NCcareers, the state’s career exploration system, has added several new tools and features to help users better understand occupations, explore careers, and connect career information to employers. With approximately 1 million North Carolina-based users accessing the site annually and more than 100,000 Career Development Plans created, these updates strengthen NCcareers’ role as a statewide hub for career and workforce exploration.
Connecting Occupations to Local Employers
The new Business Listings tool connects occupation information with businesses and industries across North Carolina, helping users explore where careers exist and which employers operate in their communities. It helps:
- Counselors and workforce professionals identify local employers and industries connected to an occupation, supporting more informed conversations with clients about career options and geographic mobility.
- Job seekers build an employer outreach list for informational interviews and networking.
- Educators and students connect classroom learning to the local workforce through guest speakers, workplace visits, job shadowing, and internship or apprenticeship opportunities.
Business information is provided by Data Axle and is intended as an exploration tool, not a list of active job openings.
Compare Occupations Across North Carolina
- Compare any occupation with up to two others to understand differences in wages, minimum education requirements, skills, education and training programs, and more.
- Compare a single occupation across multiple geographies to assess wages and demand across multiple regions of the state.
Expanding Career Exploration Tools
Several new tools now support users as they move from broad career exploration to more focused research.
- Quick Start offers a short, five‑question introduction that generates a list of potential occupations and serves as an easy entry point.
- The Interest Finder: Motivatorsis a new assessment that uses more accessible language while remaining aligned with the Holland Code framework.
- Updated Interest Finder scoring categorizes occupations into “Best Fit,” “Great Fit,” and “Good Fit” to help users broaden the occupations they explore and focus on the ones that best match their interests.
Updated Career Clusters
Following guidance from NC DPI and the NC Community College System, NCcareers has updated its Career Cluster information to use Advance CTE's Modernized National Career Clusters Framework, which organizes occupations into 14 clusters. The new framework replaces the previous 16‑cluster structure and enables alignment of occupations with multiple clusters instead of just one.
A new Career Cluster Match activity aligned with the updated framework is also available. Students who want to update their cluster preferences to the new framework must complete the new activity.
More to Come
Planned updates over the coming year include:
- Enhancements to the Career Journey tool
- Enhancements to the Course Planner tool
- Development of the NC BEST Interview Tool, which uses AI to help prepare users for job interviews
Explore the latest tools and resources at NCcareers.org.