1. Career Information and Resources
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Chapter 6
Career Information and Resources
Developed by:
Jennifer Del Corso

2. Relationship Between Data and Decision Making
Having reliable data is essential to career decision making.
Data may be acquired from print sources, computer-assisted career guidance systems, websites, and/or people.
The counselor’s role is to assist clients/students to turn data into information. 2

3. Types of Data Needed by Clients
• Descriptions of programs of study (post-secondary)
• Military programs
• Apprenticeships and internships
• Occupations
• Schools
• Private (proprietary) vocational- technical schools
• Public Community colleges
• Four-year colleges and universities
• Graduate schools
• Financial aid
• Jobs 3

4. Barriers and Decision Styles
Clients/students may have difficulty dealing with data
because of physical, mental, or emotional deficits.
because of their usual decision-making style.
Planful . Compliant
Agonizing . Delaying
Impulsive . Fatalistic
Intuitive . Paralytic 4

5. Client Information and Diversity
Clients may bring a myriad of diversity related issues to career counseling requiring flexibility on the part of the counselor to provide appropriate resources or accommodation. 5

6. Assistance Obtaining Data for those with Disabilities
Some students of clients who seek career information may need assistance in the form of (but not limited to):
One on one assistance
Special software or hardware
Avatars
Language translation
Assistance reading (reading disability)
Screen readers or related software (visual impaired) 6

7. Client Roles Complete the data-gathering homework given by counselors.
Apply data collected to personal career choices and engage in activities, aided by the counselor.
Assume responsibility for their own decision making. 7

8. Counselor Roles Select sources for data that are of high quality.
Make sources of data known to clients and assist them to know how to use them.
Assist clients to make meaningful use of data. 8

9. Other Methods of Collecting Data
Career days
Mentoring
Internships
Job Shadowing
Part-time jobs

10. Ways to Organize Occupations
Holland’s system (R, I, A, S, E, C)
ACT’s World-of-Work Map clusters and job families
O*Net Classification system
U.S. Department of Education clusters 10

11. Career Centers
A career center houses all the resources (videos, journals, books, assessment instruments, and a variety of software programs) in one physical place.
The career center should:
be centrally located.
be user-friendly.
contain computers for use of software and websites.
have equipment for viewing videos.
be staffed with trained persons such as Career Development Facilitators (CDF)
have materials organized by type, content, career planning step, or life role. 11

12. Virtual Career Centers
May include:
assessment
linkages to websites that provide data resources
cybercounseling assistance 12

13. Helping Clients Turn Data into Information
The most difficult and most essential role of the counselor is to assists students and clients as they make sense of all the data
Career data and assessment results should not be interpreted as “right/wrong”
Trained career counselors should help students process the information they receive following NCDA Ethical Guidelines 13