Future Planning Starts Today: How School Districts Can Enhance Career Readiness for All Students
Over the last few decades, the domain of education and the job market has experienced a lot of changes. Although it’s difficult to foretell with certainty the categories of jobs that will exist in the future, one thing is for certain - students will need a variety of 21st-century skills to thrive. But what are the best ways to ensure all students get access to unique, authentic, and pioneering learning experiences that will encourage the learning and development of these essential skills? How can they be prepared to handle jobs that aren’t yet available but may in the future? Here are some steps the school districts can take to make all students confident and career-ready.
1- Provide standard assessments for career counseling
Students should be made to take career assessment tests to know themselves better and decide on a suitable career path. Since school counselors today have to handle a wide variety of tasks and often don’t have adequate time to counsel students one-on-one, virtual career readiness tools can be used for this purpose. Such assessments for career counseling often bring forth a student’s aptitude, values, personality traits, skill readiness, and more. When choosing a course or college, alignment with these traits would help the students pick up something that they would like to pursue and feel engaged with.
2- Ensure all students meet rigorous academic standards
For college and career readiness, laying a strong foundation in the early grades is crucial for success. School districts can provide the schools with adequate resources, tools, and guidelines to ensure that all students adhere to the strict state academic standards. This way, by the time they graduate from high school, these students will be ready for college and a career. To meet these rigorous standards, students are expected to get in-depth knowledge of different subjects, read more complex texts than before, and even engage in additional work like internships, community projects, summer jobs, etc. By using reliable online career readiness tools, school districts can make the schools track their students’ progress and keep them on track for meeting these high standards.
3- Foster independent learning and planning
Helping students become independent learners and planners will let them prepare more effectively for the rigors of college and, eventually, a career. This will also ensure that students continue learning even after they leave school or pass out of college, which is vital in today’s swiftly changing workplace. School districts can encourage the use of virtual career readiness tools like CounselHero that not only make available an extensive library and multiple resources for career planning but also offer adequate information on courses, colleges, and even additional learning opportunities. The use of such tools will make the students become self-directed learners and planners, which will serve them well irrespective of the career they choose.
The key to getting students career-ready is to help them become self-sufficient as much as possible with the use of career readiness tools and establish a strong foundation for success, which they can leverage not only when studying in school and college, but even beyond.
- Date December 16th, 2021 Thursday 04:41
- Category All
- Tags Educators College Teachers School Counselors CounselHero