1. Chapter 6:
The Role of Information in Career Planning

2. Learning Objectives
Describe the career planning process and how information relates to it
Explain the responsibilities of the client and the CDF in this process
Describe at least five different kinds of decision-making styles
Identify criteria for judging the quality of informational databases

3. Learning Objectives, continued
Define labor market and labor market information
Describe three major government and three other sources of occupational information
Describe at least three ways occupations can be classified
Explain how clients can research occupations and training opportunities

4. The Career Decision-Making Process

5. Types of Deciders Planful - step-by-step process, steps 1-6
Painful - steps 1-4
Intuitive - step 5 without much data
Impulsive - step 5 without finding alternatives
Compliant - letting someone else decide
Delaying - putting off decision making
Fatalistic - giving up control
Paralytic - being too frightened to decide

6. CDF Role To help clients understand the process
To offer activities and resources that may help to identify and clarify alternatives
To assist clients to use the information gained in ways that help with making a choice
To refer clients for assistance from others if their needs exceed the scope of your work and training

7. Types of Databases
Academic or Training Programs—descriptions of school majors at different educational levels
Schools—descriptions of all the schools, by levels, in a given geographic area
Occupations—descriptions of hundreds of occupations
Jobs—descriptions of available positions

8. Characteristics of High-Quality Databases
Accurate - data contained in them is correct
Understandable - meaning can be understood by reader
Recent - data are updated frequently
Sufficient - enough information to satisfy the needs of the decider
Unbiased - do not present an option as better or worse than it really is

9. Government Sources of Occupational Information
Occupational Outlook Handbook
Occupational Outlook Quarterly
Guide to Occupational Exploration
O*Net
America’s Career InfoNet

10. Ways to Organize Occupations
Holland System - a three-letter code
World-of-Work Map System - 6 clusters, 26 job families
GOE System - 14 groups
O*Net System occupations
SIC - grouped by industry, primary activity, and product