There are two resources we find ourselves recommending over and over. One is the awesome occupation exploration website, My Next Move, and the other is an insightful college readiness checklist for students and parents.
My Next Move website
My Next Move is a very friendly front-end to the comprehensive-but-harder-to-use federal occupations database, O*NET OnLine.
Each occupation is presented in the same graphical one-page format, with good use of color and white space:
- skills, knowledge and abilities needed
- link to a video about the occupation
- personality traits
- technology used
- education needed
- current job outlook (including salaries)
Check out these three examples:
Both My Next Move and O*Net Online were developed for the U.S. Department of Labor.
College Readiness Checklist
If you have a college-bound high school senior, there are only a few more months of high school left. How can you help your child make the best use of that time?
Landmark College in Putney, Vermont, developed a Guide to Assessing College Readiness to help parents and students assess college readiness.
The six-page guide identifies five important success areas for students with learning disabilities or ADHD:
- academic skills
- self-understanding (metacognition)
- self-advocacy
- executive function
- motivation and confidence
There are questions for each area and a simple rating system. While clearly developed for Landmark College, the guide is helpful for any college-bound student. It’s a clear format for a parent-child discussion and a way to identify where additional preparation, practice, and support may be needed.
