Career Exploration

All Colorado students are REQUIRED to complete an ICAP – Individual Career and Academic Plan.  The Niwot HS ICAP has several components, all of which must be completed during the registration process.  Counselors will verify that you’ve completed your ICAP during your Registration Review Session in the spring.  See your counselor if you have questions or need assistance logging in to your Naviance account.

What is the ICAP?
The purpose of the ICAP is to assist students and their parents / legal guardians in exploring the post-secondary career and educational opportunities available to the student, aligning course work and curriculum, applying to post-secondary education institutions, securing financial aid and ultimately entering the workforce.

ICAP is a multi-year process, one that will span the lives of students who are now in middle and high school and that will continue into adulthood.  By adopting research-based best practices and by revamping our knowledge for developmentally appropriate ICAP activities with secondary students, Colorado’s schools and districts now focus on a meaningful process which results in a plan.

ICAP must include:

• Career and college interest surveys,
• Written postsecondary and workforce goals, intermediate benchmarks and data reflecting progress toward those goals,
• scores on assessments,
• experiences in service learning and/or work environments,
• activities that establish connections between school-based instruction and the world of work,
• an intentional sequence of courses that reflect progress towards the postsecondary goal
• academic progress,
• college application(s), a resume, or alternative work-based applications,
• an understanding of the financial impact of life after high school, including an education

ICAP High School Quality Indicators:Self-Awareness: Understand how one’s unique interests, talents and aspirations play a role in decision-making and interpersonal relationships and how individual thoughts and feelings get students excited about life and learning.

Career Awareness: Know the difference between jobs, occupations and careers. Articulate a wide range local regional of local regional, national and global career pathways and opportunities. Consider economic and cultural influences and the impact of stereotypes on career choice.

Postsecondary Aspirations: Participate in career exploration activities centered on students’ passions, interests, dreams and visions of their future self and perceived options.

Postsecondary Options: Be aware of and participate in a variety of postsecondary and career opportunities. Use tools such as career clusters, personality assessments and learning style inventories to highlight individual strengths and capabilities.

Environmental Expectations: Consider how school, family, community, culture and world view might influence the students’ career development and postsecondary plans.

Academic Planning: Apply the skills and knowledge necessary to map out and pass the academic courses required to achieve postsecondary goals.

Employability Skills: Define, develop and hone skills that increase the likelihood of becoming and remaining successfully employed and civically responsible citizens.

Financial Literacy: Recognize personal financial literacy and financial aid topics and vocabulary and know what options are available to pay for postsecondary. Understand and articulate personal financial literacy concepts, the cost of postsecondary options and apply this awareness to the postsecondary career and academic planning process.

Naviance offers a series of career assessments that help students discover multiple career options, and plan their career paths based on general areas of interest, and the level of education and training required to achieve their individual goals and objectives. These tools allow students to realize their goals, skills, knowledge, values, constraints and interests to help them make better academic decisions. During this process, students gain a clear understanding of the academic preparation required to pursue careers that are likely to be fulfilling to them.
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Click here to visit the Niwot High School Naviance Site! 

Career Interest Profiler
The Career Interest Profiler is an online career interest assessment for students based on Holland’s interest codes. The results of the assessment include the student’s strongest field of interest with definitions of all the Holland interest codes. Students can view matching careers and career clusters organized by the amount of preparation each needs.

​Holland Interest Codes
Holland codes are based on the idea that career satisfaction depends on compatibility between personality and work environment. The six personality types are:

• Realistic
• Investigative
• Artistic
• Social
• Enterprising
• Conventional

Career Cluster Finder
The Career Cluster Finder is a simple assessment that helps a student discover which career clusters may be a good match based on activities that interest him or her, personal qualities the student has and subjects the student enjoys in school. The results of the assessment include the top three clusters the student is matched with and a ranking of all clusters with a percentage match for the student.

Career Clusters Students can Explore:

• Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
• Architecture and Construction
• Arts, Audio/Video Technology and Communications
• Business Management and Administration
• Education and Training
• Finance
• Government and Public Administration
• Health Science
• Hospitality and Tourism
• Human Services
• Information Technology
• Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security
• Manufacturing
• Marketing
• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
• Transportation, Distribution and Logistics

Source: Naviance (Hobsons)
http://www.naviance.com/college-and-career-readiness-platform/career-exploration