El Camino College has used funds from the Career Technology Education Act (CTEA) to purchase programs and software to help students find careers.
One of these CTEA programs is Career Coach (CC).
CC helps students “find a good career by providing the most current local data on wages, employment, job positions and associated education and training,” according to the EC website.
The CC program has been working since June 2015, but the program was promote at the beginning of this semester, Matthew Kline, ESL instructor, said.
This program was an idea of Virginia Rapp, Dean of the Business Division with the help of Tanysha Laney and Irene Graff, Kline added.
“It’s important to introduce students to CTEA programs because that might be an interest to students,” Yamonte Cooper, career counselor, said. “I think it’s important to notify or inform students of traditional academic opportunities as well as other opportunities that might not be considered traditional, such the CTEA programs.”
Since the first day of July, the website had have 2824 visits and the most popular career that students are looking are accounting, nursing and advertising-promotion manager, Kline said.
The CTEA program is in charge of handling the “state and federal resources to all community college districts to enable individuals to achieve academic, vocational and technical knowledge, and skills necessary to attain employment further their education,” according to the EC website.
Some of the benefits that colleges can obtain by the CTEA are:
- Improving programs and curriculum by using technology
- Staff development
- Combining academic, vocational, and technical education
- Maintain a comprehensive state-wide statistical database for search and planning
“The company that makes this is called the Economic Modeling Specialist Incorporated (EMSI) and they make this for other colleges and universities as well, but the one that we have is for our local area, so the information about jobs and careers is for our local area and the programs is about EC’s programs,” Kline said.
In addition to that, Cerritos and Santa Monica Colleges also provide this program.
Kline said that the Career Coach website is very interactive, the website has a career assessment and also it has a resume builder.
Another way students can find more information about the CC program is by visiting the Career Center.
Some undecided majors like Gerardo Gudino, 19 learned about Career Center by talking to his counselor.
“She recommended me (to) the Career Center,” Gudino said ” She gave me the pamphlet with the online career assessments and websites.”
Some of the online career assessment websites the Career Center offers are:
- O’Net
- Eureka/True Colors
- Human Metrics
- California Career Zone
- California Career Cafe
- Career Cruising
Cooper said that some of these websites need a code, but this is available on the EC website under the career and major resources.
Bruno Aguirre, 26, undecided major said that he talked to a counselor who showed him through a list of online programs.
Cooper also said that students with undecided majors, come to the Career Center feeling embarrassed because they don’t know what career they want to pursue.
“Our role as career counselors is really to provide opportunities and options that students can be aware of, so they can make more informed decisions,” Cooper said.
