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Career & Education Pathways

This guide offers books, websites, and databases covering career and education pathways for teens and young adults.

Welcome!

This guide is intended as a starting point for teens who are uncertain about their future after high school. Use the blue boxes on the right to navigate to information on college alternatives, including: service and volunteer opportunities, military service, and trade and technical school information. The "Job Search Help" page includes resources on searching for jobs, the application process, and best practices for becoming a successful applicant.

From the PPLD Collection

Undecided

This comprehensive handbook outlines the different options available to teens after high school and provides suggestions on how to follow each path efficiently and successfully.

What Color Is Your Parachute? for Teens

With fresh updates on the specific challenges of today's job-market, this new edition features activities and advice on information interviewing, social media, internships, and more. Most importantly, it's packed with big-picture advice that will set you up to land the job that's perfect for who you are--and who you want to

Balancing Life and Education While Being a Part of a Military Family

Military spouse education is an often overlooked topic. With the proliferation of service member programs and benefits, and the spotlight on them, it is not uncommon for spouses to neglect looking into their own educational opportunities and benefits. The hectic life of a military family also often complicates the process of attending an institution of higher education, for spouses

DIY U

The price of college tuition has increased more than any other major good or service for the last twenty years. Nine out of ten American high school seniors aspire to go to college, yet the United States has fallen from world leader to only the tenth most educated nation. Almost half of college students don't graduate; those who do have unprecedented levels of federal and private student loan debt, which constitutes a credit bubble similar to the mortgage crisis.

The system particularly fails the first-generation, the low-income, and students of color who predominate in coming generations. What we need to know is changing more quickly than ever, and a rising tide of information threatens to swamp knowledge and wisdom. America cannot regain its economic and cultural leadership with an increasingly ignorant population. Our choice is clear: Radically change the way higher education is delivered, or resign ourselves to never having enough of it.