The provision of guidance and counseling within coursework is not common: only 5% of colleges in our survey noted explicit career exploration and decisionmaking components within the academic and occupational curriculum. At the transfer level, specific career requirements are often naturally infused into introductory academic or occupational courses. For example, in an Introduction to Psychology course, a chapter or a series of vignettes describes career options, educational requirements, employer and workplace characteristics, and future demand for positions related to that discipline. Accounting students at Fayetteville Community College prepare a schematic network tree illustrating the personal traits, competencies, and related college courses necessary for employment in the field. At other colleges, speakers, field trips, and interviews blend career exploration with coursework.
At Santa Barbara Community College in California, a Career Research Project has led to several faculty developing research assignments to encourage students to take full advantage of Career Center resources. In these, students summarize key points from video and computer information about career requirements and transfer programs in their major field of interest. Students reported that they became familiar with Career Center resources and clarified their career and educational goals at the same time they applied a wide range of research skills to these assignments. [II-35]
At the Associate level, some hybrid courses combine general and career specific exploration. A number of colleges offer counseling courses to provide group opportunities for self-assessment, coupled with assignments designed to identify personal interests, abilities, values, and experiences as a basis for generating career alternatives. At the Community College of Philadelphia, Life Planning and Career Decision-Making presents a decisionmaking model for vocational selection and life planning, using a multimedia approach to gathering information about the world of work.
Other hybrid courses explore specific career clusters. Survey of Health Occupations at Los Angeles Trade Technical College is a modularized course required for entry into Nursing and Health Occupations programs. The course covers opportunities in health careers, transfer credit, and individual learning styles. Survey of Electronics and Computer Technologies at the same college introduces opportunities in home entertainment, factory, office, communications, transportation, medicine, education, and sales and service industries. [N] Engineering Technology Orientation at St. Louis Community College exposes students to the various fields of technology through field trips, videos, and guest lectures, as well as providing materials, techniques, and colleges services which will assist students in completing a technology program. [N]
Other clusters of courses which blend career exploration, experience with representative job tasks, and developmental education have been described in Chapter 1 (Mass Bay Community College in Massachusetts; Indian River Community College in Florida; and San Jacinto Community College in Texas). In each of these, students become familiar with career opportunities and the multiple uses of technology while completing a variety of simulations related to specific workplace skills.
Of course, the most useful career exploration rests on informed decisionmaking, with students knowing the employment and transfer rates of a particular program at the local community college. Although every college is required to gather some type of student retention and post-graduation data, we found only one college which reports placement and transfer data in a readily accessible format for students and employers to review. Based on an 88% survey response rate, Broome Community College in New York publishes information in each college catalog by academic or occupational major about post-graduation outcomes related to type and location of employment, range and average starting salaries, leading employers, and transfer colleges. [II-36]
Faculty and administrators who have reviewed the Broome public-reporting approach often balk at the effect such information would have on enrollment patterns in specific programs--especially those for which there is low employment potential or relatively low wages. However, programs which do not result in employment, either because of local labor market conditions or because the programs do not impart the kinds of skills sought by employers, nearly always merit careful review to ensure that students and the community receive the benefits they justifiably pursue.
[16] See the description of the "triage" outcome among California community college students described in Grubb (1996b), Chapter 4: those students most sure of their career goals tended not to use counselors, and those who were the most unsure also failed to use counselors because they did not know what to ask. Those in the middle reported counselors helpful in identifying program and transfer requirements and helping them develop course schedules and timelines.
[17] For this reason, some exemplary programs intended to enhance the advancement of minority services have integrated the efforts of counselors and instructors, especially Project Bridge at Laney College in California.