School-to-Career programs are a great way to start making that connection between what you learn in the classroom, post-secondary education and training, and future careers.

Because you are in your first job and it's entry level, you may not think you learn anything new at your place of work. But, you do. High school jobs, internships, community service, and job shadows give you a chance to learn how to go to work. Work experience of any kind, whether important or trivial, helps you sort through priorities, skills and interests. Satisfaction occurs when there are strong synergies in these areas. Most people will spend more waking hours in the process of work than not. Let's just say you sleep 8 hours a night. That leaves 16 hours awake. You work 8 hours, travel ½ hour each way, spend 1 1/2 hours preparing for work and 1/2 hour winding down from work. That leaves 5 hours of awake, non-work time; that's not much. The point is this: if you don't like what you are doing, if you don't have appropriate skills and personality traits, and if you don't feel you fit in the organization you are miserable for 11 hours per day, 260 days per year. As you can see it is important to explore many options, research intensely, and chase your dreams.

School-to-Career invites you to explore in a variety of ways:

Community Service
Internships
Job Shadows
Work-Based Learning

Check out industry programs:

Aviation
Banking
Cadet Health Caregivers
Cadet Teaching
Dental
Engineering
Fire Safety - S.P.A.R.C.
Forest and Land Management - Central Oregon Youth Conservation Corps
Health Occupations