Career Planning
The Workforce is Calling. Every Answer Starts with a Plan.
New Hanover County Schools helps every student discover their passions, explore career pathways, and graduate with a clear, confident vision for their future. Through NC Careers (NCCareers.org), North Carolina's official career portal, students build personalized Career Development Plans (CDPs) using interactive self-assessments, local job market data, and personalized planning tools.
What Is a Career Development Plan?
A CDP is a personalized digital roadmap that helps students discover their strengths, explore career options, and choose courses that align with their goals. Under North Carolina law, all students in grades 6-12 maintain a CDP. Students must complete a CDP in 8th grade to be promoted to 9th grade and must update it in 10th grade to be promoted to 11th grade.
Every CDP points toward one goal: graduating ready for what's next as one of the 3Es.
- Enrolled in a community college, technical institue, or four-year university
- Employed in a high-demand industry with certifications, training, or an apprenticeship
- Enlisted in a branch of the United States Armed Forces
How Students Answer the Call
Through NC Careers, students:
- Discover their strengths with toolks like the Interest Finder, Skills Matcher, and Career Cluster Match
- Explore real-world finances with the Lifestyle Reality Check, connecting career choices to living expenses
- Plan their courses, starting with a 4-year high school plan in middle school and aligning CTE, AP, and Career & College Promise (CCP) courses with their goals in high school
- Build a digital portfolio with resumes, earned credentials, and achievements
School Counselors, Career Development Coordinators, and Teachers meet with students throughout the year to interpret results and guide them toward the right pathways.
For Families
View your student's CDP. Have your student sign in to CDEdCloud, click the NC Careers icon, and open Career Plan Builder under Plan My Career. Students can also share their plan with you by email, link, or PDF using the icons in the top right corner of the Career Plan Builder.
Support them at home. Talk about which of the 3Es fits their goals, ask about their assessment results, explore the Lifestyle Reality Check together, and review their course selections to make sure they support where they want to go.
Have Questions?
Your student's Career Development Coordinator is the best starting point or you can reach out directly to Shannon Mitchell, CTE Work Based Learning Coordinator at shannon.mitchell@nhcs.net
New Hanover County Schools and its Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs do not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age or disability, in its activities and programs, including employment policies and practices.
Las Escuelas del Condado de New Hanover y su Programa de Educación en Carreras Técnicas no discrimina a ninguna persona de sus actividades o programas, incluyendo prácticas de empleo, por razones de raza, color, religión, nacionalidad, sexo, edad, o discapacidad.