Create Your Own Customizable
"Employability Skills" Program
Created by Gratiot-Isabella Regional Educational Service District (GIRESD)
A Customizable "Employability Skills" Program For Your High School Students
Create your own customizable, competency-based "employability skills" program to help your students develop and demonstrate universal skills needed for career success. Originally designed for Michigan students in grade 9-12, GIRESD's program model acts as a basis to create your own unique program to help cultivate students' employability skills. GIRESD's program is facilitated using an Organizational Account from CTE Learn's CareerPrepped platform, a service from ACTE powered by MaxKnowledge, Inc.
Why A Competency-Based Program?
Employability skills such as teamwork, communication and leadership are developed in-and-out of academic settings via formal and informal learning. They are not "taught" so much as they are cultivated through self-reflection, intentional practice, and constructive feedback combined with instructor modeling. Because employability skills must be visible and verifiable to be recognized, students must also develop their ability to independently identify, articulate and prove their own claims of skill in ways understood by others. Thus, to help students develop AND demonstrate employability skills; GIRESD believed a competency-based approach was a more meaningful, appropriate way to empower students to say the following:
Here's what I say I can do (Identify skills)
Here's why I say I can do it (Articulate skills)
Here's the evidence to prove my claims (Prove skills with authentic evidence)
Goals Achieved Through The Employability Skills Program
Students graduate with a talent portfolio, required of all K-12 students in Michigan per Michigan Career Development Model.
Students earn distinction and graduate with ability to meaningfully demonstrate their employability skills to employers.
Employers get qualified candidates with proven employability skills that are typically hard for them to find & screen for.
How Can I Create My Own Employability Skills Program?
Get CareerPrepped Account
Free for members of ACTE and unified state partners, CareerPrepped offers Skill Builders addressing 43 employability skills, learning activities, & more which can be used as the basis for your own program.
Embed in Your Programs
Identify CareerPrepped Skill Builders and activities you want to use with your students, sequence activities; and embed them as assignments in existing curricula (in LMS) at a pace appropriate for your academic programs.
Establish Program Criteria
GIRESD established criteria for their students in conjunction with local employers which you can use as-is or modify. For students that meet all criteria, decide how you'll provide formal recognition (certificate, award, badge, etc.)
See Student Career Site Examples on CareerPrepped
Support Resources
Get the ELA Standards Crosswalk
The CareerPrepped platform has resources and learning activities that also help meet English Language Arts (ELA) standards for students in grades 9-12 simultaneous to helping students develop and demonstrate employability skills. A crosswalk has been developed to help indicate which standards are met by which CareerPrepped resources.
Faculty Quick Start Guide
A one-page guide to help faculty quickly get started with students
Step-by-Step Directions
Step-by-step directions for students to complete lessons and assignments