Career Trees began with just a few seeds.
2003. Snohomish County Blueprint 2015 was born. Blueprint 2015 is a partnership of Snohomish County government, educational institutions, and workforce and economic development organizations. The Blueprint 2015 partnership aims to retain and attract jobs in key industry clusters.
Career Trees quickly blossomed.
Blueprint 2015 notes the importance of educating and training students for top jobs. It became clear that Blueprint 2015 needed to find its way to students, but in a more student-friendly way. After all, we wanted to attract students to the top jobs in the county, so we had to provide information in a way that speaks to them. Enthusiasm for bringing Blueprint 2015 information to students is what sparked the Career Trees idea and allowed it to blossom.
Career Trees grew bigger.
2003-2006. Career Trees were developed. Partners collaborated to create lists of occupations to go along with the key industry clusters. The lists were transformed into eye-catching, user-friendly posters that demonstrated how a person could climb career ladders, or Career Trees, in each industry.
The original Career Trees can still be accessed in PDF format.
Career Trees dominated the landscape.
Career Trees were an immediate success. Students, teachers, counselors, and parents loved the concept. Career Trees staff presented at conferences and received positive feedback. Career Trees were a hit!
Career Trees evolved.
2008. It was time to change the way the world sees Career Trees. Career Trees became a web-based, interactive tool and entered the social networking arena via Facebook. Here's why:
More than 94% of teens go online. Students spend up to ten hours per week online. More than 96% of students use social networking sites. Career Trees are now where the students are.
Job Seekers spend nearly ten hours per week online, searching for jobs. Career Trees are now where the job seekers are.
A web-based format allows for updates as soon as they become available, thus making Career Trees a real-time tool that never goes out of date.
An interactive format gives the user more control over Career Trees and more flexibility in how they use Career Trees.
A web-based format means anybody can find Career Trees and use any computer with internet to access the tool. A person with limited computer skills can ask for help from case managers or librarians.
Career Trees are now a local tool that can be replicated by other communities.
Technology is the future and the future is technology. We are now a leader in how people access career information.
Career Trees can now claim to have gone green.