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Articles
Career Readiness Defined - The National Association of Colleges and Employers, through a task force of college career services and HR/staffing professionals, has developed a definition, based on extensive research among employers, and identified seven competencies associated with career readiness.
Source: The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
A Link from Job Market Perceptions to Schoolwork
How teens view the job market can derail their academic engagement — but supportive adults can temper that effect.
New research from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Lynch School of Education at Boston College, and Medford Public Schools indicates that teens’ perceptions of the job market — whether or not they believe that jobs are scarce, or that their education will help them obtain a job — can significantly affect their decision to remain engaged in school. However, those beliefs aren’t necessarily fixed; this research also found that strong parental and school support can temper these beliefs in some circumstances, keeping students academically motivated.
Source: Harvard Education
A school district uses project-based learning to introduce students to a variety of careers starting in kindergarten.
Source: Edutopia
Teachers know all too well the collective groan associated with announcing a group project. Endless gripes and grievances can follow — “But he’s not doing his work!” “She’s not listening to my ideas!” and ultimately, “Can’t I just work alone?”
The answer to that last question should usually be a resolute “no,” according to a forthcoming article that reveals the increasing importance of social skills in the contemporary labor market. Professions requiring high levels of social interaction — such as managers, teachers, nurses, therapists, consultants, and lawyers — have grown by nearly 12 percentage points as a share of all jobs in the United States economy in the last 30 years. Math-intensive but less social jobs shrunk by 3.3 percentage points over the same period. The pay for more social-intensive jobs is increasing at a faster rate as well.
Source: Harvard Education
Career Readiness: Starting Early With Young Learners
A key career readiness skill is to get kids talking, encouraging them to talk with each other, reach out to others not in the classroom, and to engage in deeper conversations.
Source: Edutopia
In the wake of a presidential order to increase apprenticeships, a look at what it means to connect education and job prep — and how to do it well.
For the past five years, with Jobs for the Future, Schwartz has co-led Pathways to Prosperity, a national network of states and regions that links high schools, community colleges, and employer organizations to increase the number of young people prepared to thrive in the labor market. Last year, with Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Fuller, he helped launch the Middle Skills Gap Initiative to connect employers and educators in the work of building a much-needed cadre of highly skilled middle-level workers.
Source: Harvard Education
How Reverse Planning for Goals Can Help Students Succeed in School
To their surprise, researchers discovered a marked difference in success between forward and backward planning. “Backward planning could change the actual outcome, student’s grades on an exam, in addition to motivation and perceptions,” Park said about their findings. This held true only when the goal was complex, Park added—say, a comprehensive final exam that required reviewing and integrating a lot of information, or a long-term research project that involved a sequence of related steps.
Source: KQED Mindshift
Gap years have been shown to enhance students' personal, professional, and educational development, as well as improve academic performance in college. A recent national survey of gap year alumni reports that those who participated in a gap year had, on average, a shorter time to graduation and higher GPAs than the national norms. This speaks to the benefit of having a year "off" before college to explore career possibilities and uncover personal interests or skills. Gappers also currently experience higher levels of job satisfaction and civic participation than the national norms.
Source: Harvard Education
Developing Students' Ability to Give and Take Effective Feedback
Schools are using a modified version of the Six Thinking Hats technique to teach students how to give effective feedback to one another.
To get at some of these non-academic skills, Lukas thought she might be able to use strategies from “Six Thinking Hats” by Edward de Bono. “His idea with 'Six Thinking Hats' is that you can train people to approach a problem in a methodical, organized way,” Lukas said. De Bono used his strategy to coach employees at Fortune 500 companies, but Lukas thought she could adapt the strategies to her middle schoolers and in the process help them learn to give and take effective peer feedback.
Source: KQED
Videos
Videos
Piggy-Bank Friday: Life Skills Through Financial Literacy
Through the Piggy-Bank Friday program, K-5 students at Walter Bracken STEAM Academy have saved over $30,000 in one year. Walter Bracken STEAM Academy Elementary School GRADES PK-5 | LAS VEGAS, NV
Source: Edutopia
Books
Books
SUCCESS SKILLS: For High School, College, and Career
by Cary J. Green (Author)
Successful students and successful employees have something in common: a well-developed skill set that goes beyond book smarts.The skills needed for success in the classroom and on the job can be honed with deliberate effort and the right resources.
Success Skills for High School, College, and Career provides step-by-step guidelines and hands-on exercises to enable students to:
- Develop key academic success skills for high school and college
- Develop leadership and soft skills
- Make a smooth transition to college
- Achieve educational and career goals aligned with their strengths and values
- Build employability skills such as communication, time management, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
Leadership And Soft Skills For Students: Empowered To Succeed In High School, College, And Beyond
by Cary J. Green (Author)
Author Cary J. Green, PhD, draws upon years of teaching and mentoring students to show you how to thrive in your education and in your career by applying the three Rs: Readiness, Relationships, and Results. Readiness teaches you self-awareness. Relationships teaches you to communicate effectively and connect with others in your personal and professional life. Results teaches you to be future-oriented and to set and achieve your goals.
by Carol Christen (Author), Richard N. Bolles (Author)
With fresh updates on the specific challenges of today’s job-market, this new edition features activities and advice on information interviewing, social media, internships, and more. Most importantly, it’s packed with big-picture advice that will set you up to land the job that’s perfect for who you are—and who you want to be.
Programs and Initiatives
Programs and Initiatives
Soft Skills to Pay the Bills — Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success - "Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success," is a free curriculum developed by ODEP focused on teaching "soft" or workforce readiness skills to youth, including youth with disabilities. Created for youth development professionals as an introduction to workplace interpersonal and professional skills, the curriculum is targeted for youth ages 14 to 21 in both in-school and out-of-school environments. The basic structure of the program is comprised of modular, hands-on, engaging activities that focus on six key skill areas: communication, enthusiasm and attitude, teamwork, networking, problem solving and critical thinking, and professionalism.
Source: US Depart of Labor: Office of Disability Employment Policy
Vision - A semester of gap year time, with access to college credit & financial aid, for every high school graduate.
We want to see more Americans taking intentional time away from "classroom" before accruing college debt, starting their careers, and choosing a life-path, in order to facilitate perspective, purpose, and maturation. We believe that the life-experience gained from travel at this opportune time in life, sets students up for success in the real world. Taking an intentional gap year has been shown to increase college graduation rates, improve GPAs, increase participation in campus activities, and overall increase career satisfaction. Visit our Data & Benefits page to see the research - or ask any gap year alum!
Every school system is unique, but they are connected by a shared aspiration: that all students have an educational experience preparing them to be effective lifelong learners and contributors. Locally developed, but globally positioned, the Portrait of a Graduate serves as a North Star for system transformation. Providing strategic direction for the redesign of the overall educational experience for students, this collective vision reinvigorates and re-engages students, teachers, and community stakeholders.
Redefining Ready! is a national initiative launched by the AASA (The School Superintendents Association) to introduce new research-based metrics to more appropriately assess that students are college ready, career ready and life ready.
JFF is a national nonprofit that drives change in the American workforce and education systems. #Edreform & workforce development (#wkdev) initiatives to help youth & adults get to & through #highered.
We are boldly reimagining how U.S. education and workforce systems meet state and regional talent needs and prepare young people for careers.
Roadtrip Nation Education: Connecting students’ interests to real career stories
Our project-based programs use a blended learning format to foster authentic career exploration through interactive lessons and engaging multimedia content.
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