Career Exploration Starts in Middle School. Here’s Why That Matters in Oregon
Oregon’s own Career Connected Learning framework names the first two stages: Career Awareness, learning about work, and Career Exploration, learning for work. Both are meant to happen before a student ever reaches Career Preparation or Career Training in high school. Level All’s Career Finder can help address these two stages, starting well before a student’s first required EPP update in 7th grade.
Planned Exploration at Every Stage
- Career Awareness. Guest speakers, career days, inventories and assessments, and job research are the groundwork CCL says should come first.
- Career Exploration. Career fairs, informational interviews, workplace tours, classroom simulations, and job shadows make up the stage CCL says should come next, before high school.
- Feeding the EPP. By the time a student’s first required EPP update arrives in 7th grade, they’re building on real exploration, not starting from a blank page.
- Investigating Oregon’s six Career Areas. Level All helps explore each one: Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources; Arts, Information, and Communications; Business and Management; Health Sciences; Human Resources; and Industrial and Engineering Systems. Students are ready for ODE-approved Programs of Study on the other side of that exploration.
Why This Matters in Oregon Right Now
- HECPS starts counting soon. Oregon students must have a career exploration and preparation strand completed from 2026–2027 on. Waiting until high school to start that work leaves a lot to cram into one required half-credit.
- The EPP requirement begins in 7th grade by rule. A student without true Awareness and Exploration experience is filling out a required document with very little to say.
- A discovery problem, not an opportunity problem. Oregon has already defined the stages, the six Career Areas, and the approved Programs of Study. The work is making sure every student gets the chance to fully learn and explore before they’re expected to demonstrate readiness.
Built to Connect the Dots
- From Awareness to a Program of Study. A student exploring an interest in Health Sciences in middle school arrives at their EPP, and eventually HECPS, with something specific already built.
- For counselors. Fewer students showing up to their 7th grade EPP meeting with a blank profile, and more walking in with real exploration already behind them.
Free for every Oregon student from their very first year of exploration.
Reach out at oregon@levelall.com.
