The systems that prepare young people for college and career are being reshaped in real time. Rapid shifts in labor markets, accelerating technological innovation, and changing expectations of education systems are redefining what it means for students to be prepared for life after high school. As these forces converge, educators, policymakers, and administrators face an urgent set of questions:
How do we anticipate the realities and challenges that will shape our future?
How do we design education and workforce systems that equip students not just to enter the world as it is today, but to adapt and thrive as it continues to change?
At EdSystems, we believe that future readiness must be grounded in student experience and equity. Preparing students for an uncertain future requires more than predicting specific jobs or technologies; it demands building flexible, learner-centered systems that cultivate adaptable skills, expand access to opportunity, and responsibly harness emerging tools. The fourth pillar of our policy agenda, Future Readiness, centers on ensuring that all Illinois students, particularly those furthest from opportunity, are empowered with the skills, guidance, and support they need to navigate an evolving college and career landscape with confidence and purpose.
Pillar 4: Future Readiness
With rapid ongoing change in the education and workforce sectors, we are focusing on two key challenges that directly impact Illinois students’ experience in preparing for their futures:
- Evolving Job Markets: The future of work is ever-evolving and challenging to predict, and existing education systems are tied to outdated, rigid understandings of what current students will encounter in the job market.
- Emerging Technologies: Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, evolve quickly and shape how learners access, participate in, and learn through education and career programming.
With this rapid change in mind, it is essential to remain focused on student experiences and outcomes as a guiding light for policy and practice.
Building the Pipeline: Our Policy Agenda in Action
Too many Illinois students still struggle with the transitions from high school to college and career. In this blog series, explore each pillar of our policy agenda and how systemic change can create equitable pathways for every student:
Pillar 1 | Leadership, Governance, and Vision: Centering Student Success in a Chaotic Context
Pillar 2 | Creating Conditions Where Students Can Thrive
Pillar 3 | From Policy to Progress: Charting a Path to Data-Informed Continuous Improvement for Student Success
Pillar 4 | Equipping Students for Success in a Rapidly Evolving College and Career Landscape
Our First Aim: Empower Students with Adaptable Employability Skills
All Illinois learners are equipped with essential and technical employability skills that empower them to be adaptive and prepared for a range of future employment opportunities.
With technological advancement rapidly changing the world of work, it is essential to equip students with adaptable employability skills to ensure they are primed to succeed in any career they choose.
In a recent blog, the national nonprofit advocacy organization All4Ed reflected on over a decade of progress in pathways nationwide, bridging college and career exploration from K-12 to postsecondary and workforce systems. Despite meaningful momentum in pathways implementation, the authors emphasize the importance of moving away from strictly linear pathways that could inadvertently limit student opportunity rather than expand it: “Young people seek pathways to thriving, not jobs, and see themselves as their own best change agents.” As such, we must create the conditions for students to graduate K-12 and enter postsecondary and career with flexible skills and competencies that will serve them throughout their lives, not just in a single siloed pathway.
To that end, Illinois is embarking on implementing Advance CTE’s modernized Career Clusters framework. In addition to updating career clusters to match the realities of present-day work, the framework introduces cross-cutting clusters. These cross-cutting clusters marry sector-specific skills and knowledge that are crucial across multiple sectors, such as data science and marketing. This flexibility echoes Illinois’ existing multidisciplinary option for College and Career Pathway Endorsements under the Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness (PWR) Act, which allows students to explore multiple industries and how they intersect, while building essential skills for career readiness.
More broadly, our work in Illinois has long recognized the importance of focusing on developing competencies to empower students across various pathways. After the PWR Act was enacted, EdSystems worked with national and statewide educators and industry leaders to develop Recommended Technical and Essential Employability Competencies, most recently updated in 2022. The document outlines both competencies by sector areas and cross-sector competencies, such as decision-making and communication, that provide a strong foundation for student preparation. These competencies can help ground discussions in Illinois to implement the modernized career clusters framework, integrating competencies across curricula and programs of study.
Another development at the national level in 2026 is the introduction of Workforce Pell, slated for implementation in July. Workforce Pell aims to connect students to workforce training by expanding eligibility to short-term, workforce-aligned training programs, provided they meet thresholds for completion, job placement, and earnings. In a departure from prior Pell Grant administrations, states have an established role in identifying programs, aligning data systems to ensure federal compliance, and defining criteria for stackability and labor market demand.
