When a young counselor at Chattahoochee Valley Community College, in Phenix City, Alabama, called Janet Ormond for guidance recently, Janet knew immediately where to send the counselor. “I recognized right away that O*NET was the solution for the counselor and his non-traditional student,” explains Janet, Dean of Workforce Development at the College.

The student was ex-military and planning to get an education and a diploma, if he could qualify for a particular financial aid program. His challenge: He was required to document that completing Chattahoochee Valley’s program in Homeland Security would result in his being prepared to secure employment. His counselor was asking Janet how the veteran could support that assertion.

“O*NET is perfect for this type of challenge,” Janet continues. “I told the counselor to jump right into O*NET Online and search on Homeland Security. I assured him that plenty of occupations would pop up in his results list. Some 200 occupations resulted from one click! Those occupations are ‘related’ to Homeland Security. They have many required skills, tasks, and work context elements in common. What an eye-opener for the counselor and the student! Ample documentation for their thesis that a diploma in Homeland Security would enable the student to secure employment was as easy as printing the list of occupations and their skills, tasks, etc., and then pointing out that our degree program addressed those very elements. “Just as important, the student was reaffirmed in his decision; he was amazed to learn that the skills and knowledge sets he was about to gain were going to give him so many career options!”

Janet made a note to herself to make certain again that all the counselors know how to use O*NET in this application. “You forget that new people come onboard and might not be aware of this great tool,” she comments. Janet also plans to incorporate learning about O*NET in Ready to Work, a program at the College that is funded by grants from the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development. “We are preparing people for the world of work, everything from how to interview, to how to dress, to computer skills. We have had individuals in previous Ready to Work classes learn how to use O*NET for career exploration, resume writing, interview prep—that sort of thing. But we need to make sure that next time the entire class learns how to use O*NET to their benefit.”

These are newer O*NET applications for Janet Ormond. “My first exposure to O*NET was, oh, about 10 years ago!” she exclaims. “I learned of it at a Workforce Development conference, and I was curious. The price tag for O*NET—free—was right up my alley,” she laughs. “I saw that I could use O*NET to create an initial task list for jobs that I needed to profile, on Work Keys consulting assignments. You see, often people can’t articulate the tasks that comprise a job. Rather than struggle to create a list from whole cloth, I could go into a plant or factory workshop floor prepared, with a list to work from. Through observation and discussion, we could appropriately delete tasks and augment the list as well, to arrive at that particular job’s duties. But O*NET gave me the base from which to work. I could approach a job profiling project looking knowledgeable.”

Today one can use the O*NET Code Connector in such job profiling activities, searching on any job title a company uses. The results list shows most likely closest matching occupations, in descending order.

Janet must have O*NET top-of-mind, for she continually finds ways to use O*NET creatively. “Oh yes, I keep O*NET in my Favorites on my computer,” she agrees. “Just recently I made a presentation to a group—the topic was why it is important to stay in school. Not much of the message sunk in for this audience. But then I said, ‘Oh, you want to be a CSI? You want to be a musician? That’s going to take quite a lot of education. Look here, right here.’ I had in hand O*NET Summary Reports, highlighting required education, for many occupations these kids thought would be cool. O*NET made my point for me. Those kids snatched up the reports, devoured them. You know, when it comes off the computer, it speaks to the kids, more effectively than I could. We learn different ways. O*NET is a great way for many groups to learn.”

Janet is constantly learning, too. No doubt that attribute has set her up for success in education. She talks about her most impactful recent read (“not that I get to read for pleasure much”)—Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat. “I learned the importance of preaching globalization. I’m always doing it. From now until forever, we all need to learn all we can, to live effectively as world citizens.”