Career Opportunities and Job Outlook Related to Essay

Career opportunities and job outlook related to service to family and children look favorable in the upcoming years. Several fields offer stable job growth along with unique opportunities to not only showcase specific talents, but help children and families achieve stability in their lives. Opportunities include teaching, social work, and counseling, among others, inviting pursuit of several, and different avenues in order to achieve the desired career path. Below are descriptions of twelve jobs in their related fields that people seeking to work with family and children, can research and apply for.

Child Life Specialist

A child life specialist deals with families and their children in order to aid in managing stressful circumstances. The job responsibilities of a child life specialist include responsibilities related to the field of pediatrics. For instance, most child life specialists conduct their work in hospitals and are associated with a team that provides healthcare for adolescents or children. Child life specialists often have to cope with children who are stressed and need reassurance and someone to calm them and prepare them for upsetting events (Early Childhood Intervention Services, 2013) This kind of situation asks the specialist to engage in dialog, play, art, and other forms of self-expression to help the child deal with the stressful events and learn to cope positively with future stressors. Upsetting and stressful events could be complicated procedures, to routine testing, to continual treatment for a chronic disease. Another important aspect of this kind of job is providing adequate support for the patients' family members. Usually child life specialists support family members through providing emotional guidance as well as educational materials. Child life specialists also responsible for daily facilitation of interaction between patients and hospital staff members through management of support groups and coordinating special events for patients, and so forth. Child life specialists can work in a variety of locations from hospices to specialized camps.

Employment outlook for child life specialists is favorable with jobs of this field increasing in the next decade. Urban areas provides the most job opportunities because a large number of available job positions are in children's hospitals. The average salary for child life specialists for 2013 is listed as being slight over $43,000 with the lower salaries being slight over $35,000 and the upper salaries at $54,000. Along with job growth is expected salary growth of 2% within the next 10 years (Homepage - American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences, 2013).

II. Early Childhood Special Educator

Early childhood special educators work as part of a team that cares for the needs of infants, toddlers, and young children that may exhibit physical or sensory impairments, are emotionally challenged or are cognitively impaired/challenged. The kind of job requires the educator to coordinate interaction with families, other service providers (physical therapists, social workers, and medical professionals) in delivering, evaluating, and formulating mediations that will positively influence the needs and development of the child. Early childhood special educators also grant children they work with, with direct services in various settings. These settings include classrooms, home, or center-based programs that assist in the development of the child.

The employment outlook for this job and this field is good. The reasons are, the need for people trained in this specialty is very high. Moreover, the government has passed recent legislation that has enabled non-profit organizations to seek out prospective employees to assist in serving this specific population of children. Opportunities for advancement are also available with promotion to supervisor status and higher annual salary. These kinds of jobs are readily offered as well in colleges and universities with some in community college, broadening future job opportunities (Homepage - American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences, 2013).

III. Human Services Caseworker

A human services caseworker or social worker, helps people solve or manage issues and crises that may happen in their lives. They often assist people with financial instability and help them find affordable housing. They might also offer help with medical issues by finding possible treatment options. Caseworkers' work and form professional relationships on an individual basis providing counseling and advocacy during the whole of the client's time of need (Cree, 2003, p. 70).

They are often the mediators between many services and act as the "middleman" for additional services and placement into facilities such as group homes, shelters, special care programs, schooling, etc. The job duties vary greatly and reflect the individual needs of any, one particular client. The job duties of social workers are fairly standard with identification and notification of an individual or group that may require assistance. Consultation, determination, followed by formulating, and implementation allow caseworkers to identify and provide specific resources for the specific needs of the client/clients. Partnership with medical professionals along with periodic monitoring is also a part of job responsibilities.

There is increasing need for social and health services. Employment in this field is expected to grow over a quarter in the next 7 years. Rates vary with specialties as caseworkers are often put in different areas. For instance, need for healthcare social workers will increase by 35% whereas need for family and school social workers will only rise around 20%. This type of job has the highest possibility for immediate employment in its field (Homepage - American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences, 2013).

IV. Child Advocate

Court appointed special services offer many possible kinds of jobs. One of which is a child advocate. The job responsibilities of a child advocate include evaluation of child and family. This assessment may include communication of child's needs, social and medical history as well as providing practical assistance to the child's family. The job also entails building a rapport between the family and child with appropriate screening for special needs and facilitation for visits for families and children, including siblings, other relatives all based on court ordered visitation. Responsibilities also include providing judges with recommendations on possible avenues for the well-being of the child. Furthermore, child advocates track progress in a child's case within a state adoption agency or foster care database. Child advocates must also attend all court hearings pertaining to their role with the child. The role of child advocate is very important to ensure the needs of a child are met during court hearings that may deal with the life and well-being of a child.

Employment outlook for child advocates are good with possibilities of employment throughout the country. As with most jobs in this field, demand for child advocates is high. However, this kind of job demands government funding and need for this kind of worker will decrease or increase depending on the availability of government funding. The job outlook from 2010-2018 is roughly 14% with earnings of $10 per hour if working in a social advocacy organization (Homepage - American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences, 2013). Although pay is much lower and does not involve a set salary, instead, hourly pay, the work is consistent and comes with benefits that become available for any government workers such as health insurance and paid transportation.

V. Head Start Teacher

Head start teachers offer a variety of chances to educate and inspire young children. Responsibilities of head start teachers include guiding preschool age children in show and tell, art projects, among other activities. Head start teachers must also monitor the children during their allowed recess period. Teaching preschool aged children is fairly simple. Teaching entails helping children build a basic foundation of English, mathematics, science, and history. These kinds of teachers do not need to use formal class techniques nor conduct formal class sessions. Some of the duties of a head start teacher could be compared to the duties of a baby sitter. The typical age of the kids monitored are between the ages of 3 and 5 (Persky & Golubchick, 1991, p. 46). This means that head start teachers might have to clean up messes and spills along with diaper changes, and cleaning up bathroom accidents, or spilled food from lunches. Head start teacher also have the ability to take children out on outings and field trips. These may include trips to cultural attractions or local museums. School trips require the assistance of another preschool teacher or parent. Lastly, but most importantly, the job also requires monitoring of social activity between the children and relaying progress, or lack of progress to parents.

Employment outlook for this kind of job varies with kind of institution. The average rate of pay for most preschool teachers and Head Start teachers in America on average is $12 an hour. Salaries are reported to be slightly over $25,000 as of May 2013 (Homepage - American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences, 2013). Private schools however, pay higher salaries. These private schools offer salaries upwards of $45,000 annually. Higher pay might also come with stricter educational requirement in comparison to public preschools. Continual population growth couples with increased births provide more job growth in this sector within the next five to seven years.

VI. Forensic Interviewers…