Explore the Human Services Career Cluster

Do you enjoy helping other people?
Are you sympathetic to people in unfortunate situations?
Do you like to help people feel better and look better?
Would you enjoy teaching people to improve their lives?
Do you believe it is important for consumers to be protected from fraud?
Do you enjoy shopping and organizing parties?

If you answered yes to two or more of the above questions, you might enjoy a career in the human services career cluster. You might succeed in one of these careers:

• Cosmetologist
• Massage therapist
• Consumer advocate
• Social worker
• Food pantry organizer
• Child development specialist
• Counselor

Cluster Definition:

Jobs in the human services career cluster involve tending to families and to human needs.

Career Pathways in Human Services:

A career pathway is an area of concentration within a career cluster. Each pathway contains a group of careers requiring similar academic and technical skills as well as similar industry certifications or postsecondary education. The human services career cluster has five pathways: early childhood development and services, counseling and mental health services, family and community services, personal care services, and consumer services.

Early Childhood Development and Services:
This pathway involves caring for the psychological, physical, and intellectual growth of children, from infancy through adolescence. Jobs include child development specialist, child care worker, parent educator, day care center director, and preschool teacher.

Counseling and Mental Health Services:
The goal of workers in this pathway is to help people who suffer from emotional or mental problems. Jobs include substance abuse counselor, psychologist, school social worker, mental health aide, sociologist, and public health social worker.

Family and Community Services:
Workers in this pathway provide a variety of services that help strengthen family and community life. Jobs include adult day care worker, community service worker, food pantry organizer, social worker, volunteer coordinator, and religious counselor.

Personal Care Services:
Workers in this pathway help people feel and look better, and offer services that make people's lives more convenient. Occupations include wedding consultant, personal shopper, party planner, massage therapist, makeup artist, image consultant, cosmetologist, and beautician.

Consumer Services:
These services assist the buying public by ensuring that they receive fair treatment in the marketplace. Jobs include product safety tester, consumer outreach coordinator, consumer fraud investigator, consumer advisor, and consumer credit counselor.

Click here for a visual representation of the human services career cluster.

Print and Internet Resources:

These Print and Internet Resources offer references for career cluster exploration, including trade, professional, and business associations, government departments and agencies, labor unions, and cluster-specific career Web sites.

Human Services Print and Internet Resources