Top Career Web Sites for Children and Teens

Career assessments and tests help you explore who you. Career books and web sites give you a glimpse of the world of work. Free career information is available on web sites. Some writers have written facts for children and teens. We would like to share some information with you. These web sites use graphics, multimedia presentation, activities, and other techniques to expand our knowledge of careers. We have written information on seventeen (17) web sites. Here are the four different types of exploring careers web sites:

Curriculum
General Career Information
Science Career Clusters
Specific Science Careers

Curriculum Web Sites

Curriculum web sites provide activities, tests, guidelines, as well as career information.

Resource One: Career Cruiser
Source: Florida Department of Education

The Career Cruiser is a career exploration guidebook for middle school students. The Career Cruiser has self assessment activities to match personal interests to careers. The Career Cruiser has information on Holland Codes. Careers are grouped into 16 career clusters. The Career Cruiser has information on occupational descriptions, average earnings, and minimum educational level required for the job.

Teacher's Guide is also available.

Resource Two: Elementary Core Career Connection
Source: Utah State Office of Education

The Core Career Connections is a collection of instructional activities, K to 6, and 7 to 8, designed by teachers, counselors, and parents. Each grade level has instructional activities that align directly with the Utah State Core. This instructional resource provides a framework for teachers, counselors, and parents to integrate career awareness with the elementary and middle level grade students.

Career Information Web Sites

Some web sites provide excellent career information. Some web sites list facts about job tasks, wages, career outlook, interests, education, and more.

Resource Three: Career Voyages
Source: U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Education

The Career Voyages web site is a Career Exploration web site for Elementary School students. The Career Voyages web site has information about the following industries:

Advanced Manufacturing
Automotive
Construction
Energy
Financial Services
Health Care
Hospitality
Information Technology
Retail
Transportation
Aerospace and the "BioGeoNano" Technologies

Resource Four: Career Ship
Source: New York State Department of Labor

Career Ship is a free online career exploration tool for middle and high school students.
Career Ship uses Holland Codes and the O*NET Career Exploration Tools. For each career, Career Ship provides the following information:

Tasks
Wages
Career outlook
Interests
Education
Knowledge
Skills
Similar careers

Career Ship is a product of Mapping Your Future, a public service web site providing career, college, financial aid, and financial literacy information and services.

RESOURCE FIVE: Career Zone
Source: New York State Department of Labor

Career Zone is a career exploration and planning system. Career Zone has an assessment activity that identifies Holland Codes. Career Zone provides information on 900 careers from the new O*NET Database, the latest labor market information from the NYS Department of Labor and interactive career portfolios for middle and high school students that connect to the NYS Education Department Career Plan initiative. Career Zone has links to college exploration and planning resources, 300 career videos, resume builder, reference list maker, and cover letter application.

Resource Six: Destination 2020
Source: Canada Career Consortium

Destination 2020 helps youth discover how everyday tasks can help them build skills they will need to face the many challenges of the workforce.

Skills are linked to:

School Subjects
Other School Activities
Play Activities At Home
Work at Home

Through quizzes, activities and articles, they might actually find some answers or, at least, a direction about their future. There are more than 200 profiles of real people who are describing what a day at work is like for them.

Resource Seven: What Do You Like
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

What Do You Like is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Career web site for kids. The web site provides career information for students in Grades 4 to 8. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most of the material on the site has been adapted from the Bureau's Occupational Outlook Handbook,a career guidance publication for adults and upper level high school students that describes the job duties, working conditions, training requirements, earnings levels, and employment prospects of hundreds of occupations. Careers are matched to interests and hobbies. In the Teacher's Guide, there are twelve categories and their corresponding occupations.

Science Career Clusters

Some organizations have created web sites that feature science careers.

Resource Eight: EEK! Get a Job Environmental Education for Kids
Source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Eek! Get a Job Environmental Education for Kids is an electronic magazine for kids in grades 4 to 8. Eek! Get a Job provides information about:

Forestry
Hydrogeologist
Engineering
Herpetologist
Park Ranger
Wildlife Biologist
Park Naturalist

There is a job description for each career, a list of job activities, suggested activities to begin exploring careers, and needed job skills.

Resource Nine: GetTech.org
Source: National Association of Manufacturers, Center for Workforce Success, U.S. Department of Commerce, and U.S Department of Labor

GetTech.org is a educational web site that provides CAREER EXPLORATION information. GetTech.org has information about the following industries:

New Manufacturing
Information Technology
Engineering and Industrial Technology
Biotechnology and Chemistry
Health and Medicine
Arts & Design

Within each area, there are examples of careers.

Each career profile gives:

General description
Salary
Number of people employed to job
Number of jobs available in the future
Place of work
Level of education required
Location of training programs: University Pharmacy Programs.
Courses needed

There is a GetTech.org Teacher's Guide.

