The goal of the Student Occupational Awareness and Recognition Program (SOAR) is to expose, educate, and engage students in career development and career decision-making. The program provides career services to students at public middle and high schools, grades six through twelve, and students receive in-depth education and direction on career choices as well as access to the up-to-date labor market and career data. The SOAR Program offers many resources to help students to become workforce ready!
Classroom Workshops: The SOAR Program offers three primary workshops:
Labor Market Overviews—This workshop is an overview for seventh graders of high-demand occupations with data and classroom activities related to job growth, earnings, educational programs, demographics, and more as related to careers.
Student Career Assessment and Interest Profiler—
Your SOAR Career Specialist can help your eighth-grade students find out what their interests are and what kind of pathway they might want to pursue.
Employability Skills—The Employability Skills workshop will help ninth graders identify the ways to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people, personal qualities such as a positive attitude, the ability to communicate, think critically, organize and plan, and work with a team, and more.
Resume Writing & Interview Skills—These Workshops are designed to help prepare tenth and eleventh graders to feel confident going into a job interview and to sell themselves as the best person for the job and guide them in creating their resume.
Job Readiness Credential—Seniors can earn a Job Readiness certification which is an employability skills certification recognized by the National Soft Skills Association. The web-based platform can be accessed from any device and helps students to acquire the critical soft skills they need to achieve success. With soft skills such as a positive attitude, communication, critical thinking, teamwork, and interpersonal skills, this
system is a must for building success skills for school, the workplace, and life in general.
Other available resources include:
Student One-on-Ones—The words career, job, and occupation are often used interchangeably. The SOAR Program helps students identify career pathways and the education that is needed to accomplish their goals through one on one discussions. The SOAR Outreach Specialist will make themselves available to students during lunch periods to have informal discussions about careers and the paths that students should take to achieve their goals.
Student Career Assessment and Interest Profiler—Your SOAR Specialist can help your students find out what their interests are and how they relate to the world of work. Students will also be able to determine what they like to do. The program helps students decide what kind of pathway they might want to pursue.
Virtual Reality Career Navigation—TRANSFR's Virtual Training simulates the type of work that takes place in the employer's facility. With one-to-one instruction from a SOAR Outreach Specialist who adapts to the middle school students' performance, Virtual Reality Career Navigation safely replicates an on-the-job environment in the classroom
- giving students real experiences related to the occupations without the overhead of a multi-million dollar training facility while
providing real-life experiences.
For more information on how your school district can participate, please contact:
Charley Ayres,
Director Industry/Education Partnerships
charley.ayres@workforcesolutionsctx.com
254.742.4520
Taking Flight is targeted at students and young adults (16–24) and provides support for them to achieve the education, skills, and experience needed to accomplish their goals and bring it all together with a good job to start a career or earn money while they work toward a degree/certification. Taking Flight is a no-cost employment program designed to give youth and young adults the support and/or skills training they need to find a job. Specifically, Taking Flight can provide:
The program is a competency-based work experience that includes work-readiness workshops, and training components that focus on workplace expectations, leadership skills, and financial management. On-site work experience with employers is a major part of the program. If you are an employer and you are interested in supporting this program complete the Worksite Agreement and contact our Wingspan Specialist, Caithryn Grace at 254.200.2207 or at caithryn.grace@workforcesolutionsctx.com. Participants work with staff to complete resumes and learn job-search skills. They can receive cash incentives when employment is confirmed. Services include monthly follow-ups with participants to monitor progress, provide employment referrals, and arrange further assistance if needed.
Documents Needed to Apply:
Eligibility Requirements:
Planning for a career can feel overwhelming. The more you know about your skills and preferences, the more prepared you are to search for jobs that are a good fit, write resumes, interview with employers, and find the career that best suits you.
Workforce specialists will help you learn about occupations available in Central Texas that fit your unique career preferences, skills, interests, and values. We provide current labor market information to give you the opportunity to research in-demand occupations, salaries, career options, required education, and training/skills levels.
Explore good-paying and meaningful careers in growing industries.
Explore industry & economic trends, and research emerging and evolving occupations in Texas
Get information on wages and Texas employment projections for over 650 occupations.
Explore careers and education options in Texas.
Compare Tx public colleges, universities, career schools, & majors by grad wages, student loans, grad rates, etc.
The Texas Internship Challenge is a recommendation from the Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Education Agency, and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to the Governor’s Office, as part of the Tri-Agency Initiative, challenging industry and employer partners to offer more paid internships for Texas students.
The Summer Earn & Learn program provides students with disabilities work readiness training and paid work experience in Texas. The program is a partnership between TWC, Local Workforce Development Boards and Texas Workforce Solutions-Vocational Rehabilitation Services (TWS-VRS). Students can earn money at a part-time summer job while receiving work skills training!
The Workforce Solutions Of Central Texas System Is An Equal Opportunity Employer/Programs. Equal Opportunity Is The Law.
Auxiliary Aids And Services Are Available Upon Request To People With Disabilities.
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