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ABOUT US
Digital Career Portfolios - The New Resume
Four Alliance
High Schools in the Portland Public School
District have started using a new Digital Career
Portfolio template designed by Career Solutions.
Digital Career Portfolios contain samples of a
student's best work, as well as evidence of
accomplishments, career research, and a post
secondary plan, all in a format that can be
easily viewed on a computer. Seniors often
do presentations of their career portfolios as a
way of meeting the Extended Application
requirement for graduation.
Like most high schools,
Alliance Schools had Freshman start by creating
paper binders to store work samples or award
certificates, and they used various online
resources like CIS to log journal entries or do
career research. Unfortunately, neither of
these methods allowed for the effective storage
of internet-based, photo, or video evidence, and
there was no easy way for students to combine
these sources into a visually appealing senior
presentation. Not to mention,
paper binders can easily get lost, dog-eared, or
worse yet, forgotten over time.
Our new Digital Career
Portfolios template is based on an easy to use
PowerPoint format, and functions much like a
webpage, with hyperlinks between a dozen key
pages. Each page contains additional
links to evidence, which can be stored using
free online platforms such as Google Docs
This allows students to show off their resume,
awards, work samples, journal entries, photos,
video montages, links to research sources,
interactive web pages, and even relevant news
programming - all in color - all in digital
format. They can even animate the presentation,
add audio tracks in the background, and turn it
into a movie.
The end result is an
easy-to-use portfolio that stores evidence which
can be accessed anywhere, anytime. The
portfolio is also saved forever, safely and
securely, so it's not left forgotten on a shelf
after graduation. It can be sent to anyone
as an email attachment, or as a hyperlinked file
that opens and plays on the click of a mouse.
Most importantly, students end up with a
professional looking portfolio that can grow
with them as they move forward in life.
Digital Career Portfolios
are becoming much more than just a novel way to
do a top notch senior presentation. They
help students stand out in the crowded college
admissions and scholarship process, as well as
today's highly competitive job market.
They are the new resume.
April 2011
The
Smartest Way to Pay for College
In our college
funding workshops, I try to explain to families
and school counselors that the days of working
your way through college are gone, at least in a
traditional sense. Twenty years ago,
students could cover the cost of a state school
and books with a part-time job. Today, the
average family struggles just to buy books,
which can easily approach $1,000 a semester.
The reason is simple: the
costs of college have risen at twice the rate of
inflation as levels of "free" aid have
stagnated, and fewer families meet the income
criteria to qualify. The fastest growing
segment of college "aid" is private loans, which
can hardly be considered aid when interest
rates on non-government backed loans can exceed
20%. Government loans are still a
bargain, but first-year students can't even
borrow enough to pay for tuition at a state
college.
The biggest and most
discouraging change in college funding is with
scholarships. Many state programs like
Washington's WAVE scholarship program are being
cut as state coffers run dry, and many private
companies are canceling their scholarship
programs altogether. As corporate
profits drop in our new world economy,
they have looked for better ways to
spend their money. Like many things in
life, when one door closes, often another one
opens up.
The smartest way to pay for
college these days is through employer-paid
tuition reimbursement. The premise is
simple. A student signs a contract with
the employer whereby the company pays for their
education in return for a promise to work for
them - usually for at least 2 years after
graduation and part-time while in college.
The best part is the student is guaranteed a higher
wage job after graduation, but there is a catch.
A student needs to be employed before
applying to college. This is no easy task
these days; especially for young, uneducated
workers with few skills to offer, but there are
three things students can to do to make this
option a reality.
First, they need to be
prepared to start at the bottom, a trajectory
that fell out of favor 20 years ago, but is
alive and well today. Think bagging
groceries at Fred Myers, stocking shelves at
Target, or loading boxes at UPS. Second,
they need to commit to working with one company
for a period of at least 2 years; another
old-school way of thinking that has been revived
these days.
However, the single most
important element to make this plan work
involves career planning. Students need to
choose careers that are both in demand and fit
what companies need - not just careers that they
find fun or interesting. You may be interested
in being a rock star, game tester, or high
fashion model, but it's more likely the company
needs accountants, computer programmers, or
managers. It's another old-school
concept at play: supply and demand.
