In the last few issues of Kuder User News, you have been hearing about the new Kuder^® Career Planning System (KCPS) with its age-appropriate solutions: Kuder^® Galaxy, Kuder^® Navigator, and Kuder^® Journey. The wait is finally over. During the summer, we successfully launched the new KCPS, and schools and agencies across the country are already starting to utilize the solutions.

With its rich history of ongoing research, the KCPS has continued to provide reliable information and proven guidance for career planners. Now, the new KCPS combines its research-based tools with the following key features:

• A developmental guidance approach.
• New and personalized content.
• Updated graphic design.
• More tools and resources for parents.
• Enhanced administrative database management for educators, counselors, and other administrators.
• Association of Computer-Based Systems for Career Information (ACSCI) compliance at the Comprehensive (National System) Level.
  

The most significant enhancement from the classic Kuder system is that the KCPS is divided into three solutions to offer a developmental guidance approach for career awareness (Galaxy), career exploration and educational planning (Navigator), and career planning and management (Journey). Specifically, the system offers interventions that are appropriate to the developmental stage of the user. For example, system users are not provided a formal career assessment until the seventh grade as specific traits have not been formed until that time, according to leading career theorist John Holland and Donald Super.

Additionally, the KCPS presents appropriate content that is needed at a given age or life stage:

• Young children need to gain general awareness of self and work.
• Middle school students need to explore many options in some orderly way.
• High school students need to make tentative choices and develop education plans around those choices.
• High school students not attending postsecondary schools/training, college students, and adults need assistance in preparing for a job.
  

Career Awareness
Kuder Galaxy (www.kudergalaxy.com) exposes elementary students to the world of work while giving them tools to achieve self-understanding. The educational and interactive online program allows pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students to play games, watch videos, download worksheets, and explore field trips.

“Research is showing that there is a need for earlier career awareness and exploration in our children,” said Dr. Catalina D’Achiardi-Ressler, vice president of research and lead developer of Kuder Galaxy. “The question was, how do we help elementary students explore their interests and the world around them in a fun, educational way? Our solution is the Galaxy system.”

All of Galaxy’s activities are tied to grade level goals, core school subjects, and career fields. Parents and teachers can also use the program to monitor progress and offer guidance through their web-based graphical dashboards.

Career Exploration and Educational Planning
Kuder Navigator (www.kudernavigator.com) is based on the proven tradition of Kuder, but offers a fresh design, more interactive features, and updated and refined tools. Navigator is tailored to the unique needs of each grade level (grades 6-12) to help students learn about themselves, build an education plan, and prepare for options after high school.

“Kuder Navigator was thoughtfully designed to deliver content incrementally as students move from sixth grade through twelfth grade,” said Dr. JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey, executive vice president of development and lead developer of Kuder Navigator and Kuder Journey. “Content items such as assessment options, explanation of a system for organizing occupations, and information about educational options change as students progress across these grade levels. This progression is guided by a Career Planning Timeline that suggests in-system tasks appropriate for each grade level.”

Parents can create an account as well to learn about Navigator’s tools and resources, review their child’s portfolio, and get additional information on the career planning process. Educators monitor progress and facilitate guidance through the Kuder^® Administrative Database Management System.

Career Planning and Management
Kuder Journey (www.kuderjourney.com) is part of our solution to impact economic recovery by providing postsecondary students and adults with the career planning and management tools necessary to succeed in today’s workforce. Journey is an intuitive system that offers personalized content tailored to the unique needs of each user.

“In developing Kuder Journey, we recognized that the solution had to reach a broad audience of users and as a result, it includes the capability to vary content by each of nine different user types, including postsecondary students, displaced workers, veterans, and persons with disabilities,” said Dr. Harris-Bowlsbey. “Though there is core content for all types, each separate category of users also receives content and access to external linkages that are appropriate to their current situation and expressed needs and barriers.”

Journey guides users through a flexible step-by-step process and portfolio development to explore their interests and career options, consider new or additional education and training, prepare for a job in today’s workforce, and find a job.

“The capability to develop an extensive e-Portfolio, a personal web site that can be viewed by potential employers or others designated by the user, is another unique feature of Journey,” stated Dr. Harris-Bowlsbey. “The content of this portfolio can be determined by users and includes their work in Journey as well as those items uploaded at the time the e-Portfolio is built.”

Like Navigator, Journey includes the Kuder Administrative Database Management System for colleges, workforce agencies, and other organizations to manage data, track usage, and support guidance.

Updated Curricula
With the launch of the new KCPS, our comprehensive curricula series is being updated. Develop Your Future^®, the middle school and high school curriculum, will become Direct Your Future and feature Kuder Navigator. Take Hold of Your Future will align with Kuder Journey and is ideal for a postsecondary course. Both curricula will be provided in an online format and available in early 2010. Watch for more information in the next issue of Kuder User News.

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