OKLAHOMA CITY (OBV) – School counselors and advisors will participate in a conference in Oklahoma City designed to enhance their ability to guide students in their career interests.
The 19th Annual For Counselors Only Conference will be held on March 8 at Metro Technology Center’s Springlake campus.
The Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Information, Oklahoma State Department of Education and Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education are organizing the event.
The conference will feature several breakout education sessions that pertain to professional development for school counselors, career tech counselors and student advisors, said Shawna Nord, Manager of Counseling and Career Development at the Department of Career and Technology Information.
Sessions at past conferences focused on academic updates, individual career and academic plan (ICAP) information, navigating crisis response within a counselor’s respective building or district, creating meaningful connections to higher education through ICAP, stem/aerospace opportunities, ways to improve resilience in students, elementary career awareness using Kuder Galaxy and Oklahoma’s Promise 101.
High schools now require that all ninth through 12th grade students complete ICAP before graduating.
This school year’s 12th grade students are the first class to have the ICAP requirement. Each school district determines how their ICAP program is implemented, according to Nord.
As part of ICAP, Nord said, each student has to do the following:
- Annual online career assessment;
- Annual career interest inventory;
- Update their career and post-secondary/workforce goals annually, which necessitates them to have an intentional sequence of classes that reflect those goals;
- Update their required state and federal assessments, such as ACT or SAT;
- Have at least one service learning or work based activity.
The breakout sessions will offer meaningful, peer-led content, according to an Oklahoma Career Tech news release.
Attending the conference is free. Continuing education units (CEUs) for licensed professional counselors will be available at the end of the conference.
Individuals interested in attending the conference can register by going to the event registration page.
Registrants are encouraged to submit proposals for breakout sessions on the topics that matter to them. Breakout session proposals must be submitted by Jan. 20.
Exhibitor and sponsorship booth spaces are also available, but must be registered for by Jan. 19.
Go to Oklahoma Career Tech’s conference page for more information.
