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"Welcome to the GED COMPASS. The GED Testing Initiative is a public/private partnership that aims to improve the New York City GED testing system, including testing infrastructure, test-taker readiness, and public awareness and support. Through the Literacy Assistance Center, new tools are being developed including a GED Compass web portal to ensure that GED test takers know where to enroll in GED prep programs, prepare for the exam and secure a GED test seat. This website was developed for people interested in learning about how to get a GED in New York City. There are many ways to achieve this goal and this website will help you find the path that is right for you. In New York City finding a place to take the GED was difficult. Finding information about what you need to do to prepare for the test was hard to find. The Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) partnered with the New York Community Trust to take a close look at the existing system and see how it could be improved. The result was a comprehensive report written by literacy expert, Jacqueline Cook, called Our Chance for Change: A Four Year Initiative for GED Testing in New York. You can see the full report here. "

"Working collaboratively with other teachers, school counselors can contribute to the development of an optimum learning environment while collecting information to assist with career counseling. Having been a former school counselor competing for classroom time, I found that working together with teachers on previously established assignments can create a new opportunity in the classroom for career counselors who are looking for strategy to help students without impinging on teachers' classroom time. Getting into the classrooms for counseling sessions need not be so challenging when using activities already in place that can serve dual purposes."

"No one is surprised to hear that seniors on the threshold of graduation visit the Career Resource Center (CRC) looking for job search assistance. Those who have procrastinated on career choice and finding employment see the finish line approaching and realize they need to find something that will keep them fulfilled and flush with cash once they're marched to the edge of campus and pushed out of the proverbial nest."

Recent economic events have forced colleges and universities to streamline their academic offerings congruent with a more pragmatic cost-benefit approach, usually at the expense of their liberal-arts programs. When a foreign-language or philosophy department graduates only a few students per year, there is no financial argument to be made for keeping the department intact. Traditional reasoning about the enrichment of the "student as future citizen" can only go so far when parents who pay the tuition or students taking the courses can't see a bottom line in the form of a lucrative job after graduation.

I am driven, hard working and smart, but I lack the self-discipline to look for a job. I have hired a career counselor, but I still can't muster the motivation I need and am always procrastinating. Do you have any advice for being a more effective job seeker?

"A new educational credential could prove to be a time-efficient and cost-effective means to help launch a career change. The National Work Readiness Credential (NWRC) is based on an employer-defined standard of the critical skills needed by entry-level workers in a variety of fields."

"It's something job seekers often wonder: Do you really need to submit a cover letter with your résumé?"

In a time of increasing competition and economic pressures, employers are faced with difficult recruitment and retention challenges. Learning Plans are a tool used by many organizations to link business needs with individual career development interests, thus potentially engaging and retaining employees for longer periods. Learning plans benefit both employers and employees, as they build a sense of ownership and motivation through communication and negotiation. Self-directed learning allows employees to take responsibility for their own learning and career development, as it involves a level of personal investment. Employers reap the benefits through supporting and investing in their employees, which leads to an increase in skill development, motivation, and productivity. How did Learning Plans come about?

"In the last few years, leadership programs have sprung up in remarkable numbers at colleges and universities across the country. Institutions as diverse as Creighton University, Arizona State University, and Highland Community College, in Illinois, now offer leadership training and opportunities to their students. Some universities and colleges, like Gonzaga and the City University of Seattle, have developed degree programs in leadership, and many more such programs are being planned. It seems that every university Web page and presidential message now highlights leadership opportunities for students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels."

"WASHINGTON-The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has begun a probe of whether employers and recruitment firms are unlawfully barring the unemployed from applying for certain jobs, the agency's chairman said. EEOC Chairman Jacqueline Berrien said at a hearing Wednesday that the agency began hearing anecdotal reports of the practice last summer, including from news reports and from worker-advocacy groups gathering examples of help-wanted advertisements that said only individuals who currently had jobs should apply. "We'll take a close look at what we heard and consider if there's anything we might need to do to clarify standards," she said."

"Hiring has yet to hit a rapid clip, but it's not for lack of job openings. Since December, the economy has added about 130,000 jobs a month, barely more than what is needed to keep up with population growth, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Meanwhile, the number of job openings advertised online has grown by more than 400,000, to 4.2 million, according to the Conference Board, a research organization. That increase continued a trend that began in the spring of 2009."

"Taking time off work when your kid gets the flu or chicken pox is usually a routine matter. But how do you explain your time-off needs if your teen - or spouse or partner -becomes too depressed to get out of bed, or your child becomes too anxious to go to school? Helping out a troubled loved one in such cases poses a dilemma, because the stigma placed on mental illness forces most people to keep it a secret. Yet a new survey shows people are taking off a surprisingly large amount of work time for this purpose. Some 41% of working adults took from four to nine days off work in the past year to deal with a mental-health issue of their own, or of a friend, family member or co-worker, says a recent survey of 669 working adults by Workplace Options."

Forget mentors. If you want to reach top management you'll need sponsors-powerful senior players who will stake their reputation on your behalf. While mentors offer informal advice and coaching, a good sponsor opens the doors of the promotion elevator and pushes a protégé through.

10 Great Green Opportunities October 31, 2007 | Brita Belli | Everything's coming up green. Across every industry, new job possibilities are emerging for those with the skills to bridge the divide between the old, fossil-fuel-based economy and the new, energy-efficient one. Corporations once demonized for their role in creating pollution and exploiting workers are being held accountable; they are partnering with nonprofits and hiring corporate social responsibility managers. They are finding that reducing their impact is as good for future profits as for the planet at large. There's no secret to getting a job in the new green economy. It's as basic as applying the job skills you've already developed (web design, sales, management) to a nonprofit or sustainable industry, or coordinating sustainable practices from within a corporate entity. Sometimes, as in green building or solar panel installing, these green jobs require a specific set of skills-and classes are organizing to fill the growing need. Other times, as in the organic food industry, ecotourism or sales and marketing of energy-efficient technology, anyone with a good work ethic can get in and create a great green career.

The unemployed need not apply. That is the message being broadcast by many of the nation's employers, making it even more difficult for 14 million jobless Americans to get back to work.

There are many reasons U.S. companies give for their lack of robust hiring -- from weak consumer spending to uncertainty over the direction of government policies on debt and spending. Some industries have significantly boosted employment over the past year while others continue to shed workers. But even those adding jobs are hiring far fewer than would be needed to put America's 14.1 million unemployed back to work. Here's what it looks like on the ground in some industries:

"The job market is tough for many. But people still need others to repair their cars, do their accounting, fix computers, write apps and even sell them things. And there's been more growth in opportunities for those occupations than others, according to online job postings."

WASHINGTON -- Whether they called them "near-completers" or "ready adults" or "stop-outs," the educators and policy experts gathered here today agreed that people who have earned most but not all of the credits they need for a college degree should receive more attention.

In this economy, you need to take advantage of every available resource to propel your career. Finding a mentor-and preferably a network of mentors-is an easy and smart way to get started. And, it won't set you back financially the way hiring a career coach would. Here's how.

On the worst days, Chris Keehn used to go 24 hours without seeing his daughter with her eyes open. A soft-spoken tax accountant in Deloitte's downtown Chicago office, he hated saying no when she asked for a ride to preschool. By November, he'd had enough. "I realized that I can have control of this," he says with a small shrug. Keehn, 33, met with two of the firm's partners and his senior manager, telling them he needed a change. They went for it. In January, Keehn started telecommuting four days a week, and when Kathryn, 4, starts T-ball this summer, he will be sitting along the baseline.