Illinosi workNet provided this session for the Toolkit Workshop Day for K-12 School Counselors and Coaches for Chicago Public Schools. The session focused on tools and resources that counselors can use in the classroom or in group lessons. These tools from Illinois workNet will focus on how students can start exploring their skills, interests, and career options.

1. Career Tools for Students to Start Exploring Their Future
Part 1 – Illinois workNet
www.illinoisworknet.com
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Toolkit Workshop
Grades 9-12 School Counselors & Coaches
February 5, 2016

2. Connect all citizens to resources for achieving
career, training, and employment goals.Goal:
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3. No Wrong Door – CIS & Illinois workNet
Illinois workNet and CIS
work together – your
students can access these
tools from either system. If
they start from Illinois
workNet their log-in gives
them seamless access to
both systems.
• Skills & Interest
Assessments
• Career, Wages, and Trends
• Training Programs
• LMI Data
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4. Illinois workNet® Web Portal System
and jobPrep App
Illinois workNet® is a portal to connect individuals, employers, and
education, workforce and community partners to career planning,
education and training, and employment resources and tools. The
portal connects people to local and statewide in-person and online
services.
• Web Portal – http://www2.illinoisworknet.com
jobPrep Mobile App includes capabilities that assist job seekers with
their employment needs, all from the convenience of a smartphone.
The free app is available for downloading from iTunes, Google Play
and Amazon.
• jobPrep Mobile App – http://www.illinoisworknet.com/jobprep
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5. • Career Pathways, wages
and trends
• Prepare your resume
• Market your skills and
credentials
• Explore, plan for, and select a
training program
• Find and apply
for jobs
• Prepare for
interviews
• Attend events
• Connect to service locations
and referrals
• Network with social media
• Create resumes
• Complete Employment 101
• Take and save Career Interest
Surveys
• Get the job, keep it, and
grow in a career
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6. My Dashboard
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Students can use My Dashboard to personalize their Illinois workNet
experience by:
1. Maintaining account information,
2. Accessing My Tools, and
1. Bookmarks
2. Employment 101 Guide
3. Resume Builder
4. CIS Surveys
3. Accessing My Assessments.
My Notes**
** Coming Soon

7. Messages
Messages make
communicating quick and
easy with the NEW
Messaging tool.
• Send messages to your students
directly over Illinois workNet.
Once they receive a message
from you they will be able to
message you back.
• Send questions to or voice
concerns or suggestions to the
Illinois workNet Team.
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8. Youth Guide
• Provides a guided approach
to explore careers, find
training, or land a job.
• Pull together many useful
tools and tips from across
our site to bring together
one useful youth specific
guide.
www.illinoisworknet.com/YouthGuide
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9. Skill & Interest Surveys
This tool seamlessly gives students access to
the 4 different surveys in the CIS system via
My Dashboard:
1. Interest Profiler (10-20 minutes) - Profiler
can help you identify your interests and
match them with a wide variety of
careers.
2. SKILLS Profiler (10-20 minutes) - SKILLS
helps you identify occupations that use
the skills you like. It also helps you
recognize skills that transfer between
occupations.
3. Work Importance Locator (5-15 minutes)
- The Work Importance Locator can help
you learn more about your work values
and help you decide what kinds of jobs
and careers you might want to explore.
4. Career Cluster Inventory (5-25 minutes) -
This inventory will identify how
important the work aspect is to you.
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Informational Page:

10. Career Pathways – Option 1
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1. Career, Wages and
Trends
• Allows students to
explore careers in-
depth from any of
Illinois’ 16 career
pathways.
• They simply click on
the pathway they are
interested in and can
view a list of jobs in
that pathway.
Your students have two options for researching careers:

11. Career Pathways
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• Options include an
overview of the job,
employment outlooks,
wages and trends, skills
and interests needed,
education, workplace
knowledge, workplace
conditions, wages, etc.
• You can also view jobs in
that career area with the
Illinois workNet
JobFinder.

12. Career Pathways – Option 2
2. Illinois Pathways
• Allows your students to
choose from any of the 9
Illinois Pathways.
• Simply Click on the
pathway they are
interested in to view
resources and information
on careers in that pathway.
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Your students have two options for researching careers:

13. Career Pathways
• Students will see a break down of
different job areas within the
pathway they can choose from.
• Will provide students with specific
courses, credentials, assessments,
etc. to plan for a career within any
of the 9 Illinois Pathways.
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14. Employment 101
This career planning tool helps
students to learn about career
planning, searching for a job and
skills they can build to succeed in
the workplace.
• Pre/Post-Assessment
• Career Plan
• Job Search Plan
You can track progress using
Customer Groups.
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15. Certificate of Completion
Students can print and use this
Certificate of Completion once
they have completed the steps
within Employment 101.
You can download/print for
students using Customer Groups.
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16. Resume Preparation
Making sure students know what a resume is and
how to create one will help them now and later in
life.
Illinois workNet has:
1. An Informational Resume Page
• Why is a resume important?
• What is a resume?
• What types of resumes are there?
• What do I put on a resume?
• Archived webinars covering creating resumes.
• Sample resumes.
• Resume check list.
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17. Practice resume writing with the
FREE Resume Builder:
• Create as many resumes as
needed.
• Find sample resumes.
• Create cover Letters.
• Practice interviewing.
• Build a portfolio.
• Much more!
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Resume Builder

18. Social Media
Most job seekers do not know how
Social Media can be used for the job
search OR how it can effect their job
search.
Help students learn early with the
Illinois workNet Social Media Guide.
Download User Guides for each
Social Media platform to show
students how to use that source in
their job search.
In addition, students can watch the
Social Media webinars to see what
not to do in their job search and how
to stay safe online. 18

19. Articles, Videos, & Resources
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20. Partner Tools - Assessments
As an Illinois workNet Partner you would
have access to FREE Assessments.
An assessment is a process to assist
students in identifying:
• strengths
• employability and transferable skills
• interests
• work values​​​
• personal priorities for employment
You will have access to assessment
overviews, customer guides, and partner
guides for each assessment.
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21. Customer Groups
The purpose of Illinois
workNet Customer Groups is
to allow you to easily access
and track student progress
within the site.
Benefits:
1. Access Assessment Results
2. Access Employment 101
Plans
3. Access Certificates Earned
4. Assist with Password
Recovery
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22. 3 Steps for Selecting
Marketing Materials:
1. Identify your audience.
2. Select and customize
materials. Read the
graphics guidelines
before you begin
customizing the
materials. Don’t forget
to proof, proof, proof to
find those subtle typos.
3. Distribute the materials.
Marketing Materials
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23. User Guides
Mostly one or two page printable PDF documents that provide steps or
instructions for getting started. There are some web page guides too.
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24. From the home page, use
the arrows on the left and
right and click on the
scenario that best fits your
needs.
Where to
Find User Guides
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25. How to Use the Guides
Minimal
Experience
Work
Experience
1. Go to https://www2.illinoisworknet.com/ and select User Guide Scenarios right from the home
page.
2. Use the icons to determine the most helpful guides.
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26. How to Use the Guides
1. Click on any guide.
2. Download and/or save and/or print PDFs.
3. Click the icon information to find out what the
icons mean.
4. Optionally, use the filters and search to find
guides.
5. Show between 20 or more guides at a time.
6. View the guides as shown to the right, or select
the grid view, or text only view.
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27. Thank You - Contact Us
Illinois workNet
Visit: www.illinoisworknet.com
Email: info@illinoisworknet.com
Monday – Friday
8:00 A.M. – 4:30 P.M.
Emails are checked and responded to each business day.
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