Career counseling for adults? Good idea!

Most people associate career counseling with an office down the hall at their local junior high or high school. Little in the way of career advice was available to Montana’s adult students.

Until now.

Enter the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which recently allocated funding through Montana’s Office of Public Instruction in partnership with the Department of Labor and Industry—part of which is intended to provide Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) students access to online career counseling. Miles Community College’s Center for Academic Success was recently awarded $20,000 to do just that, as well as to strengthen awareness of their online GED preparation option. Instructors Melinda Lynnes and Shelley Freese are pleased with the opportunities the grant award makes possible.

“We always knew that there was a gap between what our Center provides (free adult basic education and GED preparation) and more long-range career planning for our students,” Freese said. “We are very excited to be able to offer our ABLE students the wealth of information included in this career counseling program.” The program will help adults look beyond their GED or high school diploma and make the transition to a world of career possibilities.

It’s called “PEP Talk.” That stands for “Personalized Employment Plan.” Students go online, watch tutorials, complete skills and interest inventories, and compile information on careers of their choice in their personal portfolios. PEP Talk is divided into three stages: “Awareness,” “Exploration,” and “The Plan.” Students can dive deeply into the program, which is an entry point for Montana Career Information System (MCIS), and find detailed material not only regarding careers, but also specific information about the higher education or training necessary to pursue those careers, including financial aid, current salaries and job outlook, and much more. The program even offers a “Reality Check,” in which students first choose where they want to live, then click on a variety of lifestyle components; for example, their housing preference, their projected monthly entertainment expenses, the type of vehicle they want to drive, etc. When they are finished, they can find out whether their chosen career will provide an average salary high enough to support that lifestyle.

Lynnes and Freese decided that the best way to offer PEP training to students who are already busy with jobs and children was to make an event of it. Lynnes said, “I was wondering how we could entice busy people who might be intimidated by a college classroom to come and learn how to find a path to a rewarding career. I thought, ‘Offer it up with food.’ Sharing a meal always makes for a more relaxed, friendly environment.” So she and Freese invented “Dinner and a Career.” Once a month, during April and May, they have invited students, arranged for a full meal, and then launched into PEP training activities. Students came to two sessions and completed some homework in between. “We include a section where students practice using the resume-writing part of PEP, and we always end the second of the two sessions with SMART-Goal setting, during which they set short-term, time-bound goals that lead to their overall long-term career and employment plans,” Freese added. “So far, the response has been wonderful.”

The Center will be holding its final, grant-funded “Dinner and a Career” sessions on June 17 and June 24. Interested students should contact Lynnes or Freese at the Center (874-6152) for more information. However, any adult students, past or future, are invited to come to the Center during regular hours to access PEP training.

What about the GED-seeking student who is juggling too many adult demands to be able to come in for tutoring during the Center’s hours?

“We are also using this grant award to strengthen awareness of our online GED preparation option. As one of only three Montana programs to pilot GED Online in 2007, we regularly offer this distance learning option to our GED-seeking clients,” Lynnes said. “Like all our services, it is absolutely free, and it can make the difference between having the opportunity to study, or not.”

The Center held a “GED Online Discovery” event, and invited local agency professionals and any of their GED-seeking clients to come and explore the learning modules. They are also in the process of filming two commercials with MidRivers. The commercials will air locally, and will be inserted on national channels such as ESPN, HGTV, and others. Freese, who scripted the commercials, says, “We really wanted widen our marketing of our GED program, especially the distance learning option.” Local Barn Player theater group members volunteered to appear in the commercials. Filming is nearly complete, and the commercials may air as early as mid-June. “We are really hoping more people will find their way to our door as a result of the ads,” Lynnes says. “Having grant money to market the programs we offer is a terrific opportunity.”

The Center is open year-round. Call 874-6152 for more information, or e-mail the instructors at ged@milescc.edu.