Getting Real

Helping Teens Find Their Future
Second Edition
Kenneth C. Gray - Pennsylvania State University, USA
Getting Real
September 2008 | 216 pages | Corwin
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ISBN: 9781412963657
Available from January 0001

Description

"Gray provides a systematic method for working with students to look at opportunities after high school in a realistic way."
—Mary Reeve, Director
Services for Exceptional Students

Help teens achieve success after high school through meaningful career development!

Without a realistic postsecondary strategy, more than half of students fail to graduate college or land rewarding jobs. Educators and parents can improve students' odds by encouraging them to develop the long-term initiative and commitment of a solid career plan.

This updated edition of Getting Real examines real-world occupational trends and projections to help teens gain "career maturity" and a sense of direction. The second edition has been expanded to address students with special needs and those at risk of dropping out, and includes a new chapter on understanding today's teens and parents. Offering a systematic, six-step plan for helping adolescents integrate youthful aspirations with economic realities, the author examines:

  • The fundamentals of the labor market
  • Myths and misconceptions that can limit students' choices
  • Alternative options to a four-year degree
  • Career exploration strategies and activities, such as job shadowing and work-study

Develop confident, clear-thinking teens who can make well-informed academic and career decisions about their future!

Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Author

1. Getting Real: New Realities for Postsecondary Success

  • A New Goal: Postsecondary Success
  • Career Direction and the "Fourth" R
  • Career Maturity and Career Direction
  • Career Exploration Activities and Career Maturity
  • Career Development Programs: Are They Effective?
  • Society's Ambivalence About Career Choice
  • The Role of Public Schools
  • Making the Case for Career Development Programs
  • Promoting Success

Part I. Understanding Those We Try to Help “Get Real”

  • 2. Today’s Teens and Their Parents
  • Today’s Teens
  • Today’s Parents
  • Promoting Success
  • 3. Dropouts, Teens With Disabilities, and Graduates Seeking Full Time Employment
  • Getting Real and High School Dropouts
  • Getting Real and Special Populations
  • High School Graduates Who Seek Full Time Employment
  • Promoting Success
  • 4. Creating Opportunities by Countering Stereotypes
  • Occupational Stereotypes
  • Gender Stereotypes and Earnings: Education or Occupation?
  • Occupational Stereotyping: Minorities and the Economically Disadvantaged
  • Promoting Success

Part II. Understanding Labor Market Fundamentals

  • 5. Labor Market Misunderstandings and Bad Advice
  • Misunderstanding 1: A University Degree Guarantees Access to High Wages
  • Misunderstanding 2: A University Degree Guarantees Access to Professional Careers
  • Misunderstanding 3: High Tech Careers Require a University Degree
  • Misunderstanding 4: Career Planning Is Worthless Because People Change Jobs All the Time Anyway
  • Misunderstanding 5: University Graduates Will Take All the Good Jobs
  • Labor Market Advantage: The Secret to Getting High-Skill / High-Wage Employment
  • Bad Advice Given to Teens
  • Will Tentative Career Decisions Close the Door to Future Opportunity?
  • Promoting Success
  • 6. Occupational Projections, Technical and Middle Skill Employment
  • I: Using Labor Market Information
  • II: Occupational Projections
  • III: The Other Way to Win: Technical and Middle-Skill Occupations
  • A Selective List of Technical and Middle Skilled Occupations: This Is Rocket Science
  • Promoting Success

Part III. Strategies to Promote Career Direction

  • 7. Career Success, Decision Making, and Teens
  • The Path to Career Success?
  • Characteristics of a Career Mature Teenager
  • Career Decision Making Anxiety of Teens
  • Reducing Teen Anxiety Over Making Career Decisions
  • Promoting Success
  • 8. Strategies to Promote Adolescent Career Maturity and Direction
  • Student Outcome Goals for Career Development Program
  • Outcome Goal 1: Promoting a Tentative Career Direction While in the 10th Grade
  • Outcome Goal 2: Verifying Tentative Career Directions
  • Outcome Goal 3: Develop a Postsecondary Plan
  • Providing Career Counseling
  • Promoting Success
  • 9. Considering “All” the Alternatives
  • Traditional Formal Education Alternatives
  • Alternatives to College
  • The “Bridge” or “Prep” Year
  • Promoting Success
  • 10. Six-Step Plan for Postsecondary Success
  • Talking to Parents
  • Parents and Career Choice
  • Six-Step Plan for Postsecondary Success
  • Helping Parents With Difficult Choices
  • Promoting Success
  • 11. Getting Real and the Role of the Business Community
  • Community Organizations
  • Promoting Success
  • 12. How Are Teenagers Best Served, Nutritional Lies or Reality?
  • Nutritional Lies
  • Creating Opportunity
  • Five Premises for Success
  • Well-Intended but Bad Advice Given to Teens
  • Understanding Our Role
  • Fighting the Good Fight
  • References
  • Index

Description

"Gray provides a systematic method for working with students to look at opportunities after high school in a realistic way."
—Mary Reeve, Director
Services for Exceptional Students

Help teens achieve success after high school through meaningful career development!