Consequently, the bulk of
employer paid tuition reimbursement
opportunities are in high demand industries like
healthcare, technology, retail, and education.
Two good examples are Toyota's T-10 or Ford's
ASSET programs. Students first find an
auto dealership to sponsor them, then
they enroll in college. They work as a
mechanic's helper part-time and go to school
full-time. Upon graduation they get
full-time job at the dealership and a nice
raise. Some programs even pay for tools.
Examples in engineering, education, and
healthcare are too numerous to list.
It's
worth noting how a Human Resources executive for
Target explained to me his frustration that
people don't realize mangers there can make
over $100K a year. Target also has a tuition
reimbursement program, but most employees start on the floor,
stocking shelves. He also added "and most
people just don't want to do that kind of work
these days- they all want to start at the top."
It's a good thing the President of UPS
didn't think that way - he started as a delivery
driver!
If you want help finding
employer paid tuition reimbursement career
opportunities for high-demand occupations that
fit your personality style and preferences, give
us call.
Febuary2011
Tutoring for Tuition
Of all the
creative ways to pay for college, Shaina
Schlansky has taken first prize for finding the
smartest program of all: tutoring for tuition.
Shaina went through our
career planning process over the summer and
decided on becoming a Certified Public
Accountant. She will be completing a Associate’s
Degree in Business Administration from Clark
College next quarter and transferring to WA
State University, but her parents only offered
to pay for her first two years of college, so
she had to find a way to pay for the next two
years herself.
Shaina actually stumbled
across the tutoring for tuition program while
looking for a way to volunteer in a way that
related to her career plan. She realized she was
top of her class and already tutoring other
accounting students informally, so being an
accounting tutor made perfect sense. When she
approached the tutoring department with her
idea, they were thrilled to offer her a
position.
Best of all, this program
does a lot more than give Shaina free tuition
credits. Since it starts as a volunteer position
before converting to a paid position, she can
use the service activity on scholarship
applications this fall, and after one quarter
she’ll also be able to list it as work
experience on her résumé.
It figures a future CPA
would find such smart way to pay for college!
December 2010
New Financial Aid Estimator
We have created a free new tool to help
counselors, students, and parents estimate how
much aid they might qualify for from all
sources. This Financial Aid Estimator
is designed to be used after a person has
completed the FAFSA, which really only
determines Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
This new tool uses a family's EFC and other
income information to automatically estimate how
much federal and state grant money might be
awarded, along with the new $2,500 Opportunity
Tax Credit. Then a family can see how much
is left over from the Total Cost of Attendance,
and in turn, what they will need to pay in cash
or borrow through student loans. If
a parent or student has lost their job, or experienced an income
reduction in the last year, there is also a
feature that will determine if you should apply
for a "Special Situation" so you can qualify for
even more aid.
Knowing there is often a
large balance remaining, and the average student
has almost $30,000 in debt on graduation day,
the hope is this information will motivate
students to apply for more scholarships and
employer-based tuition reimbursement, rather
than getting buried in debt.
To request a copy of this free Financial Aid
Estimator, just send us your request by
email, phone, or through the Contact Us link
below.
October 2010
New Scholarship Incentive Agreement
We have created a new
Scholarship Incentive Agreement designed to
help parents motivate their sons or daughters to
apply for more scholarships. After 7
years in business, and surveying over 3,000
students, we have found that over 90% of
students never applied for even one (1)
scholarship; the average student who does only
applies for two. However, reaching the ultimate
goal of winning 5-6 awards annually requires 2-3
dozen applications on average.
The incentive is simple,
assuming parents (or grandparents) are in
a position to contribute to their child's
educational costs with savings. The parent
agrees to pay a dollar-for-dollar matching
cash incentive to the their student if they
win a scholarship. For example, if a
student wins a $5,000 scholarship, the parent
saves that amount, and consequently, gives that
$5,000 to the student as a reward for winning
the scholarship. The parent can set limits
within their own budget, as well as add a reward
for the number of applications submitted, since
there are really no guarantees on winning any.
To request a copy of this free Scholarship
Incentive Agreement just send us your
request by email, phone, or through the Contact
Us link below.
September 2010
GEAR-UP
Workshops
All month Career Solutions has been conducting a
series of workshops for the Vancouver School
District's GEAR-UP program.
