Introduction to Skyepack Career+

What is Skyepack Career+?

Skyepack Career+ is a student-focused platform used to engage students in career research AND to help them find employment, work-based learning, and internship opportunities and experiences in our area. This program is embedded in Tippecanoe county already and is branching out to other parts of the state. This post talks about the status of the platform a year ago and what this program aims to do: https://skyepack.com/powered-by-educators-counselors-and-career-coaches-a-year-of-real-progress-with-career-pathwaystm/education/k-12-education/

Why is Skyepack Career+ important as a tool in our building?

Skyepack Career+ puts our students in contact with work-based learning opportunities, such as part-time employment, internships, and job shadowing experiences, in our area. It is a program that we hope students will access in searching for opportunities while in AND for life after high school. This program also helps us address the new diploma requirements that start with the Class of 2029. The new diploma requirements with seals require our students to earn work-based learning hours. Those hours can be completed in several ways: part-time jobs, career & technical education courses in our building and offered by the Porter Country Career & Technical Center, and internship opportunities. The issue for all schools is: How do we gather this information, document it, and report it to the state? Skyepack Career+ allows students to document hours in a streamlined process so that parents, students, counselors, teachers, and stakeholders can easily determine how students are doing in earning the hours required for student chosen seals.

How did Wheeler High School get started with Skyepack Career+ this year?

Skyepack Career+ is offered through a grant program that is managed by the Northwest Indiana Educational Service Center (NWIESC). NWIESC provides services to member corporations that small systems like ours might not otherwise be able to access. NWIESC applied for the Career Coaching Grant offered from the state of Indiana and we are able to benefit from that grant application! The first step in the grant required Mrs. Dobson to be trained as a certified Career Coach in a two day program. The next requirement was to get the Class of 2028 introduced to Skyepack Career+ and then move those students through the process by May 22 this past spring. Grade 8 -12 will complete this process in the 2026-2027 school year.

Step 1) Go for Growth: The survey that starts it all in Skyepack Career+!

Class of 2028 started in March and finished in May. The rest of the school will do this process in the 2026-2027 school year!

Step 1: Students logged in to Skyepack Career+ through Clever on their Chromebooks during resource in the auditorium in March. The Go for Growth is a career interest inventory that asks students about career interests, class interests, part-time employment, and interest in extracurricular activities. Students receive a career interest RIASEC code after submitting the inventory. The code is a 3 letter combination that represents the career interest codes: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. The first letter is the dominant category for the student. Here's what the letters mean!

Realistic: Individuals with a Realistic orientation prefer hands-on activities and often excel at working with tools, machinery, and physical objects. They value practical results and concrete solutions over abstract theories. Careers in the category: construction, laborers, mechanics, etc

Investigative: Investigative individuals are observant and analytical. They enjoy searching for facts and figuring out solutions to complex problems, often preferring to work with ideas and data rather than people or physical machines. Careers in the category: medical researcher, biologist, chemist, software developer, systems analyst, etc

Artistic: Individuals with an Artistic orientation prefer self-expression, creativity, and original work. They excel in environments that value independence and unconventional ideas. Careers in the category: actors, musicians, designers, artists, performers, etc

Social: Social individuals are the "helpers" of the workforce. They are driven by a desire to inform, train, develop, or cure others. They prefer working with people over things. Careers in this category: Teachers, counselors, social workers, human resource directors, therapists

Enterprising: Enterprising individuals are adventurous and energetic, thriving on the challenge of leading others toward a common goal. Careers in the category: sales managers, lawyers, business owners, politicians, financial advisors

Conventional: Conventional individuals are detail-oriented, organized, and reliable. They enjoy working with data, numbers, and structured environments. Careers in this category: accountant, office manager, budget analysts, court reporters, librarians

Steps 2 - 5: What do we do with this information?

Step 2: During this step Mrs. Dobson pulled students together into small groups during resource based on the first letter in each student's RIASEC code. All the Artistic students met in one group, the Enterprising in another small group, etc. The small groups met 3 or 4 times (depending on how long it took to get through the steps). In Step 2 we talked about the codes and reflected on if they felt the code the Go for Growth produced for them was accurate. Then we looked at the website https://www.onetonline.org/ to find careers that fall under their dominant RIASEC code. If students had a career in mind that didn't show in their dominant letter list then they were able to search the career and see what code it was under. It could be that the career they find they are interested in might have their dominant letter code as a secondary! It was fun to look at combinations of codes and talk about career interests. The website https://www.onetonline.org/ has SO MUCH information that allows students to consider things like work environment, technology used, skills needed, wages earned, career projection across the country, training requirements, and associations and organizations that students and career professional can join to further the reach of their field. Parents and guardians should DEFINITELY look at this website with their students!

Step 3: We talked about Work Based Learning Planning. In this step students were asked to reflect on how work based learning could be beneficial for students and what kind of work based learning they might be interested in.

Step 4: Students reviewed diploma type and the requirements needed to graduate. Students were also asked to think about what they needed to focus on next to achieve their diploma type and graduation goals.

Step 5: Students assess what kind of training they will need to get started in their chosen field based on the information from https://www.onetonline.org/

Step 6: Students were individually asked to report what needs they have, what they want to improve on, what skills and talents they have, and what Skyepack Career+ or Wheeler High School can do to help support them.

Results from all of these steps are stored in Skyepack Career+ and counselors can access them to drive scheduling meetings and conversations about goals and personal development. This information will be used to form small groups, classroom presentations, and newsletters to help address student needs!

Let's talk about the Work Based Learning Piece!

Skyepack Career+ gathers information about where our students work in the Go for Growth career interest inventory so that these experiences can be documented for diploma work-based learning hour requirements and career and tech ed course requirements. Skyepack asks for employer contact information because the program will allow students to document hours and have employers verify those hours through email. The Go for Growth also asks where students would be interested in working or interning so that Skyepack can evaluate interest and approach local businesses to advertise opportunities in Skyepack Career+. This will allow students to be able to see opportunities for work, career fairs, trainings, camps, and internship opportunities in a work based learning library in Skyepack Career+! How cool is that???!!! This piece is growing so it is very important that students report where they work or where they would be interested in working on the Go for Growth inventory so that we can get partnerships going :)

Wrap up and what is next!

79% of the Class of 2028 completed the Go for Growth Skyepack process by May 22 this past spring. Any student in the Class of 2028 who DID NOT finish this process will complete it in the fall. Ask your students about their RIASEC codes! Ask them if they are Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, or Conventional!

82 students in the Class of 2028 took the Go for Growth Career Interest Inventory.

Here's the breakdown of the most dominant letter in student codes:

Artistic: 27%

Conventional: 22%

Enterprising: 10%

Investigative: 11%

Realistic: 17%

Social: 13%

Grades 8 -12 will complete this process in the 2026-2027 school year starting with the Go for Growth Career Interest Inventory in August. The goal is to have all of our students determine what their RIASEC code is before our College & Career Fair September 30 so that students can match with RIASEC labeled presenters and tables!

There are other advantage to Skyepack Career+ that include credentials in preparing for college or careers that students can earn and career chats that students can have with people out in the field of student interest but this is enough for now!

There is an option for parents/guardians to create an account to see student progress in Skyepack. Once I have those instructions I will get them out to you all.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this process. This is an exciting endeavor for our students and our school!

Kim Dobson

School Counselor

Wheeler High School

kdobson@union.k12.in.us

219.759.2561 ext 2222