Learn
This unit is heavily based on ACPS (Alabama Career Planning System), which is available to most Alabama High Schools.
- If you do not yet have a login, please speak with your school counselor. You will need it to complete this unit.
- If you do not have access to ACPS, please inform your Career Preparedness instructor what career planning system your school uses. If you do not know, ask your facilitator and/or school counselor to assist you.
Plan for Success
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
– Benjamin Franklin
In this unit you will be using the ACPS (Alabama Career Planning System) website which is part of the Alabama Career Information Network to build an online portfolio of information to help you make the best decisions possible for your future. The ACPS is available to all schools in Alabama for the purpose of providing students free access to career exploration tools. Using this kind of resource is a great place to start planning for success by first of all identifying the strongest personal interests, skills and values and matching them with specific educational and career paths.
The U.S. Department of Education has identified 16 national career clusters, which is a listing of occupations grouped under broad career fields. This list is also adopted by the Alabama State Department of Education as an organizational tool to help students plan their program of study for a specific field and is based on research performed by the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations Alabama's labor market information agency and the Alabama Department of Education.
Every student in Alabama should establish a user account for this website in the eighth or ninth grade. It is very useful in planning educational choices each school year until graduation. It is a great resource for the creation of a personal online portfolio to store the useful information that you will acquire as you complete educational and career planning research and activities. Click on the Star icon to save research to your portfolio. The tasks are grade-level specific and allow you to build a portfolio of information and resources that you will need as you start to enter the work force (even on a part-time basis) and also will aid in your research for educational planning as it applies to your job search.
If you do not have an existing account for the ACPS website, you will need to check with the counselor at your school to get the login information for your specific school system to complete the registration process for a new user as shown in the tasks for this lesson. You must have an activation code and/or State ID number to obtain free access for the site. Or, you can use the Clever login on the site. The activities in the site are based on grade level so it is very important to register correctly. The tasks will provide step by step instructions and visuals so that you can easily set up your account and navigate the site.