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for
Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is designed
to increase the number of low-income students
who are prepared to enter and succeed in
postsecondary education. GEAR UP also
provide college scholarships to low-income
students. Our workshops on career and
college planning, options after high school,
financial aid, and scholarships were well
received. Likewise, the students who
participated in the mock interviews were very
well prepared, professional, and an absolute
pleasure to work with. Site Director
Jennifer Riordan said, "The experience and
advice you provided will be very valuable to
them as they embark on their job searches!"
August 2010
Work-First Career Planning Workshop
Career Solutions was asked to conduct a career
planning session for n-Northwest Connect at he
Clark College/WorkSource facility in Vancouver
for 30 Work-First participants
searching for jobs. The workshop entitled
"Making Smart Career Choices" is all
about looking for options you haven't considered
yet, and making choices based on your
personality style, values, and projected demand;
not just your changing interests. Program
director April Cannon commented afterwards,
"They enjoyed the idea of "thinking outside the
box" and we consistently used that term for the
remainder of the workshop. The resources (books
and websites) that you referenced were also
incredibly helpful. As you discussed the
differences between careers, industries, and
jobs, I saw many "A ha" moments."
July 2010
What is the goal?
Career Solutions presented a special
workshop entitled "What is the Goal?" to the
freshman focus classes at Mark Morris High in
Longview. The presentation is part
personal narrative on the mountaineering
exploits of founder Steve Fuhr, part goal
setting workshop.
After talking about recent
climbs, Steve asks what seems to be a
simple question. "What is the goal when you
climb a mountain?" And the crowd's answer
is always the same. "To get to the top!"
Then Steve recounts a fatal accident he
witnessed when two climbers fell off Mt. Hood,
and the attempted rescue he participated in.
He explains how this event made him realize why
getting to the top is not his main goal when climbing. The main goal is to
get back down alive, and summits
are secondary to enjoying the trip safely.
Steve goes on to explain
the similarities between endeavors like
climbing, choosing a career or college, and even
asking someone out on a date. Each requires
thought, preparation, action, and determination
to be successful. Most importantly, just
because it takes you longer than planned to
reach a goal doesn't mean you've failed, as long
as you don't give up.
June 2010
Clark County Skills Center Options Workshops
For the second year,
Career Solutions was asked to present our
Options After High School workshops to the
entire senior class at the Clark County Skills
Center.
Students had to choose between different job,
training, military and alterative options they
would have to research.
Last year's classes gave such
positive feedback, CCSC Director Dennis Kampe
requested we do the workshops again. He
pointed out that the annual survey of gradates
from last year actually showed higher placement
numbers in jobs and training programs related to
the students technical major, even though the
economy had worsened, and he felt these workshops
played a part in that success.
May 2010
Future Business
Leaders of America – Oregon & Washington
Conferences
Career Solutions was asked again
by the Oregon and Washington FBLA chapters to participate in the
State Conferences this spring. This annual event
draws over two thousand students and dozens of
staff from high schools throughout each state to
compete in a variety of events, ranging from job
interviewing and public speech to business plans
and electronic portfolio development.
Hundreds of students attended our workshops on
career planning, employment preparation, college
funding, and goal setting. Dozens of teachers
and counselors were also in attendance, as these
workshops are designed to “train the trainers”
as well as help students gain skills they need
to succeed. Sue Harvey, a business
instructor at Inglemoor High, made the comment
that our workshops were "the best info at the
conference!"
April 2010
Kalama High School Options Workshop
Career Solutions was asked to present the
Options After High School workshop to the
entire freshman class at Kalama High.
Students had to choose between different job,
training, military and alterative options to
research. From there they will have to
create a written plan,
along with an essay of their accomplishments, goals, and a
spotless résumé.
March 2010
Parent Financial Aid Night - CCSC
Career Solutions conducted our Choosing a
College and Paying For It workshop to a
packed room of parents at the Clark County
Skills Center recently. The presentation
covers 7 specific steps for choosing colleges
wisely, and how to negotiate the best aid offers.
Parents also learned how to
score and rank school option objectively, how to
rate the different types of accreditation, and
why "Net Cost" is all that really matters - not
the catalog price of a school. Some
remarked that they had students who were choosing
schools just because they had a flashy sales
pitches and many had enrolled without even
knowing the cost.
