Verbal: Students can use their understanding of English grammar and public speaking, listening, and responding, convey an idea, express information, and be understood by others.
Written: Students can use their understanding of standard business English to ensure that written work is clear, direct, courteous, and grammatically correct.
Digital: Students can use their understanding of email, keyboarding, word processing, and digital media to convey work that is clear, direct, courteous, and grammatically correct.
Planting Seeds for Success: Middle School Career Exploration
We often focus on guiding high school students through their postsecondary plans, but increasingly, we are recognizing the benefits of supporting middle school students in thinking about their high school choices—such as courses, experiences, and clubs—based on their passions and interests. Many people assume middle schoolers are too young for career exploration, but helping them explore their skills, strengths, and role in the world is a key part of their development. By encouraging self-discovery and exploring real-world challenges at an early age, we can help middle school students build a foundation that connects who they are today with the wide array of career opportunities they can pursue in the future.
Exploring the Connection Between Identity and Career
At the heart of career exploration is the need for students to connect with themselves. Before students can make decisions about their futures, they need to understand their own interests, values, and strengths. This is where the intersection of personal and career exploration becomes particularly valuable. When students start thinking about who they are, they can better understand how they fit into the larger picture of society and the workforce. This aligns with Illinois’ Postsecondary and Career Expectations (PaCE), which outlines the experiences and support students need by the end of each grade in middle school and high school. The middle school framework focuses on three core areas: aspiration, self-advocacy, and planning. These essential milestones are meant to equip students to successfully transition into and navigate high school.
In addition to exploring career options and preparing for high school, students can continue to build upon key life skills in middle school through career exploration. In a recent I-WIN session with the Center for the Future of Arizona, the importance of teaching critical skills such as financial literacy and addressing real-world challenges was highlighted. Financial literacy, for example, is seen as a crucial component of early career exploration. While students may not be ready to think about their ideal salary or how to file taxes, they should begin learning how money works, how different lifestyles impact financial stability, and the importance of budgeting. These lessons help students understand how their current choices can influence their future.
The session also emphasized the value of engaging students with real-world problems, such as the water crisis or environmental challenges, to broaden their understanding of how their skills can be applied across various careers. These topics encourage critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving—skills that are vital for success in any field. Moreover, this approach helps students become more aware of the pressing challenges they will face as future leaders and contributors to society.
The Importance of Essential Employability Skills
In an era where technical skills are constantly evolving, there is increasing demand for durable soft skills, i.e., essential employability skills that last a lifetime, such as Illinois’ cross-sector essential employability competencies (see below). These skills include critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and leadership, as well as character traits such as resilience and a growth mindset. According to America Succeeds, an analysis of 80 million job postings from 2020–2021 shows that seven of the ten most-requested skills were durable skills. This demonstrates how critical these skills are to employers across industries, regardless of the specific technical requirements of the job.
For middle school students, developing these skills early on will be crucial to their long-term success, regardless of the college and career path they choose. Career exploration is not just about understanding the job market—it’s about building the foundational skills that will help students navigate any future challenges and opportunities. By focusing on both self-discovery and skill-building, middle school career exploration sets students up for success in high school, college, and beyond.
The Case for Early Career Exploration: Labor Market Awareness
As the labor market evolves and demand for high-wage, high-skill jobs grows, it is crucial for students and their families to be aware of the diverse career opportunities available. Unfortunately, many remain uninformed due to a lack of exposure to current labor trends, and even teachers often lack updated information. This gap highlights the importance of starting career exploration early, particularly in middle school, when students are developing their identities, discovering their strengths, and exploring how they fit into their communities. For historically underserved students, increased career awareness can broaden their perception of potential career paths. Introducing career exploration at this stage helps students not only understand their career options but also how they can contribute to society and shape their future.
Middle school career advocates like Success Bound emphasize that by fostering personal agency, confidence, and planning skills, students can begin to think critically about their futures while exploring their identities, strengths, and passions. This approach helps students connect their personal interests to future goals, explore pathways to success, and develop a plan for navigating both their academic and personal lives through middle and high school.
Community Example
Elm Middle School Career Exploration
Elm Middle School offers career studies courses as part of its College and Career Pathway initiative. In 6th–8th grades, students take nine different career elective courses to build awareness of the variety of industries and opportunities.
Looking Toward the Future: K-5 and Beyond
Some educators argue that starting career exploration even earlier, in elementary school, could provide even more benefits. Programs like the K-5 Possible Futures Curriculum through the Center for the Future of Arizona, introduce students to the concept of career pathways at a young age. By providing students with “lenses on the future,” these programs help them start thinking about how their current interests and strengths might translate into future aspirations.
As early as kindergarten, students can begin to explore concepts like community, contribution, and problem-solving. By the time they reach middle school, they can begin to understand how the world works and how they might fit into it. Building on this foundation in middle school will allow students to dive deeper into their interests and start to connect those interests with real-world opportunities.
Community Example
Skokie Elementary Community Career Nights
A career exploration event in Skokie Elementary District #69 to highlight career pathways aligned to high school programs and Oakton Community College through hands-on activities.
Preparing Students for a Fulfilling Future
Career exploration in middle school is about much more than helping students choose a future job—it’s about helping them understand who they are, what they value, and how they can contribute to society. By starting early, we can equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed, whether they choose a high-wage, high-skill job, or pursue further education. By engaging students in these conversations, you can support them in making informed decisions early in high school so they don’t reach junior or senior year unable to access certain courses or work-based learning experiences due to scheduling conflicts or missing prerequisites.
Supprting families and educators alike to understand the importance of exposing students to a wide range of career options and developing both their technical and durable skills. With the right guidance and support, middle school students can begin to see their futures in a new light—full of possibilities and potential.
Grounding Career Exploration in Cross-Sector Competencies
The State of Illinois’ Recommended Technical and Essential Employability Competencies for College and Career Pathway Endorsements guide outlines ten essential cross-sector employability competencies and three entrepreneurial competencies that prepare students to succeed in any workplace. The guide further outlines sector-specific competencies. Centering middle school career exploration experiences on these cross-sector competencies will help students prepare for college and career pathways in high school while developing skills that employers value.
Essential Employability Competencies
Students can use their understanding of working cooperatively with others to complete work assignments and achieve mutual goals.
Verbal: Students can use their understanding of English grammar and public speaking, listening, and responding, convey an idea, express information, and be understood by others.
Written: Students can use their understanding of standard business English to ensure that written work is clear, direct, courteous, and grammatically correct.
Digital: Students can use their understanding of email, keyboarding, word processing, and digital media to convey work that is clear, direct, courteous, and grammatically correct.
Students can use their critical thinking skills to generate and evaluate solutions as they relate to the needs of the team, customer, and company.
Students can use their understanding of problem solving to implement and communicate solutions.
Students can use their understanding of logic and reasoning to analyze and address problems.
Students can use their understanding of workplace change and variety to be open to new ideas and handle ambiguity.
Students can use their understanding of goal setting and personal impact to achieve professional goals and understand personal impact.
Students can use their understanding of commitment, time management, and follow through to ensure that a professional team functions properly and meets collective goals.
Students can use their understanding of diversity and inclusion to communicate and work effectively across a multitude of abilities, cultures, and backgrounds.
Students can use their understanding of time management to plan effectively and accomplish assigned tasks.
Entrepreneurial Competencies
Students can use their understanding of idea generation, design thinking, product and business development in order to introduce and process new and effective ideas.
Students can use their understanding of learning from challenges, set-backs, and failure in order to adapt strategies and continue efforts to achieve personal goals.
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