Studies are showing that there is growing career uncertainty among teenagers, emphasizing the need for stronger career development programs to help students align their education with future career paths. Learn how to address these issues to ensure that all students gain meaningful career-connected experiences and are prepared for future success.
The OECD’s (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) study on teenage career uncertainty, highlighted in its recent report, underscores a growing concern: about 40% of 15-year-olds in OECD countries lack clear career plans, a figure that has risen by over 50% since 2018. This uncertainty is linked to poorer employment outcomes in adulthood, particularly for students with lower academic performance. The study emphasizes that career development programs, when effectively implemented, can significantly reduce this uncertainty by helping students explore their interests and align their education with potential career paths. However, data from PISA 2022 shows that too few students participate in such initiatives, suggesting a need for broader access and promotion of these programs.
In our work at Defined, we are spending a great deal of time working with educators and educational systems around aspects of career-connected learning. The issue that frequently comes to the forefront is the potential disconnect between and among CTE programs, counseling, and academic standards-based classrooms. In conversations, all appear to believe in the interconnectedness of these three areas, yet they are often separate and distinct for a variety of organizational and structural reasons. Helping students prepare for their lives after school and for potential careers needs to be an integral part of all school’s educational vision. This is often demonstrated in graphics and words through mission, vision, and school’s Profile of a Learner or Portrait of a Graduate.
How can educators and educational leaders bring CTE, counseling, and standards-based classrooms together? Let’s look at six strategies through the lens of a curricular-focused learning environment:
Facilitating Career Exploration, Awareness, and Application
Counselors play a vital role in the success of all students. Counselors help students identify their strengths, interests, and values through a variety of tools including interest assessments and career inventories. They provide one-on-one or group sessions to help students explore specific careers tied to their interests. These activities can guide students toward careers featured in classrooms, courses, and programs.
Interdisciplinary Career Units
Career exploration and application opportunities can be easily woven into all subjects. What students are learning in the classroom and the passions they are discovering can be connected to potential careers that they may want to consider. For example, math classes could include performance tasks around topics such as financial literacy or architecture, requiring teamwork and communication to solve problems. In social studies, urban development, government policies, and/or community impact could easily be connected to many standards. Language Arts related careers could include a grant writer, social media marketer, public relations specialist, or a journalist with projects and lessons easily connected with essential content related to reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
Partnerships between career and technical education (CTE) programs and general education teachers can help align these activities with broader learning goals and within and across career clusters and pathways.
Project-Based Learning (PBL)
Incorporating an instructional strategy such as PBL is something that is common for CTE teachers. Using this pedagogy and incorporating future-ready skills can involve students working on complex, real-world problems over an extended period, requiring them to think critically, collaborate, and communicate effectively. Defined utilizes career-themed projects that can be integrated across subjects, such as developing a marketing plan in business classes or designing solutions for community issues in science. These experiences make skills relevant to future careers while aligning with academic standards.
Embedded Communication Training
Incorporating oral presentations, team discussions, research, and report writing into assignments across all subjects ensures consistent practice. Weaving active communication strategies into learning activities helps students practice collaboration and interpersonal skills. Projects that require students to do presentations and/or build communication documents that are informative or persuasive promote formative and summative assessments of communication skills.
Assessment and Reflection
Self-reflections and teacher feedback through the lens of reflecting on the real-world connected processes and content applications to careers through their learning can be powerful “a-ha” moments for students. The use of rubrics for evaluating skills such as problem-solving can help teachers guide students as they practice skills throughout their learning experience. Evidence of practice and growth over time can also be part of an evidenced-based portfolio for the student. Bringing these ideas together can help students understand the interconnectedness between careers, content, skills, and projects. Life!
Collaboration with Employers and Community Partners
Schools can establish partnerships with local businesses to provide interactive career days, mentorship programs, and soft skills training. Exposing students to the workplace through job shadowing, internships, or part-time work enables them to understand real-world career dynamics. When possible, incorporating on-site visits through field trips can help introduce students to different work environments and also let them see first-hand the connections between school-based learning and future opportunities tied to the learning.
Bringing professionals into classrooms for workshops or mentorship allows students to practice skills in real-world contexts. Additionally, business and industry experts can work collaboratively with a curriculum team to create performance tasks, projects, and virtual internships to help students bridge the world of work, academic standards, and skill development and practice.
Conclusion:
To implement these ideas, educational leaders must collaborate (much like we teach our students) with educators, administrators, business & industry, and community stakeholders, ensuring that transferable skills development becomes an integral part of every student’s educational experience.
An important point for educational leaders to focus on is universal access for all students in every grade level and in every subject. The strategies above are designed to provide ALL students with opportunities to explore, apply, learn, and practice skills and knowledge to help them beyond school. It is imperative that all students, not just those in advanced or specialized programs, have opportunities to develop and grow. These approaches collectively help students develop a clearer vision for their futures, reduce anxiety about career choices, and improve long-term employment outcomes.
Let's help students answer two very important questions: Why do I need to know this? And when am I ever going to use this?
Through ongoing, interconnected work and leadership, we can help every student find their WHY and their purpose for learning!
Resources:
OECD (2021). “Preparing youth for work: What really works in career guidance?”. OECD Education and Skills Today. Retrieved December 13, 2024, from: https://oecdedutoday.com/preparing-youth-for-work-what-works-career-guidance/
OECD (2024), "Teenage career uncertainty: Why it matters and how to reduce it?", OECD Education Spotlights, No. 16, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e89c3da9-en.
About the Author:
Dr. David L. Reese serves as Chief Academic Officer for Defined Learning. During the past twenty years, Dr. Reese has served K-12 students as a science teacher, Curriculum Specialist, and Central Office Administrator. He has taught Masters and Doctoral courses in all areas of curriculum and professional development leadership. His work focuses on providing students with engaging, relevant learning opportunities designed to encourage students to apply content from a local, national, and international perspective.
