College and Career Readiness: A Guide for Navigators
While there are many websites and resources that provide students with college and career information, most focus on achieving short-term success — college admission or finding work — rather than the critical connections between college and career readiness.
This guide is different. It highlights what navigators can do to nurture the critical connections young people must make between college and career readiness. Planning for future success requires an integrated approach that helps students understand their education and career options and what they must do to become prepared. This guide identifies action steps that young people can take to achieve their college and career goals. The knowledge and skills outlined in it are specific and teachable.
The guide is divided into three sections, each of which corresponds to one of the three areas of the framework: college readiness; career readiness; and college and career readiness. Simple concept maps and readiness charts help navigators understand the skills and knowledge students need to attain in each area and help them communicate with students about the ways in which career and college planning should be jointly addressed.
Click sections of the diagram below to explore the guide.
Why is college and career readiness important for all young people?
Technological innovation and globalization are changing the nature of work and transforming the employment sectors of the economy. Increasingly, successful transitions into careers require specialized knowledge, skills, and credentials that are typically obtained through some form of postsecondary education[1] and are connected to specific career goals. In this rapidly changing landscape, all young people[2] need to understand which postsecondary preparation activities are required to achieve their career goals and to integrate that understanding into their plans for future education and training.
[1] FHI 360 uses the term postsecondary education in its broadest sense to include two- and four-year colleges as well as specialized technical schools, apprenticeships, certificate programs, and the military.
[2] FHI 360 uses young people, students, and youth as interchangeable terms because this framework can be applied in community-based settings where young people are working with adults to plan their futures.
What does it mean to be college and career ready?
Young people need support as they develop their college and career readiness. To be both college and career ready means that a young person has the knowledge and skills to gain access to and complete postsecondary education and to secure an entry level position that begins a rewarding career progression. The college and career readiness framework below, based on a review of research and interviews with experts, identifies 11 essential components of college and career readiness.
As the framework highlights, college readiness and career readiness are neither synonymous nor mutually exclusive, and planning for a successful future requires a unified approach.
The two interlocking circles define college readiness[3] (on the left), career readiness (on the right), and the intersection where college and career readiness come together (in the middle) and need to be addressed in an integrated manner. Focusing on the center of the diagram — the knowledge and skills that prepare students for access to and success in both postsecondary education and entry level career opportunities — will better position youth for lifelong success. Key contextual factors that may influence young people’s attainment of college and career readiness are identified above and below the interlocking circles.
For many young people, the linkage between college and career readiness is often weak or overlooked. It is not enough to advise students on how to gain entrance to college or to help them land particular jobs. All young people need to develop education and career plans that lead them to productive lives.
This framework is designed to help students set goals and make both short- and long-term plans that link their education and career planning. The process of attaining college and career readiness takes time and needs to start early. Connecting college and career preparation throughout middle school and high school enables students to make informed decisions about career goals, coursework, and postsecondary options. For example, beginning this process in middle school helps students select the most appropriate ninth grade courses for their targeted career paths. This is the best way to ensure that their high school education positions them for the postsecondary options they most want to pursue.
[3] FHI 360 uses college readiness here as an umbrella for the full range of postsecondary education options.