Without a realistic postsecondary strategy, more than half of students fail to graduate college or land rewarding jobs. Educators and parents can improve students' odds by encouraging them to develop the long-term initiative and commitment of a solid career plan.

This updated edition of Getting Real examines real-world occupational trends and projections to help teens gain "career maturity" and a sense of direction. The second edition has been expanded to address students with special needs and those at risk of dropping out, and includes a new chapter on understanding today's teens and parents. Offering a systematic, six-step plan for helping adolescents integrate youthful aspirations with economic realities, the author examines:

  • The fundamentals of the labor market
  • Myths and misconceptions that can limit students' choices
  • Alternative options to a four-year degree
  • Career exploration strategies and activities, such as job shadowing and work-study

Develop confident, clear-thinking teens who can make well-informed academic and career decisions about their future!

Contents

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Author

1. Getting Real: New Realities for Postsecondary Success

  • A New Goal: Postsecondary Success
  • Career Direction and the "Fourth" R
  • Career Maturity and Career Direction
  • Career Exploration Activities and Career Maturity
  • Career Development Programs: Are They Effective?
  • Society's Ambivalence About Career Choice
  • The Role of Public Schools
  • Making the Case for Career Development Programs
  • Promoting Success

Part I. Understanding Those We Try to Help “Get Real”

  • 2. Today’s Teens and Their Parents
  • Today’s Teens
  • Today’s Parents
  • Promoting Success
  • 3. Dropouts, Teens With Disabilities, and Graduates Seeking Full Time Employment
  • Getting Real and High School Dropouts
  • Getting Real and Special Populations
  • High School Graduates Who Seek Full Time Employment
  • Promoting Success
  • 4. Creating Opportunities by Countering Stereotypes
  • Occupational Stereotypes
  • Gender Stereotypes and Earnings: Education or Occupation?
  • Occupational Stereotyping: Minorities and the Economically Disadvantaged
  • Promoting Success

Part II. Understanding Labor Market Fundamentals

  • 5. Labor Market Misunderstandings and Bad Advice
  • Misunderstanding 1: A University Degree Guarantees Access to High Wages
  • Misunderstanding 2: A University Degree Guarantees Access to Professional Careers
  • Misunderstanding 3: High Tech Careers Require a University Degree
  • Misunderstanding 4: Career Planning Is Worthless Because People Change Jobs All the Time Anyway
  • Misunderstanding 5: University Graduates Will Take All the Good Jobs
  • Labor Market Advantage: The Secret to Getting High-Skill / High-Wage Employment
  • Bad Advice Given to Teens
  • Will Tentative Career Decisions Close the Door to Future Opportunity?
  • Promoting Success
  • 6. Occupational Projections, Technical and Middle Skill Employment
  • I: Using Labor Market Information
  • II: Occupational Projections
  • III: The Other Way to Win: Technical and Middle-Skill Occupations
  • A Selective List of Technical and Middle Skilled Occupations: This Is Rocket Science
  • Promoting Success

Part III. Strategies to Promote Career Direction

  • 7. Career Success, Decision Making, and Teens
  • The Path to Career Success?
  • Characteristics of a Career Mature Teenager
  • Career Decision Making Anxiety of Teens
  • Reducing Teen Anxiety Over Making Career Decisions
  • Promoting Success
  • 8. Strategies to Promote Adolescent Career Maturity and Direction
  • Student Outcome Goals for Career Development Program
  • Outcome Goal 1: Promoting a Tentative Career Direction While in the 10th Grade
  • Outcome Goal 2: Verifying Tentative Career Directions
  • Outcome Goal 3: Develop a Postsecondary Plan
  • Providing Career Counseling
  • Promoting Success
  • 9. Considering “All” the Alternatives
  • Traditional Formal Education Alternatives
  • Alternatives to College
  • The “Bridge” or “Prep” Year
  • Promoting Success
  • 10. Six-Step Plan for Postsecondary Success
  • Talking to Parents
  • Parents and Career Choice
  • Six-Step Plan for Postsecondary Success
  • Helping Parents With Difficult Choices
  • Promoting Success
  • 11. Getting Real and the Role of the Business Community
  • Community Organizations
  • Promoting Success
  • 12. How Are Teenagers Best Served, Nutritional Lies or Reality?
  • Nutritional Lies
  • Creating Opportunity
  • Five Premises for Success
  • Well-Intended but Bad Advice Given to Teens
  • Understanding Our Role
  • Fighting the Good Fight
  • References
  • Index
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Getting Real

Helping Teens Find Their Future


September 2008 | 216 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Paperback 28/04/2023 9781412963657 $39.95

"Gray provides a systematic method for working with students to look at opportunities after high school in a realistic way."
—Mary Reeve, Director
Services for Exceptional Students

Help teens achieve success after high school through meaningful career development!

Without a realistic postsecondary strategy, more than half of students fail to graduate college or land rewarding jobs. Educators and parents can improve students' odds by encouraging them to develop the long-term initiative and commitment of a solid career plan.