February 2010
Client Profile: Corey Nelson
Corey Nelson was working part time and going to
school full time at PCC for years, but never had
a clear goal other than to work in the music
industry. When we first started working
for him, most of the classes he was talking
looking interesting at the time, but they also
weren't moving him towards any one career.
He told us, "I felt like I was wasting time and
money going to school since I didn't know what I
wanted to do."
Corey's personality
assessment suggested he had a technical nature,
but he also worked well with people, and the
assessment suggested 65 careers that matched his
style. We put the all through the
Career-Narrow-Down reporting process, which
ranks them based on income, growth, and fit.
From that report Corey was able to choose three to
investigate in-depth. After reading all he
could on each field, we set up Informational
Interviews so he talk with people doing those
jobs now.
Corey said, "My last
Informational Interview was with an Audio
Engineer, and he told be I could be an Audio
Technician with just 1 year of training."
Since Corey didn't want spend more than another
year in college, and this would enable him to
work in the music industry, he was very excited
and ended up choosing this career to pursue.
He added, " They also said his company had a
internship opening up in the spring, and they
would help me pay for tuition if I come to work
for them!"
What we found most
interesting was how Corey needed to switch every
single class he had already signed up for, since
none of them related to Audio Engineering.
He even had to switch community colleges to find
the program he wanted. He told us, "It was
easy to pick classes once I knew what direction
I was headed" and best of all, he knows exactly
how to get there now.
January 2010
PCC - Scholarship & Aid Workshop
The Upward Bound program recently asked Career
Solutions to do scholarship and financial aid
workshops at Portland Community College . Over
100 students and mentors attended the annual
event, which included the Oregon University
System schools and NELA.
Our workshop focused on OSAC and PCC awards,
writing successful scholarship essays, what
committees really look for, and where to find
scholarships other than on the internet, which
is often not the best place to look. Group
organizers said they received numerous comments
that this was the most valuable workshop of the
event.
October 2009
Cleveland High
School Event
Portland's Cleveland High School invited Career
Solutions to conduct our new Options After High
School workshop for a few hundred students
during their PSAT testing day.
Counselors Anthony Scribner and Jennifer
VanKopp, who organized the event for the third
year in a row, both remarked that it was a
valuable experience, and many students commented
that they were surprised it wasn't as "boring"
as they had expected it to be.
September
2009
Clark
County Skills Center "Options" Workshops
The Clark Count Skills Center recently hired
Career Solutions to create and deliver a special
workshop on the options graduates have in our
current economy. Over 450 seniors attended one
of ten sessions, after which they were required
to complete five tasks that proved they have
multiple plans to reach their career goals.
Beyond going over a dozen different job and
training options, eight military branches, three
alternative activities, and ways to compare them
objectively, the main purpose of the workshop
was to help students put a multi-faceted plan
together that will keep them connected to their
careers, even if they can't find related jobs
right out of school.
As Steve Fuhr (owner of Career Solutions)
pointed out, most people have a Plan A-1, as in
I'm just going to college, just work, or just
the military. Steve suggests students put
together a plan that encompasses two or three
options at once, like going to school, working
and strategically volunteering.
After the workshop, students had to put together
a written plan A, B, and C, along with an essay
describing their goals, accomplishments, and
obstacles. They also had to provide proof of a
plan by submitting hard evidence of a job, or
enrolling in school, or military enlistment, or
some alterative option. The Skills Center will
do a survey in a year to see how these students
are following through on their plans, and we'll
be sure to follow up on their progress.
June 2009
Changing Job Market
Impacts Older Workers
Due to recent changes in the job market, we’ve
been seeing more and more people in their 40s,
50s, and even early 60s, looking for career
planning and résumé assistance. After spending
20+ years in a profession that may have
disappeared overnight, it can be tough to figure
out where to go next, especially when today’s
jobs require new skills.
One of our recent clients, Tracy Weedman,
described the current job market as “Lots of far
fetched offerings, a lot of entry level
positions.” After experiencing great success in
the mortgage industry, but not much success
finding something new, Tracy took the advice of
his wife and decided to do some serious career
planning instead of just another résumé
makeover.
