Introduction
Career development is a continuous process through which an individual seeks, obtains, and processes information related to both educational and occupational alternatives. Therefore, a career development plan is a document that outlines how one develops themselves in their existing role in terms of their career goals and success. This is a career development plan for a middle school guidance counselor who is responsible to assisting students achieve maximum potential in their social, academic, and personal endeavors (Dawis, 2005).
Literature Review
Counselors provide students with responsive services related to various matters including self-understanding, life planning, and decision making. Therefore, it is important that middle school guidance counselors develop a comprehensive career development so as to meet the needs of the students. Career development has become an international discipline that relies on a number of theoretical frameworks that have universal validity and application. This has led to the development of a number of theories that explain various issues related to career development at all levels of application. According to Creed, Patton, and Prideaux (2006), there are five theories of career development including work adjustment, vocational personalities in work environment, self-concept, social cognitive career theory, and circumscription and compromise theories.
According to the theory of work adjustment, career development is a continuous personal process through which an individual identifies organizations that meet his or her needs. Therefore, they end up choosing a career that best satisfies their needs (Creed, Patton, & Prideaux, 2006). In the past few decades, researchers have noted that career development is very important for every individual that pursues a particular career because it provides them with a blueprint through which they can achieve their goals. The theory of continuous personal process is the most appealing because it provides background information for the reason why people develop their careers. My career as a counselor was informed by the fact that I enjoy what I do and this gives me the greatest satisfaction. Therefore, I am developing this plan because I want to have the best experience next semester.
Activities to be implemented
- Lesson plan
In order to ensure that I maintain focus on my career as counselor, I will develop a lesson plan for the three areas of my job including academic counseling, career counseling, and social counseling. I will be dealing with a large number of students and chances are that I may get disrupted when they lose attention. However, a lesson plan will ensure that I stay on track and deliver quality services. Below is an example of a lesson plan that will use for career counseling (Friedman, 2006).
- Literature Review of Critical Issues Affecting Middle School Students
The success of my career as a middle school guidance counselor depends on how much I understand the three areas of my career (academic, career, and personal counseling). Therefore, I will read widely on the three areas so as to develop a comprehensive understanding of the various theories and concepts of guidance and counseling. Therefore, I will review numerous literature contents covering the three areas of my careers so as to understand how guidance and counseling has developed over the years and it future projection. This will involve visiting a number of libraries in search of relevant information. Using this information, I will prepare a number of peer reviewed research articles based on secondary sources.
- Projects
I will use projects to solve most of the problems that schools face. Some of the main issues common in most of the schools include school drop-out and drug abuse. Therefore, I will initiate a career development program that will address the two issues to ensure that students appreciate the value of education in their success (Brown & Lent, 2005). The first step towards the implementation of a career development program will be securing the support of the school administration. This will be followed by a career needs assessment and the establishment of committees that will be grouped into steering and advisory committees.
- Needs Assessment
The career development program will require a number of competencies including decision making, career building, career planning and interpersonal communication.
- Career Development Program Committees
Since schools face different problems, there will be committees that will be handling each of the problems. Therefore, the committees will be grouped into drop-out prevention, conflict resolution, gender equity, and drug-free.
- Career Development Activity
- Peer Discussions
Discussions with peers will play a very important role in my career development and life plan because it will provide me with the opportunity to share ideas which eventually improves thinking. After preparing peer reviewed articles, project plan, and a lesson plan, I will present it to my peers who will share their views as a form of critique. This will give me the opportunity to make necessary changes so as to remain in the right track (Gottfredson, 2005).
References
Brown, S. D., & Lent, R. T. (Eds.). (2005). Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Creed, P, A., Patton, W., & Prideaux, L. (2006). Causal relationship between career indecision and career decision-making self-efficacy: A longitudinal cross-lagged analysis. Journal of Career Development, 33, 47–65.
Dawis, R. V. (2005). The Minnesota theory of work adjustment. In S. D. Brown & R. T. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 3– 23). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Friedman, T. L. (2006). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century (updated and expanded). New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Gottfredson, L. S. (2005). Applying Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription and compromise in career guidance and counseling. In S. D. Brown & R. T. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 71–100). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
