Career Development Simulator: A course for school to work

Bridging the gap between school and work has been a challenge for educational administrators for generations. Understanding employer expectations and needs for their respective industries is a guiding principle for students of higher learning, yet many higher education administrators, especially counselors, feel hard pressed in obtaining this knowledge for their students. Most importantly, many higher education counselors feel unprepared when it comes to training students about transitioning into the business sector because they themselves are not exactly certain how or about which topics the students should be trained.; To help answer the questions of the counselors and to alleviate the anxiety of the students, the Career Development Simulator (CDS) was developed. Armed with a perspective from industry, the CDS is an experiential/role playing simulation class, which consists of practical and real-world business applications-set in learning modules that contain hundreds of small group activities and scenarios that mimic the world of work's daily occurrences.; Two California community colleges were used to test the CDS. Four career counselors were trained on how to administer the curriculum to their CDS class. Each college hosted one CDS course for a total of 35 students from both schools. The CDS course was held at both colleges for approximately 8 weeks, and was held 2 days each week (3 hours on one weeknight; and 4 hours on Saturdays). Feedback from counselors focused on the creative concept of the CDS, its practical classroom applications, the relevancy of the curriculum and the role-play activities' effectiveness. Students reported that the CDS lessons were invaluable, the course was fun, and the interactive nature kept them interested for the duration. Areas to improve pertain to the insignificance of the web-based teaching adjunct and the overwhelming amount of material and activities for students and counselors to choose and utilize.