Insight Gained from Maryland’s WBL and Career Counseling Certificate Program

Abstract

With legislation requiring individualized career counseling for every secondary student in Maryland, it was apparent there was a need for educating and upskilling professionals to meet the career coaching goals set forth in Maryland's Blueprint legislation. An amalgam of strategies for preparing career coaches in Maryland have been implemented since the release of the Blueprint. This presentation explores Maryland’s first higher education system-approved program focused on preparing career coaches in alignment with the Blueprint and the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR). This program, developed by the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), has provided some valuable insight as a result of working with cohorts of career coaches from across the state. Faculty from this program with expertise in career coaching and work-based learning coordination in Maryland’s public schools shared their insights from working with the career coach cohorts. Attendees participated in the career counseling case conceptualization activity attached to at the end of the slides. Some helpful resources compiled during the first year of this program were also shared with participants in the Resources Handout included with the slides. Additionally, analyses of career coaches’ quantitative and qualitative survey feedback were presented, and participants learned how those findings were being used to continuously improve the career coaching preparation experience.