© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Career Profiles

 


About - Work Force Development - Career Profiles - Career Resources - In the News

The Career Path Taken Zoom Series for middle school and high school students is a series of pre-recorded Zoom sessions with young adult guests over the age of 18 who have pursued careers in IT, manufacturing, health care, or construction while in high school.  The interviews allow young adults to reflect upon their high school experiences and through that reflection provide helpful information to assist students with their experiences.  Viewers are invited after the sessions to interact with the guests through Gmail, TheCareerPathIT1@gmail.com.  Post-program questions may be related to seeking more information about career paths, building your course schedule, seeking scholarships, understanding program expectations, seeking early job placement opportunities, and gaining access to credentials earned through the training programs. The Career Path Taken Zoom Series also describes where the career path has taken them now--to a four-year degree, apprenticeship program, a two-year degree, and/or other programs and employment.

Information Technology (IT Career Field): Kobe Ballard with Host, Hannah Bradley, Cleveland Heights-University Heights Video Media Production student. 

Media Technology (Arts & Communication Career Field): Carolyn Bajzer shares her career path in a high school Media Technology program and discusses IT crossovers in the program in this recorded Zoom interview (approx. 60 minutes in length).

-Frank Austin is an 18-year-old with a remarkable story of career focus and determination despite some barriers in his life. This is Austin’s story - his clear vision and work ethic inspires all who hear it.


Explore our career profiles using the video playlist below. Click on the  icon to change videos.


Check Out These In-Demand Career Sectors

There are some great job opportunities in Northeast Ohio. Through data collected to analyze the availability of jobs by geographic areas of the U.S. (Labor Market Information), these are some in-demand career sectors showing the greatest number of unfilled jobs and predictions of future job growth; Manufacturing & Advanced Manufacturing, Construction & Engineering, Information Technology and Health Care. To gain an insider view of these in-demand careers, ideastream has made a collection of videos from Public Media across the U.S. for you to view below.

  1. Manufacturing & Advanced Manufacturing
  2. Construction & Engineering
  3. Information Technology
  4. Health Care

Manufacturing & Advanced Manufacturing

Careers in Advanced Manufacturing Technologies
Five possible career paths in advanced manufacturing technologies: design and development; production and quality assurance; inventory and distribution; health, safety, and environment; and installation, maintenance, and repair. (by WGBH)

Automobile Manufacturing Technology & Programmable Logic Controllers
Examine the skills and education necessary to secure a career in advanced manufacturing technology.  Practice solving problems using logic to analyze truth tables and learn how math is used in programmable logic controllers. (by WVPB)

Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Careers
Engineers explain new materials development and the special systems they must create to manufacture these new materials. (by STEM Career Labs)

Manufacturing | Career Explore Northwest
In this series of videos, professionals in the manufacturing industry disscuss how they got their jobs, why they love working in manufacturing, what their day to day tasks look like, and the college and career experiences that led to them to their field. (by KSPS)

Manufacturing Medicine | QUEST
This series discusses how scientists are using synthetic biology to quickly, and inexpensively, manufacture artemisinic acid, a precursor to the drug artemisinin, which treats malaria. (by KQED)

Career Gates: Manufacturing
A discussion by various employees of Rexroth, Just Born Candy, Coca-Cola and Martin Guitars or what their jobs and responsibilities are. (by WLVT PBS 39)

Exploring Careers in Manufacturing
If you like working with technology and doing something where there is a physical product at the end of the day, then maybe the manufacturing industry is for you! (by SciTech Now)

Advanced Manufacturing | Degrees that Work
The program features a group of manufacturing students, who possess the hands-on, high-tech skills desired by manufacturers. (by WVIA, Pennsylvania College of Technology)

The Manufacturing Process | What's Up in Factories?
The manufacturing process involves taking raw materials through a variety of steps to produce a finished product. Having an efficient manufacturing process greatly affects the cost of the product to the consumer. (by Alabama Public Television)

Career Connections | Lean Manufacturing Manager
Watch a young manager as he describes his role at a major US company and explains how his large family, rural upbringing, engineering education, and college internships all paved his way to a successful career. (by Career Connections)

New Trends in Manufacturing | What's Up in Factories?
New trends in manufacturing include processes such as built-in quality, kaizen and kanban as part of the innovative concept of lean production conceived by Japanese automotive manufacturers. This video demonstrates new manufacturing trends in a Alabama Honda Manufacturing Plant. (by Alabama Public Television)

KIA Motors Manufacturing Georgia | Fast Forward
This version is admittedly simplified. It summarize the process, starting with steel coil and finishing by shipping a brand new car out the door. All of these steps are conducted by skill-trained workers. (by GPB)

Careers in Plastics
Learn about career opportunities in the plastics industry in this video segment adapted from Pennsylvania College of Technology and WVIA.  (by WGBH)

Hot Jobs: Advanced Manufacturing's High Tech Career Paths | Science Matters
Thanks to Advanced Manufacturing — the making of products using cutting edge technology — factories all over the United States are undergoing some exciting changes. (by Science Matters Community Ideas Stations WCVE)

Biomanufacturing Supervisor
Hear from a Biomanufacturing Supervisor about the challenges and opportunities he faces in his factory workplace, which assembles retractable safety syringes. He explains that all assembly equipment is software driven, and that machine operators need to know how to run the program. (by WGBH)

Welding Supervisor
Learn about her workday of Welding Supervisor and her responsibilities in a part of the plant called body weld. While robots make 97 percent of the welds used to build vehicles in this plant, she explains that humans are needed to oversee the operation.(by WGBH)

Nanoengineering and the Scientific Method
Learn how the scientific method is used in the field of nanoengineering and about the career of researcher. The scientific method is used by a researcher in nanoengineering to develop new sources of energy.Examine the skills and education necessary to secure a career in advanced manufacturing technology. (By WGBH)


Construction & Engineering

Biomedical Engineer
Meet a biomedical engineer, working at the intersection of medicine & engineering, developing innovative tools that measure signals generated by the human body.

