Career Resource Centers

John RakisConsultantNational Institute of Corrections

Creative Strategies for Maximizing the

Effectiveness of Career Resource

Centers

Objectives

• Learn how to set up a career resource center in a correctional, facility, probation or parole office, or community-based organization

• Learn how to enhance an existing career resource center using the no-cost resources available from the National Institute of Corrections

Can’t do it by Yourself!

• Engage Volunteers -VolunteerMatch.Org

• Inmate Career Clerks

Why?• Most persons with criminal convictions

are ill-prepared to enter the world of work

• One-stop career centers can’t do everything

• Need to send a consistent message throughout the criminal justice process

Why?• Many people are waiting idly in

probation and parole offices right now

• The same is true in prisons

• Wherever they are set up, career resource centers are in high demand

Career Definition

• The pattern of activities and experiences that make up a lifetime of work, learning, and leisure

The Purpose

• Career development should not be the accumulation of haphazard occurrences

• Career resource centers should promote a planned process that leads to satisfying work and life experiences

A Full Service Career Resource Center

• Self-assessment materials

• Career briefs on occupations, including demand, salaries, training, etc.


• Information needed to secure identity documents required for employment

• Assistance with resumes and cover letters and guidance on how to search for employment opportunities

• Assistance with the job application process


• Labor market information and local job requirements

• Information about community-based Career One-Stops

• Preparation for prison and jail-based career fairs


• Multimedia materials, including videos about careers and the job search process

• Workshops intended to improve employment outcomes

Assessment

• Process of learning about oneself and determining which occupations are the best fit

• May include interest inventories, skills surveys and value inventories

• Barriers Assessment

O*NET Computerized Interest Profiler

• provides valuable self-knowledge about their vocational interests

• fosters career awareness

• provides a window to the entire world of work


• The instrument is composed of 180 items describing work activities that represent a wide variety of occupations as well as a broad range of training levels


• Computer administration via single computer or computer network

• Simple and easy to follow instructions

• Screens motivate user completion of the instrument

• Approximately 30 minute completion time


• Available at no cost via the Internet or through NIC

Assessing Barriers

• Survey of Offender Barriers to Re-Entry and Employment

• Re-Entry Readiness – Are You Ready?

Additional Assessment Tools

• Sample Reentry Guides

Career Briefs

• Occupational Outlook Handbook

• Career Guide to Industries

Pre-employment assistance

•Assistance with resumes and cover letters and guidance on how to search for employment opportunities•Assistance with the job application process

Labor Market Information

•Learning how to access up-to-date information•Job projections by state

Using the Career Resource Center Disk