What is CareerSpark?

Greater Peoria CareerSpark is a dynamic career exploration expo for 8th grade students throughout the region, providing hands-on activities that showcase Greater Peoria's diverse careers in healthcare, manufacturing, business, agriculture, and more. Each fall, thousands of students gather at the Peoria Civic Center and enjoy exploring hundreds of career clusters in 8 core industry zones. This event began as an initiative of the Regional Workforce Alliance and is organized each year by Junior Achievement and the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council with support from hundreds of industry volunteers from local employers to support the career activities alongside general volunteers who support the logistics of the event.

GP CareerSpark Career Clusters

Resources for Students & Parents/Guardians

Resources for Educators

Become An Industry Partner

Explore Junior Achievement of Central Illinois

Learn About CareerSpark: You're Hired

Business &

Finance

Advanced Mfg. & Logistics

Agriculture, Food &

Natural Resources

Architecture, Eng. &

Construction

Arts, Technology &

Communications

Education &

Training

Healthcare &

Life Sciences

Law, Government &

Public Service

See The Spark!

Explore Careers

We want to spark students’ curiosity at an early age about career opportunities they may want to pursue in order to set them on the right track for future success. With this experience, students can begin to have a better understanding of the high school and post-secondary courses they need to take to get into the career field of their choice. Through the JA Inspire curriculum, students are prepared to make the most of the CareerSpark expo by closely examining specific skills and career clusters, learning key factors to investigate career planning, and exploring job outlook to identify high growth, high demand careers.

Spark Inspiration

The ultimate goal of this experience is to empower and inspire students to pursue critically needed careers and own their future success. Research has shown students eliminate certain careers from their future during middle school, and self-efficacy can now be considered one of the major variables influencing the nature and effectiveness of career choice behaviors.
After CareerSpark, students will be able to use the JA Inspire curriculum and tools to identify next steps to define their academic choices and career paths further. Beginning to make decisions about their future career opportunities now will help place them on the right track as they look toward future education, careers, and beyond. So, don’t wait; get your students started on their path!

Connect to Your Future

The CareerSpark – You’re Hired! experience for high school students connects employers with future talent. Students gain knowledge of local employers and can even browse and apply for opportunities available in central Illinois. Young people will create a career plan and take the next steps in their journey.

Connect with JA

Please contact Sally Jo Eastman by phone or email to learn more about GP CareerSpark and how your school or company can get involved.

Sally Jo Eastman

Community & Workforce Development Director

sally.eastman@ja.org | 309.682.1800 ext 107

"The coolest thing that I have learned from Career Spark was that if you stay in school then you can accomplish big things."

8th Grader in Greater Peoria