This updated edition of Getting Real examines real-world occupational trends and projections to help teens gain "career maturity" and a sense of direction. The second edition has been expanded to address students with special needs and those at risk of dropping out, and includes a new chapter on understanding today's teens and parents. Offering a systematic, six-step plan for helping adolescents integrate youthful aspirations with economic realities, the author examines:

  • The fundamentals of the labor market
  • Myths and misconceptions that can limit students' choices
  • Alternative options to a four-year degree
  • Career exploration strategies and activities, such as job shadowing and work-study

Develop confident, clear-thinking teens who can make well-informed academic and career decisions about their future!


Table Of Contents:

  • Preface to the Second Edition
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Author
  • 1. Getting Real: New Realities for Postsecondary Success
  • A New Goal: Postsecondary Success
  • Career Direction and the "Fourth" R
  • Career Maturity and Career Direction
  • Career Exploration Activities and Career Maturity
  • Career Development Programs: Are They Effective?
  • Society's Ambivalence About Career Choice
  • The Role of Public Schools
  • Making the Case for Career Development Programs
  • Promoting Success
  • Part I. Understanding Those We Try to Help “Get Real”
  • 2. Today’s Teens and Their Parents
  • Today’s Teens
  • Today’s Parents
  • Promoting Success
  • 3. Dropouts, Teens With Disabilities, and Graduates Seeking Full Time Employment
  • Getting Real and High School Dropouts
  • Getting Real and Special Populations
  • High School Graduates Who Seek Full Time Employment
  • Promoting Success
  • 4. Creating Opportunities by Countering Stereotypes
  • Occupational Stereotypes
  • Gender Stereotypes and Earnings: Education or Occupation?
  • Occupational Stereotyping: Minorities and the Economically Disadvantaged
  • Promoting Success
  • Part II. Understanding Labor Market Fundamentals
  • 5. Labor Market Misunderstandings and Bad Advice
  • Misunderstanding 1: A University Degree Guarantees Access to High Wages
  • Misunderstanding 2: A University Degree Guarantees Access to Professional Careers
  • Misunderstanding 3: High Tech Careers Require a University Degree
  • Misunderstanding 4: Career Planning Is Worthless Because People Change Jobs All the Time Anyway
  • Misunderstanding 5: University Graduates Will Take All the Good Jobs
  • Labor Market Advantage: The Secret to Getting High-Skill / High-Wage Employment
  • Bad Advice Given to Teens
  • Will Tentative Career Decisions Close the Door to Future Opportunity?
  • Promoting Success
  • 6. Occupational Projections, Technical and Middle Skill Employment
  • I: Using Labor Market Information
  • II: Occupational Projections
  • III: The Other Way to Win: Technical and Middle-Skill Occupations
  • A Selective List of Technical and Middle Skilled Occupations: This Is Rocket Science
  • Promoting Success
  • Part III. Strategies to Promote Career Direction
  • 7. Career Success, Decision Making, and Teens
  • The Path to Career Success?
  • Characteristics of a Career Mature Teenager
  • Career Decision Making Anxiety of Teens
  • Reducing Teen Anxiety Over Making Career Decisions
  • Promoting Success
  • 8. Strategies to Promote Adolescent Career Maturity and Direction
  • Student Outcome Goals for Career Development Program
  • Outcome Goal 1: Promoting a Tentative Career Direction While in the 10th Grade
  • Outcome Goal 2: Verifying Tentative Career Directions
  • Outcome Goal 3: Develop a Postsecondary Plan
  • Providing Career Counseling
  • Promoting Success
  • 9. Considering “All” the Alternatives
  • Traditional Formal Education Alternatives
  • Alternatives to College
  • The “Bridge” or “Prep” Year
  • Promoting Success
  • 10. Six-Step Plan for Postsecondary Success
  • Talking to Parents
  • Parents and Career Choice
  • Six-Step Plan for Postsecondary Success
  • Helping Parents With Difficult Choices
  • Promoting Success
  • 11. Getting Real and the Role of the Business Community
  • Community Organizations
  • Promoting Success
  • 12. How Are Teenagers Best Served, Nutritional Lies or Reality?
  • Nutritional Lies
  • Creating Opportunity
  • Five Premises for Success
  • Well-Intended but Bad Advice Given to Teens
  • Understanding Our Role
  • Fighting the Good Fight
  • References
  • Index

Recent Product Reviews:

"I applaud the author’s efforts in promoting a shift from the 'one way to win' stance toward that of helping students face reality and develop career goals that will help them be successful."
Shawn Grime, School Counselor, Bryan High School, OH
"Stresses the need for career maturity. This is one of the few books that addresses this topic so well."
Diane Smith, School Counselor, Smethport Area High School, PA
"This book is a must-read for those involved in developing futures planning for students in ninth grade through their exit from high school into adult life."
Kelli S. Kercher, Transition Specialist, Murray School District, UT
“Gray provides a systematic method for working with students to look at opportunities after high school in a realistic way.”
Mary Reeve, Director, Services for Exceptional Students

Recommendations