Lesson 2: Learning Express Library

1.  The first thing I would show the 27-year-old patron who does not have a high school diploma is the GED Preparation portion of the Learning Express Library.  This section would provide GED Preparation Courses and Guides, GED Skills Improvement, and GED Practice Exams.  Then, I would talk to the patron to see if he already had a career goal in mind.  Hopefully, he would give me an idea of what he is interested in becoming.  If he mentions the military, I would direct him to the ASVAB preparation section.  If he mentions becoming a truck driver, I would direct him to the CDL preparation section.  My recommendations would depend on any interests he might express.

I would also direct him to the "Job Search, Resumes, and Interviewing" section under "Job Search & Workplace Skills."  This section would help him out if he is interested in applying for jobs currently advertised and needs to prepare a resume and cover letter and work on his interviewing skills.  It would also help him even if he needs to first work on becoming licensed in a certain field and apply for jobs later on.  Everyone needs a little direction when it comes to writing a great resume.  I could not find a generic career aptitude test on the site.  If he doesn't have a clue what he would like to do, he probably would benefit from taking such a test to give him a little direction.

2.  I would direct the patron with her eye on an office manager job to the "Business Writing" section under "Job Search & Workplace Skills." There are several courses and ebooks in this section which would be beneficial to an office manager.  A particularly promising ebook to start her quest might be The Complete Professional which gives guidance on writing better for business, getting organized, working effectively as a team, handling office politics, building a network, communicating effectively, and understanding technology trends.  Any of the courses or ebooks which improve grammar, business writing, vocabulary, and spelling would be good for most office managers. 

The courses are valuable because they don't just allow you to read information like the ebooks, but you are actually expected to type and save information after each segment based on what you have learned.  The writing courses walk you through the whole process.  Your work is saved, you just keep on adding to it and improving it as you go along.

Of course, anyone who is thinking of applying for a promotion or new job should also check out the courses on writing resumes and cover letters and improving interviewing skills.

3.  To assist the high school student with his career report, I just typed "nurse" in the search bar on Learning Express Library and came up with a very promising ebook on Becoming a Nurse, which seems like it would be a great source for his report.  I couldn't find a similar ebook about Becoming a Pharmacist, but I found an ebook entitled Pharmacy Technician Career Starter which states "In addition to excellent job prospects, a career as a pharmacy technician can lead to an exciting future as a registered pharmacist."  It seems like a pretty good place to find information on the pharmacy field. 

Learning Express Library also contains practice tests for Nursing Assistants, Nursing School Entrance Exams, the Pharmacy Technician Exam, and the Pharmacy College Admission Test.  These would be beneficial if the student did decide to pursue one of these careers, but would not really help the student in developing his school report.