Counseling Corner: Willowbrook Counseling Department celebrates the return of its in-person Career Fair, offers advice to help students prepare for the workforce

Spring is a great time for students to begin planning for next steps after high school. Whether it’s creating a college list, visiting colleges, developing a résumé, or completing career exploration assessments, students are encouraged to begin their journey.

At District 88, we remain committed to making sure each student is college ready, career ready, culturally ready and future ready. We continue to provide rigorous – yet flexible and individualized – programming to meet the needs of our student population. It is our focus to have each student working toward a viable college and career integrated pathway, including access to college coursework, along with real-life career opportunities in the field of their choice. Read more about how we prepare students for college and career pathways at https://tinyurl.com/2wvsvybf.

As part of that goal, the Counseling Department was excited to celebrate the return of its in-person Career Fair on March 23 (see photos from the event above). During the event, students of all grade levels had the opportunity to meet with more than 40 career professionals representing more than 25 companies/organizations to discuss their interests and career potential. Representatives not only educated students about career paths, but they also shared the future of their respective industries and how students can discover their potential in that field. The Brook Catering Co., which is comprised of Willowbrook culinary students, provided lunch for the participants.

Students also can work on their career exploration journey through the following activities:

SchooLinks/career assessments: Sophomores, juniors and seniors have learned how to complete career assessments in SchooLinks. The purpose of these assessments is to assist students with discovering areas of interest, as well as skills. Students can research job outlook, education requirements, similar careers and much more. In SchooLinks, students can create a résumé; watch videos of professionals describing their careers; research in-demand jobs; and search careers by education level and cluster, as well as job openings by location.
Informational interviews: Students can conduct an informational conversation with someone working in a career field that interests them. They can seek insight on a career path, an industry, or a company.
Job Board: Students can visit the Job Board in the Student Services Office. Local businesses reach out to the school on a regular basis to publicize job openings they are looking to fill.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Students can continue to explore and research careers, along with projected growth, median pay and education requirements, at https://www.bls.gov.

For questions or more information about the items/topics above, students should contact their counselor.