With this opportunity comes tremendous responsibility for our state leaders, education, and workforce boards. As ultimate program approval is at the governor’s discretion, state education and workforce education agencies must align to ensure approved programs are learner-centered, count toward future degrees articulate to future education and workforce opportunities for students, and include robust advising to support learners on their journeys. The national policy organization Education First’s 2025 Commission on Purposeful Pathways reiterates this call, highlighting research that confirms three essential elements for putting students on a path to postsecondary success: high-quality advising, accelerated coursework, including dual enrollment, and exposure to real work and careers.
The urgent need for high-quality advising is echoed in student perspectives EdSystems collected as part of its Scaling Transformative Advanced Manufacturing Pathways (STAMP) initiative. Survey results from 222 high school students participating in manufacturing pathway programs revealed nearly one in four students either had not received or were unsure about receiving guidance in planning their education and career path. It is not enough to provide opportunities for workforce training and skills development: we must also ensure students have the high-quality advising necessary to make sense of their interests, strengths, options, and potential tradeoffs.
Our Second Aim: Leveraging Technology to Increase Student Access and Success
Community and state leaders leverage emerging technologies to enhance access to and success in college and career preparation for all learners, particularly those from historically marginalized communities.
Emerging technologies such as virtual platforms and artificial intelligence have the potential to transform student access to high-quality experiences and enable personalized learning, particularly for students with resource and transportation constraints. However, without intentional planning, these innovations risk deepening existing inequities, especially for students furthest from opportunity.
Protecting Students with Ethical AI Implementation
Harnessing Technology to Expand Opportunity
Chicago-based LEAP Innovations has begun convening the AI Education Network, which supports school and district leaders in innovating and designing AI solutions that fit their local context. LEAP’s Coalition for Human-Centered AI in Education, of which EdSystems is a member, is also working to identify opportunities to scale effective strategies and resources.
Emerging technologies are also shaping work-based learning. Through the Illinois Work-Based Learning Innovation Network (I-WIN), we have highlighted real-world applications of AI for both educators and learners. I-WIN has also highlighted virtual work-based learning, such as Crete-Monee High School’s virtual work-based learning platform, which enabled education pathways students to earn micro-credentials to display on their digital professional profiles.
Technological advancement is not limited to AI: shifting labor markets and the modernization of existing roles offer an opportunity to better equip students with aligned skills. For example, Illinois is investing in aligning education and training for manufacturing pathways. In January 2026, Governor Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity announced $24 million in grant funding to establish six new Manufacturing Training Academies at community colleges in downstate Illinois. The academies aim to prioritize advanced manufacturing and clean energy, such as Heartland Community College’s pioneering Electric Vehicle Energy Storage Manufacturing Training Academy in partnership with automotive manufacturer Rivian. Our work in STAMP has exemplified the power of aligning college and career partnerships and programming to modernized, in-demand occupations.
Across the state and country, practitioners and leaders are grappling with how to leverage technology to expand dual credit. For example, Illinois Eastern Community Colleges uses virtual platforms with in-person settings to scale equitable access to dual credit across their rural region (join us at the Success Network Conference to learn more). Both community colleges across the state and four-year institutions such as the University of Illinois are expanding virtual offerings for dual credit, which we hope will address critical barriers to access. As these options expand, we also hope to see these offerings align with strategic course offerings that are best positioned to accelerate students to and through postsecondary programs, with shorter time and lower costs to degree completion, and to maximize benefits for students.
What’s Next?
Preparing students for the future is not a one-time reform or a single policy shift. Rather, it is an ongoing commitment to adaptability, equity, and continuous improvement. As Illinois implements modernized career clusters, Workforce Pell, and navigates the integration of emerging technologies like AI, the state has a powerful opportunity to ensure these efforts are coherent, learner-centered, and aligned across secondary, postsecondary, and workforce spaces. High-quality advising, transferable skills, and flexible pathways must remain central so students can navigate choices with the goal of long-term thriving, not just immediate job placement.
EdSystems is embarking on work with statewide districts to identify opportunities to integrate AI to enhance student experiences in career pathways. In the Regional Acceleration of Model Pathways (RAMP) project, EdSystems will explore innovations that create intentional and structured opportunities for reflection after career-connected learning experiences, AI-powered course mapping, and early warning systems for students who need support.
This exciting innovation must be guided by intentional leadership. Technologies such as AI and virtual learning platforms hold tremendous promise to expand access and personalize learning, but only if implemented responsibly, with equity of educator and student voice at the forefront. By centering student experience and investing in systems that empower learners as active agents in their own journeys, Illinois can move beyond preparing students for a single job and instead equip them for a lifetime of learning and success.
