By: Mason Grace, Teacher
Bolton High School, Arlington, Tennessee

At Bolton High School in Arlington, Tennessee, the Tennessee College and Career Planning System (TCCPS), powered by Kuder^® is utilized by students in the required Personal Finance class. This class is designed to help prepare students for their financial futures with lessons on banking, budgeting, career searching, and debt management. Because the class is comprised mostly of seniors, the system is introduced early in the semester to allow students ample time to get acquainted with its features.

Part One
At the beginning of the semester, several days are designated to introducing the TCCPS, helping students register, and taking the Kuder^® Career Search with Person Match interest assessment and Kuder^® Skills Assessment. Once both assessments are completed, a worksheet of questions is distributed to allow students to evaluate what they learned about themselves from the two assessments and how their skills and interests compare to each other. This questionnaire helps students to begin thinking about which career paths might suit them best and prepares them for the next activity.

Part Two
The second activity is a scavenger hunt that allows students to further explore the system and its many resources. A major part of this assignment requires students to explore and identify an occupation that corresponds with a career cluster that ranked high on their assessment scores. Once an occupation is chosen, they use the TCCPS to find a local business where that occupation is performed and interview a person in that occupation. Students perform this activity for their top two career clusters based on assessment scoring.

After several weeks of assessments, research, and interviews, the TCCPS connects students with adults in the workforce in their field of interest and is a valuable tool for helping them decide on majors, colleges, and careers. For students who did not have a career path in mind before beginning the lesson, the TCCPS has proven to help give them a starting place for researching career fields and specific occupations.

One of the curriculum standards for this class is that students will “interpret factors affecting career choices and potential income.” The TCCPS is a highly effective resource for accomplishing this standard and creating a realistic picture of career and income expectations. Once students have completed these activities and this class, they are better equipped to find occupations that align with their skills and interests, and have discovered first-hand what it takes to be successful in that specific industry.

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