Career Planning

There are many career opportunities for students and adults with companies located in Northwest Iowa. To aid individuals in the exploration of career opportunities, we have grouped occupations into Career Pathways, which are groups or clusters of occupations that are based on similar skills, training, and education. In each industry sector there are four general Career Pathways

  • Engineering & Science
  • Management & Supervision
  • Technical & Skilled
  • Semi-Skilled & Unskilled

The occupations in Engineering & Science Career Pathway are highly technical and require a college degree, and in some case an advanced college degree. On the other hand, the occupations in the Semi-Skilled & Unskilled Career Pathway generally require a high school diploma.

Everyone entering an industry will start out in one of these four Pathways, but they may elect not to remain in that Pathway for their entire career. For example, they may start out in Technical & Skilled, but go to college part-time to obtain the education needed to move to Engineering& Science or Management & Supervision. To explore Career Pathways and their occupations in specific industry clusters, click on the following links:

Biotechnology

Renewable Energy

Advanced Manufacturing

Processed Foods

Transportation

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