I am a Parent

• How can I use the profiles?
• How can I use the Reader's Guide?
• How can I use the Authentic Workplace materials?

You can use this part of the web site to help your children:

• Investigate career options
• Build confidence in their ability to succeed in the workplace
• See how what they are learning in school can be applied in the workplace

• Research specific occupations
• Find out about occupations in areas that interest your child
• Identify occupations that might suit your child's areas of strength
• Find out how skills your child is learning are used in the world of work
• Help your child to think about his or her skills.

Research specific occupations

• Search the profiles using "Occupation". You can search using a job title or a code from the National Occupational Classification..
• You can connect to other sources of information about the occupation using the Links to Other Sites at the end of each profile.

(NOTE: Not all occupations are on the database. What occupations are profiled?)

Find out about occupations in areas that interest your child

• Search using "Keyword". Enter a word related to your child's area of interest.
• Or, search using "Occupation" entering a word related to your child's area of interest.

Identify occupations that might suit your child's areas of strength

• Search using "Most Important Skills" to find occupations that require skills where your child is strong, or occupations that don't require skills where your child is not strong.

Find out how skills your child is learning are used in the world of work

• Search using "Skills". You can find out, for example, who uses geometry, who interprets graphs or who has difficult writing assignments.

Help your child to think about his or her skills

• Use the complexity scales. Let's take problem solving as an example.
  • Enter any profile
  • Go to the Problem Solving section
  • Click on "Complexity"

This will give you information about the complexity scale for Problem Solving. Start by looking at the examples that illustrate the levels of the scale. Has your child done anything that looks like the examples for Level 1? Level 2? or higher? You may want to look at the formal definitions of the scale.

Do you want to see more examples of the Levels?

• Use Search by skills
• Click the box for Problem Solving. Then click Next.
• Click the box for the complexity level(s) you want to see. Then click Next.
• This gives you a list of all occupational profiles in the database that contain examples illustrating Problem Solving at the level of complexity you chose.
• You can see all these examples by clicking "View Examples" at the bottom of the screen.

Using the scales and examples, you and your child can identify the strongest examples he or she can give from his or her own experiences for each of these skills. This could help in developing your child's resume or portfolio.

Now that you and your child have thought about his or her skills, these skills can be compared to the skills required in various occupations that interest your child.

• By comparing your child's skills to the skills in occupations that interest him or her, you can help your child see that they already have some of the skills they will need. You can then help your child set his or her own targets for further skill development.

For more help in thinking about these skills, you and your child can visit the ESPORT - Essential Skills Portfolio.

Ideas for Using the Readers' Guide to Essential Skills Profiles

You and your child can use the complexity scales and the illustrative examples for each level to help your child think about his or her skills. This can help them describe their skills for their resume or portfolio.

If this interests you, see also the Ideas for Using the Occupational Profiles and the ESPORT - Essential Skills Portfolio.

Ideas for Using the Authentic Workplace Materials

You and your child may want to look at the materials used in jobs that interest him or her.

View the User Guide to Authentic Workplace Materials