Advanced Manufacturing Engineer
An advanced manufacturing engineer is involved in developing complete automation systems for the auto industry which includes computer-controlled mechanical systems and robotic assembly.

Advanced Manufacturing Engineer/Scientist
This Engineer is in Intelligent Systems Robotics & Cybernetics at Sandia National Laboratories. (by  New Mexico PBS)

Robotics Engineer/Scientist
Meet a Robotics Engineer in Intelligent Systems Robotics & Cybernetics at Sandia National Laboratories. (by New Mexico PBS)

Mechanical Engineer/Scientist
Meet a Mechanical Engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. (by New Mexico PBS)

Meet a Mechanical Engineer/Scientist/Dr.
Meet a Mechanical Engineer at Sandia National Laboratories.

Chemical Engineer
Meet a Chemical Engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. (by New Mexico PBS)

Mechanical Engineer
Meet a Director of Energy Technologies & System Solutions at Sandia National Laboratories. (by New Mexico PBS)

Construction Manager | STEM Careers
Meet a construction project manager who built roads to move sections of huge wind turbines up to a windy ridge. When completed, Bear Creek will be one of the largest commercial wind farms in the United States. (by: WPSU)

Career Connections | Construction Worker
Meet a construction worker who followed his father’s footsteps into a rewarding career operating large equipment like bulldozers. (by WNEO)

Career Connections | Construction Manager
Learn from a construction manager at a major construction firm about how drawings are made and how quality control is performed. (by WNEO)

Journeyman Carpenter
Meet women working in traditionally male STEM occupations and become inspired to explore careers in fields like technology, engineering, manufacturing and trades. (by: Twin Cities PBS)


Information Technology

Software Engineer
Meet women working in traditionally male STEM occupations and become inspired to explore careers in fields like technology, engineering, manufacturing and trades. (by: Twin Cities PBS)

Web Developer
Meet women working in traditionally male STEM occupations and become inspired to explore careers in fields like technology, engineering, manufacturing and trades. (by: Twin Cities PBS)

Energy Systems Analyst
Meet an Energy Systems Analysis Manager at Sandia National Laboratories. (by New Mexico PBS)

Computer Scientist
Meet a Computer Science Researcher & Developer at Sandia National Laboratories. (by New Mexico PBS)

Information Technology: Training & Careers
Learn about the wide range of jobs that an information technology (IT) degree can make possible. (by WGBH)

PBCL in an Information Technology Class
For Problem-Based Case Learning (PBCL), student teams must develop and present solutions to real-world challenges. This type of training can lead to a career in network systems. (by WGBH)

Information Technology: Computer Systems Engineer
See what drove this student to become interested in computer graphics, attend community college, earn an associate's degree in computer systems engineering (CSE), and start his own information technology (IT) business. (by WGBH and Pathways to Technology)

Information Technology Student: Technical & Network Support
Learn about the wide range of jobs that are available to someone with a degree in information technology, or IT. (by WGBH and Pathways to Technology)

Information Technology Student: Computer Programming & Support
After taking, and enjoying, an online course, Hilda Villavicencio decided to study computer programming and information technology (IT) at community college. (by WGBH and Pathways to Technology)

Marc Goldyne Uses Information Technologies to Deliver Medical Care
Learn from this audio segment from a dermatologist who uses his computer to work with patients who live hundreds of miles away through the use of telemedicine. (by UEN)

IT Project Manager
Meet women working in traditionally male STEM occupations and become inspired to explore careers in fields like technology, engineering, manufacturing and trades. (by: Twin Cities PBS)


Health Care & Allied Health Careers

Prosthetic Specialist Cleveland
Meet a prosthetic specialist who combines her love of art & science to create state-of-the-art prosthetic implants for the human skull.

Motorcycles for Health
In most parts of the United States, transportation to high-quality medical care can be readily arranged. This story is about saving lives in the West African nation of The Gambia. (by WGBH)

Nurses Needed
See this for an extended story from on NOW on PBS 10-16-09 about Nurses and Care. By the year 2020, a nationwide shortage of up to 500,000 trained nurses.

Respitory Care Therapist
Watch as a registered therapist shares how her training and two-year degree have given her the chance to play a pivotal role in any hospital. (by CET)

Phelbotomist
Phlebotomists are trained to make an incision in a vein with a needle to draw blood from a patient for diagnostic and other medical purposes. (by WOSU)

Nurse Practitioner
A nurse practitioner is able to diagnose and treat patients, establish a practice, and act independently. (by WOSU)

Occupational Therapist
Occupational therapists are critical in helping patients regain, develop and strengthen essential skills to function in everyday life. (by WOSU)

Exploring Careers in Health Science
In this video, students learn about the different careers in the medical field. When we think of the medical field, we often think of doctors and nurses. (by SciTech Now)

Linked Learning Jumpstarts Health Careers
Explore the ways linked learning is working for one school with this video and educational resources from PBS NewsHour from January 20, 2015. (by PBS News Hour)

Prosthetist Dayton
Hear a lower-limb prosthetist describe how a trip abroad put him on his career path and how emerging 3D printing technology allows him to improve the quality of life for more of his patients. (by ThinkTV)


Ohio schools recently introduced the Ohio Means Jobs Readiness Seal as a way for students to earn additional recognition for professional skills like teamwork, punctuality, creativity, and leadership. This video below, produced for the Broadcast Educational Media Commission in conjunction with the Ohio Department of Education, explains to students the nuts and bolts of attaining this seal.