A year after its launch, our Career Journeys video series is still gaining followers, inspiring a variety of classroom uses, and even drawing emulators as school districts across the region incorporate it into their career learning programs.
Altogether, the 100+ interviews with professionals spanning 16 different career clusters have racked up more than 12,000 YouTube views since the first few became available last April.
“We’re thrilled with how many students are using the videos and with the feedback we’ve gotten so far,” said Program Director Debbie Pixton, who produced Career Journeys in collaboration with staff contributors. “We’re also grateful for conversations and partnerships the series sparked, especially our collaboration with Westmoreland County’s Forum for Workforce Development. The interviews they contributed really helped extend our reach.”
Pixton said the Consortium continues gathering and assessing Career Journeys feedback, including recommendations of career options educators or students see as “missing pieces.” She suggested that educators interested in giving feedback or recommending additions to the library complete our online survey.
Meanwhile, Greensburg Salem School District’s Coordinator of Secondary Education, Ken Bissell, EdD, said teachers and counselors at his high school are getting “double plays” from the series, creating lessons and ensuring adherence to the state’s standards for career exploration and preparation. Students use them not just as a career exploration tool, but also for narrowing their areas of interest as they think about selecting career mentoring opportunities, he said.
At the same time, the reflections students produce after watching interviews can serve both as writing exercises in Language Arts classes and as “artifacts” in documentation that counselors assemble to demonstrate students are meeting state standards for career learning, Bissell added.
Like Bissell, Jennifer Damico, EdD, Director of College & Career Services at Woodland Hills High School, said the videos have proven useful to her students, especially at a time when COVID-19 necessitated remote instruction.
Her district found the series helpful enough that its own College & Career Center has been tapping alumni to make its own videos. From her standpoint, the series “has been a great resource.”
