Starting With the Adults: Career Readiness for You

Most every time I’m asked about integrating strengths, interests and values and career related learning in schools, I inevitably get the question, “where do we start?” My response is rarely an expected one. It’s not to gather your community partners, decide on a software solution, or find a curriculum partner. To be clear, all of those steps might become part of your build at some point.? However, a truly sustainable launching of this work brings a unique opportunity to plant a foundation for not just a successful program, but one that will deliver transformation, not merely transactions.?

Transactional practices are not all bad, they ensure that lesson design is on track and includes important elements of learning that may include the learning intention, success criteria, key vocabulary, activity and reflection; all critical elements of a learning model. Additionally, transactional practices have been the traditional default of most career counseling approaches in our school system. ? Most of us have experienced these one-off moments in our educational journey, usually in high school:?Review your transcript, take some sort of career interest inventory and then never revisit it or reflect on it, and/or listen to a class presentation on colleges in your area.? A select few might get offered an internship or opportunity for job shadow, but that is usually the extent of it and the larger the school , the less likely these transactions are to occur. Add in increased caseloads for counselors and referrals for mental health concerns and it is no wonder so many of our young people report that they feel school has not prepared them for what they actually needed post-graduation for a successful life.??

However, even in the best case scenarios, transactions are not sufficient to help students be career ready, but rather, a fully transformative career education goes further in “enabling learners to critique previously unchallenged explanations of self, role, career, and work in order to reach new states of understanding and frames of reference (Barnes, A. 2022).? This includes the reminder that what makes career education “transformative” is the aim of creating the conditions for learners to rethink their existing views of themselves and the world of work, especially unquestioned views based on tacit acceptance of prevailing cultural and social norms and values (Mezierow, 2009).”? To achieve this requires that you start with the people in the ecosystem first and invite your staff and community to experience the process to identify, process, and explore their own unique strengths, interests and values. Ergo, put on the mask first, before you help others.??

So what can putting on the mask for the adults look like in practice? We often talk about the importance of reskilling and upskilling employees to provide them the theoretical and practical hands-on experiences they need to build new skills for the changing world of work. Yet in one of the most human-centered careers, whose goal can be argued, is to prepare and equip young people for their futures, there is little to no exposure or training for teachers to integrate the first and arguably most important aspect of preparing for a future, which includes career development and developing an understanding, or self awareness of our unique strength, interests and values.?

Before you ask your teachers to give students an assessment of strengths, aptitudes, RIASEC , or any other assessment, it is imperative to reflect on the essential ingredients identified for quality career learning. Core elements as researched by (Brown & Ryan Krane, 2000; Langher et al., 2018; Whiston et al., 2017 ), highlight: written exercises, individual feedback, a strong working alliance between educator and student, labor market information and world of work exploration, mentoring and social support, values clarification, and psychoeducation are more effective, particularly in combination with each other, than those that do not.. These identified best practices should be the center of teaching and learning that ground our career intervention strategies. ? Research has further shown that the development of personality traits and qualities only takes place when those learning find the content meaningful (and that is something quite different than content being considered ‘necessary’). Moreover, it requires implementation of learning activities in the career of the teachers (Kuijpers & Scheerens, 2006). The kind of dialogue that is needed here is described by Shotter (1993, p.20) as “a socially constructed myriad of spontaneous, responsive, practical, unselfconscious, but contested interactions”, a form that is directly opposed to “the apparent representation of dialogue as converging upon a single ultimate ‘Truth’”.

Essentially, the lesson I have learned is that teachers want to be trained in initiating a career dialogue with their students,? but this training is not about inserting a curriculum or scope and sequence to be deployed, but rather about inviting the teachers themselves into the role of student to experience career development for themselves and the way we do it is by inviting everyone to identify, explore, and reflect on their strengths, interests and values, so they can consider why and how they can give this gift to their students. Doing so is not just the way to bring everyone into the process you want your students to have, it is also the way to serve the people who will invite your students into the process for themselves.? (Note: If this is something you would like to learn more about, we offer a signature SIV experience and we also offer a well-being at work experience based on Gallup’s research through Educators Cooperative ).

In my role I have been fortunate to work closely with teachers to design and deploy innovative approaches for making career development accessible to thousands of young people, beginning first with the Thinkabit Lab and then in Cajon Valley Union School District.? The importance of teachers in the process of career development has been well documented (OECD Policy Perspective No. 42 ), and my enthusiasm for this work has grown exponentially since having the opportunity to work in a large K-12 district. As I watched teachers learn to develop and integrate career learning in their classrooms, my reactions became similar to the reaction of others who have visited those same classrooms .? When superintendents or administrators ask how to start their career development initiative our team listens carefully for the potential to create a culture of career conversations within the school or district. As Dr. Mark Savicks stated in his 2013 NCDA Commencement Address : “The self that persons make themselves into is a function of language. If you don’t have a word for it you don’t have it.” When the culture supports these conversations, anyone can speak to our most important clients of all: the students.??

For our students to get an idea of how good the work is; those conversations can begin early. It is possible to walk up to a second grader and ask them what their RIASEC letters are and why those letters are important. The ability for a student to claim their letters, a clue to their vocational interests, and to see themselves in the world, is important for building their self efficacy belief and outcome expectations - and this happens through conversations. Developing this language with students in the early grades means you can go further in the upper grades by including more complex questions, for example: “now that you know your letters, what problems do you want to solve in the world and what careers might align to solving those problems? And then by powerful extension, who do you know in this particular field?? Do you see yourself enjoying similar work experiences?? Why or why not?” When students are invited to engage in this language, they begin to speak it, write it, and most importantly they begin to see themselves on a meaningful and aligned path to gainful employment or as Dr. David Blustein , Professor of Counseling Psychology at Boston College puts it: “One of the most important aspects of planning a work life of meaning and satisfaction is to be able to envision oneself in the future – in effect, to develop a long-term future orientation.”