A résumé is limited to summarizing the past,
while career planning involves looking into the
future, for jobs in completely different
industries, or occupations that may require
additional training. The key is to start by
considering careers that match your personality,
and then choosing the most promising path, which
is why Tracy’s first step involved taking the a
personality-based career assessment. After
taking the assessment, Tracy agreed that
everyone considering a career change should use
this tool to better understand how their
personality styles match different jobs.
As we progressed to the Narrow-Down phase of the
planning process, Tracy started to look at
industries he hadn’t previously considered. It
also became clear that he’d benefit from
updating his computer skills. As many older
workers are discovering, you need a fairly high
level of computer skills just to be able to
create and send a résumé these days. We referred
Tracy to WorkSource at Clark College, where he
was pleasantly surprised to find that he
qualified for unemployment benefits, and he may
even have his computer classes paid for by
WorkSource this fall.
Ironically, anyone over 24 seems to think career
planning is a process for teenagers in high
school, yet most high school students aren’t
willing to take the career planning process
seriously. The fact is, whether you’re 18 or 58,
it’s always a good idea to figure out what all
your options are and try to choose the best
possible career path, especially with today’s
rapidly changing job market.
Of course, the only way to find the right path
is to spend time looking for it, and it helps to
have an experienced guide like Career Solutions.
May 2009
Posting
Future Business
Leaders of America – 2009 Oregon & Washington
Conferences
Steve Fuhr of Career Solutions was asked again
by the Oregon FBLA chapter to participate in the
National Conference last fall and the state
conference this April.. This annual event draws
over two thousand students and dozens of staff
from high schools throughout the state to
compete in a variety of events, ranging from job
interviewing and public speech to business plans
and electronic portfolio development.
Hundreds of students attended our workshops on
career planning, employment preparation, college
funding, and goal setting. Dozens of teachers
and counselors were also in attendance, as these
workshops are designed to “train the trainers”
as well as help students gain skills they need
to succeed.
Career Solutions was also proud to sponsor and
judge a new competition for FBLA, entitled
Electronic Portfolios, because of our extensive
experience with helping Oregon schools achieve
the new Career Related Learning (CRL) graduation
requirements. These portfolios are collections
of evidence that prove students have made
well-researched career and postsecondary plans.
Starting in 2007, all high school seniors must
create one of these portfolios of evidence in
order graduate.
Steve Fuhr, the owner of Career Solutions, noted
that most schools have students put together
paper portfolios in binders, with results that
are little more than a collection of handwritten
notes and photocopies that can be easily lost or
damaged. Electronic portfolios not only simplify
the collection of CRL evidence, but also improve
the quality of the information presented by
introducing color and sound, while taking up
minimal physical space. Best of all, they can be
backed up by the school on a DVD, and in the
likely event that a student’s portfolio is lost
or damaged, it can be easily reconstructed.
As a result of this experience, Career Solutions
will be offering a new workshop for the new
academic year entitled Creating Electronic
Portfolios which will help students and school
staff learn how to take advantage of this new
process.
April 2009
Career Solutions
Accepted into the National Career Development
Association
Career Solutions is now a proud member of the
National Career Development Association (NCDA)
which sets forth a range of industry standards
for career planning professionalism throughout
the country.
NCDA applicants must be accepted by the group
before gaining membership, and are required to
keep abreast of the latest career planning
methods while maintaining the highest possible
standards of ethics and business practices.
March 2009
About the Founder
Career Solutions is the passion of Steve Fuhr,
who has over 20 years of experience in
professional development, and has worked as a
financial aid counselor, placement coordinator,
and college recruiter. Ironically, Steve dropped
out of high school as a teenager but went on to
earn his degree in Marketing as an adult
student, which is probably one reason why he
brings such a down-to-earth perspective to the
process of career planning.
Since 1998, Steve has delivered his popular
high-energy workshops to well over 100,000
students at high schools, colleges, and
employment centers throughout the Northwest. He
recently authored two reports for Portland
Public Schools that studied career and
educational issues affecting recent high school
graduates, and works with dozens of career
centers in the Portland and southwest Washington area to help them
achieve new state-mandated career-related
learning standards.
If you have a comment for Steve you can email him at:
Steve@GetCareerSolutions.com
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