If the school interests you, select Add to your Plan.

Confirm the choice of your Post-Secondary School. If you are satisfied with your choice, select Save and continue. 12. Now make some predictions on your lifestyle and then select Save and continue.

Review the steps to make your Career Plan happen. 14. Answer some questions on your plan.

33 1. On the All About You page, you can move your portfolio to another school by selecting Change schools as well as change your personal information and your password. 2. Further down on the All About You page are the results of your assessments and additional information. You can also record your SCANS (necessary) skills and see those that need work in the future. J. Your Portfolio

34 3. On the Things You Saved page, you will find the careers and other information you have saved after selecting the Add to Portfolio link from the various pages in CHOICES. Careers You Viewed Today shows careers you are exploring at the current session, but you must add them to your portfolio for them to be saved. 4. CHOICES also allows you to upload and store personal documents on the Your Activities page. You could use this space to store your resume or a presentation for a school assignment.

35 5. The Your Journal section is a great place to write about your career and education plans. Teachers can read and write comments there from the Professional Tools, also.

36 From the Your Portfolio page, you can move your portfolio to a new site/school when you change schools or mistakenly create your portfolio under the wrong school. Also, if you have created duplicate portfolios, you can merge them into one portfolio while retaining all the information from each one. 1. On the All About You page under Your Portfolio, select Change schools. (Note: if you have a professional account, the Change schools option will not be available on this page.) K. Moving and Merging Portfolios

37 2. Select your County and then your School from the dropdown menus. 3. Confirm that you have selected the correct school, then select Save and Continue.

38 4. If you are satisfied that you have selected the correct “New School” (or site name), then select Yes, move my portfolio to this new school. 5. If you have created multiple portfolios, you can merge your duplicate portfolios by selecting the Merge Portfolios link under Import and Merge on the Your Portfolio page.

39 Suggestions for Using an Identical Login ID and Password for CHOICES and FACTS.org Since middle school students are required to have a portfolio with and an ePEP with they typically must open two separate accounts using these web based systems. Using the same login ID and password for both CHOICES and FACTS can: help students remember their account information help educators know the format required for both programs. To achieve this goal, schools must be willing to wait until October each year to work with CHOICES portfolios and ePEPs. Below you will find some helpful information to assist you with this process. FACTS.org now generates student accounts in October each year after Survey 6 (FTE) has been processed. Student login IDs and passwords are assigned at this time. This account information is necessary to create ePEPs with students. LOGIN IDs A list of current FACTS.org login IDs can be obtained from the school’s guidance counselor through the FACTS Student Activity System after October each year. This same login ID can also be used to create a CHOICES portfolio. PASSWORDS When students log in for the first time to their FACTS account, they are prompted to change their password. To use the same password for CHOICES and FACTS, the chosen password must be 8-10 characters in length. Passwords can be any of the following: student number first and last initial/student number full birth dates student selected *It is highly recommended that all students DO NOT use the same exact password. ** For further assistance contact the CHOICES or the FACTS.org office. **