Teachers, as I have already demonstrated, are the key to developing this common language of self and career with students. As they develop this new communication approach it becomes a purposeful way to differentiate instruction, consider behavior management, engage different learning styles, and serve as an extension to share with parents and families. Furthermore, the RIASEC language provides teachers the most practical tool to bring greater context to their content areas because the RIASEC can be used to organize and explore every career. When teachers invite students to conversations using this language of self in the world, they open their students to make natural connections to their future possible selves. Based on an analysis of multiple longitudinal surveys, there is strong evidence that better employment prospects for students are attainable if students by the age of 15 have engaged in career conversations. (OECD Policy Paper No. 42)

Just like most students across K-16, most adults have rarely if ever been invited into the process of identifying, understanding, or developing their own strengths, interests and values. How can we ask teachers to help their students to learn about their SIV when they themselves have not identified and considered their own SIV? In this way, we realize that this area of learning is less about curriculum and content, and more about relationships and conversations.?

So what has been the response to this transformative approach?? My experience working with teachers yields a spectrum of responses, but mostly, teachers have welcomed the process and have been truly excited about it.? A recent exchange with superintendent Phillip Martell from the River Valley School District in Pennsylvania, is indicative of the feedback we tend to get:

Your professional development in River Valley was LIFE CHANGING. The strengths, interest, and value experience has completely shifted my mindset as a school Superintendent and the mindset of the River Valley staff. Mr. Hidalgo’s professional development was so incredibly valuable for the River Valley staff to recognize that we can change student’s lives and build relationships through students knowing their strengths, interests, and values. The district is experiencing many advantages of career learning in the early grades and has witnessed the power in having conversations with students about their own strengths, interests, and values.?

River Valley students with the help of their teachers are now beginning to understand who they are and where they might fit in the world. Teachers have focused on building identity and having students be able to identify their own strengths, interests, and values so they know there is a place for them in the world.

Through the WoW framework we now give students the experiences of early career exploration of self within different content areas, with career speakers, field trips, and pre-apprenticeships. Students are doing the work in grades K-12 to understand themselves.

Because RV students are able to identify their personal strengths, interests, and values the RV Steam Academy keeps? growing. We will have the following courses available in the 2023-2024 school year; Biomedical Technology, Cybersecurity, Electrical Occupations and Powerline, Esports, Pathways to Health Professions, Sports Medicine and Rehabilitative Therapy, Teacher Preparation, and Welding Technology.? River Valley School District makes students’ interests, values, and strengths the focus and prioritizes early career exploration with the hopes of every student being able to identify their career path and/or workforce development by the time they graduate high school.

We see other patterns in responses of educators as well when they have opportunities to explore their own SIV, including asking questions about their own career decisions, being transparent about their satisfaction levels in their own careers, marveling at how simple and accessible the language is, and expressing how much a family member or their own child should have access to the training.? And almost always, we get asked why they’ve never experienced this before as they see the palpable benefits of seeing the language in their colleagues, how much fun the language is to learn about, and how much more useful it would have been to have this training when they themselves were in school.?

These responses aren’t unique to the adults in education because private sector employees often rate career development and personal growth as something they are seeking?from their employers to keep them in their jobs. This has been true for many employees for quite some time, but has been brought to the forefront of our collective awareness again with the attention around so-called “quiet quitting .”? Personal growth is something we don’t often prioritize but when it comes to the idea of integrating career development in schools for kids, we should prioritize the process of including the adults into the process or we risk missing a prime opportunity to drive employee engagement and wellbeing. The power of SIV means that we can move toward what Dr. Don Clifton from the Gallup organization was often quoted as saying, “what will happen when we think about what is right with people rather than what is wrong with people.” When teachers are invited to develop a common language of SIV, they can begin to purposefully integrate that language in a way that creates deeper understanding and engagement with their students. Students want to know that their teacher sees their strengths, not just their weaknesses. And when teachers integrate a common language like the RIASEC into their content areas, and refer to people in history, or people in a novel, or people on their campus, they can begin to ask students how their own interests align to the people they are learning about or engaging with. In our work we have advanced this common language of self and career with every professional that works within the school system and we have worked extensively with parents, families, caregivers, workforce boards, not-for-profit organizations, churches, higher education, training providers, and businesses that work with school systems to support student development and progress.?

This approach to career development is about creating a common language of career,? it's not a new language,?in the sense that we would all recognize these words that align to students’ strengths, interests, and values, but rather it’s the way that these words are being operationalized that is special. So it’s adults who learn the language first. By having an understanding of the language, teachers are then able to use their teaching talents, and?artistry,?to integrate this language within their existing content areas so they can bring the idea of strengths, interests, and values into the conversations that students are having with each other. The language then becomes the cornerstone to the types of conversations happening in the classroom. For example, with this language now embedded, we might ask students , “who from the world of work would we invite to help us understand the idea of Force In Motion, the area of science we are learning about currently.” Or let us get more specific, if we were to invite someone from the world of work to talk about force in motion, what would be the primary RIASEC letter of the individual who would come in to talk to us about this engineering concept?” Second question, now that we’ve learned more about force in motion, which of you claim that same letter as your primary interest areas?” Let’s turn and talk about this area of interest and be prepared to come back and share what this letter means to you?”

By starting with the adults, and building a common language of career, teachers upskill their knowledge to use the RIASEC language in a way that is seamless in each and every classroom. This new superpower of our teachers can then support the daily career development and self-awareness that students need to develop a vision of their future possible selves.?