Resource Ten: LifeWorks
Source: National Institutes of Health, Office of Science Education

LifeWorks is a career exploration web site for middle and high school students. LifeWorks has information on more than 100 medical science and health careers. For each career, LifeWorks has the following information:

Title
Education required
Interest area
Median salary
True stories of people who do the different jobs

LifeWorks has a Career Finder that allows you to search by Name of Job, Interest Area, Education Required, or Salary.

Resource Eleven: San Diego Zoo Job Profiles for Kids
Source: San Diego Zoo

San Diego Zoo Job Profiles discussed jobs for people who:

Work with animals
Work with plants
Work with science and conservation
Work with people
Work that helps run the Zoo and Park

There are activities listed under each area, for example:

What we do
What is cool about this job
Job challenges
How this job helps animals
How to get a job like this
Practice Being a ...
How to Become a ...

Resource Twelve: Scientists in Action!
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior

Scientists in Action features summaries of the lives of people involved in careers in the natural sciences:

Mapping the planets
Sampling the ocean floor
Protecting wildlife
Forecasting volcanic eruptions

Resource Twelve: Want To Be a Scientist?
Source: Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of the Agriculture

Want To Be a Scientist is a career exploration web site for kids about 8 to 13 years old. Want To Be a Scientist has a series of job descriptions, stories, and other resources about what scientists do here at the ARS.

These stories include information about:

Plant Pathologist
Chemist
Soil Scientist
Entomologist
Animal Scientist
Microscopist
Plant Physiologist

Specific Science Careers

The last group of web sites is dedicated to providing information on specific science careers, for example veterinarians,

Resource Thirteen: About Veterinarians
Source: American Veterinary Medical Association

About Veterinarians has facts about:

What is a Veterinarian?
Becoming a Veterinarian
Making a Career Decision
What Personal Abilities Does a Veterinarian Need?
What Are the Pluses and Minuses of a Veterinary Career?
Veterinary Education
General Information
After Graduation From Veterinary School
General Information
School Statistics
Preparation Advice
Preveterinary Coursework
Where Most Schools Are Located
About School Accreditation
The Phases of Professional Study
The Clinical Curriculum
The Academic Experience
Roles of Veterinarians
Private Practice
Teaching and Research
Regulatory Medicine
Public Health
Uniformed Services
Private Industry
Employment Outlook
Employment Forecast
The Advantage of Specializing
Statistics
Greatest Potential Growth Areas
Other Professional Directions
AVMA Veterinary Career Center
Becoming a Veterinary Technician
Your Career in Veterinary Technology
Duties and Responsibilities
Career Opportunities
Education Required
Distance Learning
Salary
Professional Regulations
Organizations
Further Information

Resource Fourteen: Aquarium Careers
Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium

Aquarium Careers features careers information. For each Staff Profiles, there is Educational Background and Skills Needed. The Staff Profiles include:

Aquarist
Education Specialist
Exhibits Coordinator
Exhibit Designer
Research Biologist
Science Writer

The Aquarium Careers web site answers the following questions:

What should I do now to prepare for a career in marine biology?
Where can I find a good college for marine biology?
What should be my college major?
How do I pick a graduate school?
I'm not sure of my area of interest. What should I do?

Marine Science Career Resources include information on:

Marine Advanced Technology Education
Marine Mammal Center, California
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California
Scripps Library
Sea Grant
Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station
State University of New York at Stony Brook

Resource Fifteen: Engineering The Stealth Profession
Source: Discoverengineering.org

Engineering The Stealth Profession has a lot of information about engineers:

Types of Engineers
Aerospace Engineering
Ceramic/Materials Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Electrical/Computer Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Industrial Engineering
Manufacturing Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Other Engineers
True Stories
Salaries
Education Required
Work Schedules
Equipment Used

Resource Sixteen: Sea Grant Marine Careers
Source: Marinecareers.net

Sea Grant Marine Careers gives you facts about marine career fields and to people working in those fields. Sea Grant Marine Careers outlines information on:

Marine Biology
Oceanography
Ocean Engineering
Related Fields

In each area, there is a detailed description of the type of the work that the scientists do. There are feature stories for different scientists in the career field.

The career profiles include information on:

What is your current job and what does it entail?
What was the key factor in your career decision?
What do you like most about your career?
What do you like least about your career?
What do you do to relax?
Who are your heroes/heroines?
What advice would you give a high school student who expressed an interest in pursuing a career in your field?
Are career opportunities in your field increasing or decreasing and why?
What will you be doing 10 years from today?
What is the salary range?

Resource Seventeen: Do You Want to Become a Volcanologist?
Source: Marinecareers.net

Do You Want to Become a Volcanologist? provides the following descriptions:

The Word Volcanologist
Daily work
Traits for success
Education
Salaries

Career web sites help you build awareness of the different aspects of careers: the tasks, wages, career outlook, interests, education, knowledge, and skills. We know that you will be fun exploring careers.