Parents, high school counselors using website to help students prepare for life after high school
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Preparing for life after high school can be hard, but one website is helping parents and students do it.
Next Steps Idaho offers a wide variety of things, explains Thunder Ridge High School counselor Melissa McConnell.
"It is so much more than just college. And that's what I really like about it," McConnell said. "It could even be for the person who's currently in a career, and they're like 'Gosh I really don't feel like this is fitting my needs. What are my other options?' There's links to apprenticeship sites, it'll link you to job service, it'll link you to college board. It just gives you ideas of how to gain different skills and tasks for a parent or for a teacher."
McConnell uses it both at work, and at home.
"I'd actually found the next steps website before I started working for the school district," McConnell said. "And it was something I worked with my kids, like 'Hey let's start thinking of what you like to do, let's start thinking about what you don't like to do'."
"Because really as a young person, you don't really have a lot of information about careers out there," McConnell said. "You maybe know what your parents do, you know what teachers do, you know what you do at your fast food job. But there are so many other things out there, where you really don't know what to do. And this gives you that idea of how you get these skills, or where you find these experiences."
McConnell said people can start using the website years before they graduate.
"I have a senior that's graduating this year, and I think he did the career cluster in the 7th grade," McConnell said. "And he knew he didn't like selling things with football, so he didn't want to work in sales or marketing. But really he didn't have an idea what else he wanted to do."
By looking at which skills can lead to certain careers, users can then see what training is needed for that job McConnell explained.
"So really that Next Step website gives you a place to start to kind of look, to kind of start having that conversation with you child when they're younger," McConnell said. "So 'I think I'm interested in healthcare, well here are some things I can do to find out.' And the student may find out 'I don't like healthcare, this isn't what I want to do'. But learning that earlier, that way they can try other things. So it definitely starts the conversation and gives you a place to start looking at that information."
Giving Idaho educators, parents and students a head start.
The website also focuses just on Idaho.
"So when you're doing the what kind of lifestyle do I want to live and how much money do I need to make to support it, I can pick my Idaho town, and it's going to give me to cost of living for that Idaho town," McConnell said. "And a lot of time that will be really helpful, cause a lot of time students will go oh you make this much money. Well depending on where you want to live, that might not be enough."
