As I was investigating different transitional planning templates in order to create my own, I felt that while the majority were

very effective and a useful tool, I also found that there may be a need for a transitional planning template or guide that students, teachers, and parents could use together that was interactive. As all templates are designed in a way for individual students, but it was my goal to create a template that was accessible for students of various learning styles, by incorporating a variety of resources in order to effectively communicate the value of transitional planning.

During my research I found that according to Leung in their investigation of career development theories that: A high degree of match between a persons personality and interest types and the dominant work environmental types (that is, high degree of congruence) is likely to result in vocational satisfaction and stability, and a low degree of match (that is, low congruence) is likely to result in vocational dissatisfaction and instability.(Leung S.A., International Handbook of Career Guidance, 2008, p.118)

Due to this, I felt it was necessary at the very beginning of the template to incorporate and place an importance on the use of identifying personal interests first, and then linking them to attributes the students feel they have and connecting the two of these to personal, educational, and career goals that they have. As Super (1969, 1980, 1990) suggested that career choice and development is essentially a process of developing and implementing a

persons self-concept (Leung, 2008, p.120). In recognizing this, I found the solution to helping students plan a positive transition after post secondary is through guiding them in their discovery of who they are and how they can effectively connect an understanding of ones interests, skills, and values, and to pursue career goals(Leung, 2008, p.120). These opinions can be support with Maslows developmental theory of human motivation. As quoted in Career development the big picture Maslow believed that actualization of ones inherent potential was the driving force of human personality.

After establishing that student success is strengthened by a strong self-concept, the logical next step then was to establish what the students want to achieve in a basic manner by setting goals. I included steps and a video summarizing how the students can create S.M.A.R.T. goals, which is beneficial knowledge in order to set goals that are attainable. Next, in order to make the template effective, the connection had to be made to which career paths connected most effectively to the established goals, interests, and personal attributes. In order to keep the students engaged, as well as keep the template relevant to our technological age, I included an online career aptitude quiz, http://www.headingforsuccess.com/orientest. This especially aides student who dont have a clear vision of what they may want to investigate, or open up new possibilities to students with already established career choices. Leung establishes that In the career choice and development process, people search for environments that would allow them to exercise their skills and abilities (2008, p.118). This concept further supports the inclusion of the quiz as well as its connection to Maslows theory.

The following sections of the template establish out how the student is going to execute their career exploration. I set up a set of questions; which I had gathered from various templates that I had found from different school divisions and pulled out the questions that I thought were most relevant. I included the resources ALIS and MyBlueprint.ca in each of these steps, as in my own exploration found they were very helpful in transitional planning. These resources are also online, which can be an effective tool in incorporating parental involvement in the task, as they are able to access the resource along side their children. I set up the questions in an order I felt that would create a framework to make the process most easy for each career the students are investigating. I felt it was important to have the students investigate multiple options of educational and training routes in order to achieve a well-rounded understanding of their options. In my template I also included discovery based exploration options such as job shadowing, work experience, and on the job training, in order for students to have a more effective experience. As Hollenbeck explains in School to Work: Promise and Effectiveness. Employment Research, The school-based learning components are targeted on career awareness, exploration, and preparation, and the work-based learning components provide firsthand views of work(1997, p.2). By establishing firsthand views of work for students they are able to achieve Enhanced career preparation, enhanced learning through hands-on, contextualized instruction, and increased collaboration between education and employers (1997, p.2). The importance of incorporating hands on career investigation is also reinforced by the Constructivists theory of career development outlined in Career Development the big picture The search for meaningful work is connected to constructivists emphasis on deriving meaning from personal experience. This further

reinforces the concept of creating transitional planning that connects with a student on a personal and meaningful level. Another connection that I discovered would help strengthen the success of the template and planning process is to have students also think of the lifestyle that they want. Without this, they may choose a career path that involves a lot of work away, when they prefer to stay close to home. Or perhaps they have an interest in a small niche within an industry that only fulfills the requirements of part-time work. These are potential surprises that students may come upon after they have already invested time in training that may conflict with lifestyle choices they have made.

Finally, I found that it was important for the students to make note of any personal limitations that they may come across in their investigation as well as career path choices. By support positive problem solving skills I included that not only the student identifies where they may fall short, but how they will solve these roadblocks, and whom they can lean on for guidance and support as well.

As I have previously stated, with my exploration of transitional planning for students, I found that in order to have the most effective planning experience, is if teachers put the investigative responsibility on students by giving them a variety of avenues within a template to discover what post-secondary path is right for them. It is also beneficial to step away from a traditional fill-in style of template to a more individual and interactive approach, that students are able to use effectively to their learning style as well as by having it accessable to students at home in order to include their parents in the planning process.