Communication Education for Careers.

Overview & Synopsis

Speech education curriculums have been concerned primarily with teacher education. Now, speech communication educators are faced not only with the pressures of decreasing opportunities for their majors in the traditional academic marketplace, but also with the challenges of newly emerging possibilities for career roles. There is no fundamental incompatibility between liberal education and career education, and both are essential in a complex technological society. Some of the vocational areas which speech communication graduates have entered are public relations and advertising, personnel, business, industry, government, law enforcement, entertainment, social services, sales, and the ministry. Thus, there is a continuing need for persons competent in communications skills in many vocations. Career counseling, mini-minors in vocational fields, and internships in career relevant areas are ways of preparing communication majors for employment. Ways for colleges to develop and implement a career-oriented approach to communication education are explored. (MKM)