Career & Job Skills Training

Students are presented with materials that relate to executive functioning skills, particularly metacognition (thinking about your thoughts), time management and organization. The course is especially geared toward those who may have struggled in the past because of shortcomings in these areas or who are generally looking to develop strong practical skills related to time management and organization. Content is provided in a format that is rich in visual learning. Content is based on Seeing My Time® Visual Tools for Executive Functioning Success and is taught by an instructor certified in completing Seeing My Time® Professional Training. Students learn to use particular tools like planners, timers, calendars, etc.

The purpose of this course is to help students learn new ways of accomplishing goals that are important to them. Students will set and work toward their own personal goals. Students will learn how to change the way they normally do things to achieve these goals. Students will learn how to remind themselves to stop behaviors that keep them from their goals and instead do new things to accomplish their goals. Students will set goals that are important to them and realistically attainable during the course. Everyone will share their difficulties during this process with each other.

Students are engaged in a hands-on class to identify and document their goals, dreams, support networks, opportunities and barriers, hopes and fears, health, history and next steps to constructively build a realistic life plan. Content follows the Person-Centered Planning Process based on Florida’s Positive Behavior Support Project from the University of South Florida.

Using the student materials created in the Person-Centered Planning I course, students will finalize their highly individualized Person-Centered Plan (PCP). Students are then introduced to the tools to support goal achievement using resources available to them, and next they put those tools to practice with a variety of targeted working sessions and meeting-style discussions. The goal of the course is to adequately prepare students to lead their own team meeting to direct the supports and services they receive, and to use their PCP as the format to do so. To that end, students also receive a brief introduction to and practice of basic public speaking skills that they will apply to their team meeting beyond the classroom

Students will be presented with lessons, tactics and practical applications of the basic skills necessary to living independently. Emphasis is on self-awareness, personal safety, fears and hurdles, and understanding what abilities are integral to successfully living independently. Content incorporates worksheets, checklists and time management tactics for developing a practical and efficient independent routine. Students learn to cook and prepare meals for themselves.

Students will be presented with lessons, tactics and practical applications of the skills necessary to being healthy, tactics for developing a knowledgeable and practical understanding of keeping one’s apartment clean and presentable, and tactics for caring for one’s possessions. Emphasis is on keeping track of personal health and appointments, understanding and maintaining the standard for a hygienic self and hygienic apartment, and appreciating and caring for all possessions and furnishings within your apartment. Content incorporates worksheets, checklists and time management of independent care.

Students will be presented with lessons, tactics and practical applications to confidently utilize all areas of their community and to have a basic understanding of efficient and healthy grocery shopping. Emphasis is on understanding and utilizing public transportation, making purchases for needed items and properly following a monthly food budget. Content incorporates worksheets, checklists and time management tactics for safely and confidently navigating the community and consumer resources.

Students will be presented with lessons, tactics and practical applications for proper budgeting and financial responsibility. Lessons will incorporate options for financial assistance and eligibility, opening and properly managing a bank account, steps to becoming one’s own rep payee, effective use of credit/debit cards and check writing, and awareness of safety surrounding personal information and monetary risk. Content incorporates worksheets, checklists and time management tactics for developing a practical and efficient financial routine.

Students are presented with materials from an evidence-based curriculum that focuses on skills such as entering and exiting a conversation, choosing appropriate friends, handling bullying and other forms of social rejection, being a good sport and planning a social get-together with friends. They learn how to find common interests with others.

Students are presented with information regarding advancing their social skills (building upon the first semester skills), improving upon self-awareness, appropriately labeling feelings, communication skills and the practical application of these skills.

Students are presented with information regarding how the way they present themselves to others is important – everything from attire (proper for the given occasion), interrupting a conversation, conflict resolution and evaluating nonverbal signals. They learn to identify healthy vs. unhealthy relationships.

Students are presented with various ethical concepts and values, such as accepting constructive criticism, maintaining control of oneself, appropriately disagreeing and becoming more aware of the way emotions drive our decisions, interactions, etc.

This course will allow students to learn about themselves and utilize what they learn to improve their own lives. They will identify and assess their strengths and weaknesses. They will identify their learning style and learn about their disability. They will use this knowledge to self-disclose their disability to employers, professors and other people in their lives. The lessons for this course are from a curriculum originally developed for Transitions by the instructor. who also has a learning difference. She based the course on her personal experiences.

This course teaches students skills that they will need to know when they mobilize others as a leader. They will learn nonverbal communication, problem solving, decision-making and active listening skills. They will learn and practice these skills with specific exercises. The lessons for this course are from a curriculum called Overcoming Obstacles, developed by the Community for Education Foundation, Inc.

In this course, students will learn how to become empowered in their lives. They will learn about Individualized Service Plans. They will identify what they are responsible for in their lives and what they need to do in order to complete those responsibilities. For example, one might identify that they are responsible for paying their bills. They will identify what they need to do to obtain work in order to fulfill that responsibility. Students in the class will also learn about the rights they have been provided by specific laws that exist in the U.S.A. They will learn about the history of these laws as well. The lessons for this course are from a curriculum called ME! Lessons for Teaching Self-Awareness & Self-Advocacy. The curriculum was developed by the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma.

Students are presented with various materials to develop their safety and emergency preparation skills and to further develop their self-advocacy skills in a wellness setting.

Students are presented with various techniques and concepts to improve their overall emotional wellbeing, such as better ways describe their mood, improve communication skills in difficult situations, understand non-verbal signals, how to be safe and aware in their surroundings, etc. Students will use their knowledge and skills taught in previous Wellness courses to execute these concepts.