Career Trees
Pictured at right: Stephen Brown (left), and Curtis Takahashi in back, and Samantha Spitzer, front, made CareerTrees.org a reality in short order
Enthusiasm, knowledge, and skill connected with the slickness of O*NET Online is what made Career Trees a reality in just the few short months of this summer. Career Trees (version 2) is how Washington’s Snohomish County fulfilled its goal of bringing local occupational information to the area’s young people in an attractive, online tool. Take a look; you will see how compelling this front-end interface to O*NET Online is for folks embarking on careers north of Seattle. http://www.careertrees.org/
CareerTrees.org has quickly become the realized product of focus and energy for Curtis Takahashi, Service Delivery Manager—Careers, Samantha Spitzer, Manager of Research & Evaluation, and Stephen Brown, Applications System Analyst, all with Workforce Development Council Snohomish County. “We had a good Career Trees, developed in concert with the community college, when I arrived last September,” Curtis points out. “We had eye-catching, user-friendly posters, demonstrating how a person could climb career ladders, or Career Trees, in a high-demand industry. We started with health care careers. Immediately I realized that the paper version of Career Trees wasn’t something the kids were going to want to look at. We needed an online tool to attract their attention.”
“We were very familiar with O*NET, and O*NET Online,” Samantha explains. “We have used it for years in One-Stop Centers for employment/job search efforts. But driving us in this project was the need of the economic community. We were looking at what the region needed five, 10, 15 years from now, and we were charged with getting the schools and students on the same page.”
Curtis continues, “You have to go back a bit to understand where our mission came from. Snohomish County Blueprint 2015 was born in 2003. It was a partnership of Snohomish County government, educational institutions, and workforce and economic development organizations. The Blueprint 2015 partnership aims to retain and attract jobs in key industry clusters. We did the research necessary to determine our key industry clusters.” (See http://www.snocoblueprint.org/)
Samantha adds, “Enthusiasm for bringing the Blueprint 2015 information to students is what sparked the Career Trees idea. We created lists of occupations to go along with the key industry clusters, the industries that we know are going to be the future of Snohomish County—10, 15, 20 years from now. We wanted to attract students to the top jobs in the county, so we had to provide information in a way that speaks to them. It was important to have the area’s top “future occupations” be the entry point for young people planning their careers.”
CareerTrees.org makes the plan a reality. The secret of their quick success? Curtis explains, “One of the key factors to putting this project on the fast track was our Foundation for Innovation—the goals that we set in our Strategic Plan. We knew that we needed to make a Snohomish County workforce development system that is:
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100% globally competitive,
- Able to meet industry needs by filling 100% of jobs with qualified candidates,
- Able to help 100% of job candidates obtain and retain employment, and
- Able to help 100% of businesses and job candidates to continuously enhance their productivity and prosperity.
“So, our overarching goal was driving us toward high standards. We knew what we wanted to achieve. We didn’t have to come at it from a pipedream or a vague mission statement. Plus, we had Blueprint 2015. It’s that focus that helps you out, knowing the goals that you must achieve. We were focusing on K-12. Other great things will happen, no doubt—help for dislocated workers, general local economy improvement, etc. But we would encourage others to hammer out their focus before starting. Constantly look at your ‘test.’ If you are passing the test, OK, stay on it.”
“Selecting O*NET to put our front end on was easy—O*NET had the best accessibility!” exclaims Samantha. “Yes, O*NET has made everything for universal accessibility,” Curtis agrees. “Other tools weren’t as easy; one needed password access, etc. There are none of those restrictions on O*NET. Besides, it didn’t cost anything to use O*NET Online!”
Curtis contributed the vision, attention to the interface and usability, as well as feedback from users he met while on the presentation and conference circuit. Samantha did the research. Stephen was the IT wizard. “Our IT staff can do anything,” Samantha credits them glowingly. “Though we had the background research in hand, we did the additional needed R&D, the design, the computer systems work—all in a couple/three months this summer.”
“The response and feedback are great,” reports Curtis. “We rolled out CareerTrees.org at a conference, and I’m already hearing from people, ‘Can you please make a couple of tweaks?’ Also, lots of people want presentations on Career Trees. The word is out and it’s spreading fast.”
This project team is busy outside the world of growing Career Trees. Curtis is “trying to hit every major league baseball park in the U.S. I have 23 down, seven to go. Plus, they’re building new ones! If I’m not involved in work, look for me in the Left Field bleachers of Safeco Field.” Samantha adds, “I teach yoga classes; I train for triathlons; I play with my parrots. Those are the activities I enjoy.”
It’s apparent that the Career Trees team members also very much enjoy working well together. |
