10/01/2026

Partnering with Educators to Reinforce Workforce Readiness Values

By Anjelica Tynes

U.S. secondary schools do not only offer content specific education. They teach and develop in-demand soft skills through student conduct policies (Ouchen et al., 2022, 2303). Soft skills in conjunction with technical education can lead to increase in wages and open doors of opportunity for students (Hosseinioun et al., 2025). Some employers offer on-the-job training to teach the hard skills needed for the job (Bishop, 2017). However, applicants are expected to come in the job with well-developed soft skills (Office of Disability Employment Policy, n.d.). Many Gen-Z job seekers are losing jobs and missing out on workforce opportunities because they lacked and were unaware of the expected soft skills that were needed to sustain their job (Intelligent.com, 2024).

John Krumboltz’s Happenstance Learning theory is defined as creating opportunities to realize the future one’s desires and being able to recognize opportunities that benefit one’s future (Brown, 2023). In alignment with Krumboltz’s theory, school is a planned happenstance for students, because students are given a daily opportunity to hone skills needed for entering and succeeding in the workforce. Career specialists can partner with educators to make students cognizant of the value school provides to their future as a planned happenstance (Brown, 2023). 

Reasons Students are Not Seeing the Value in School

In exploring the purpose of the American education system, it is necessary to look at both the national and state departments of education. The U.S. Department of Education exists “...to promote student...global competitiveness” (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). State departments of education expound upon this definition to include preparing students for careers. Data has shown that the more education a person has, the more money they can earn (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). Experienced educators may notice that students struggle to see how school prepares them for their adulthood, including helping them obtain financial stability. Research has shown that school systems can make their purpose more apparent by embedding career development skills into all courses (Rumberger et al., 2017).

Embedding career development course curriculum into all courses would create interdisciplinary courses rather than isolated subjects within school systems. When courses are connected, students are more apt to see the purpose of each of their courses and the school system as a whole (Henson, 2019). Many students in America are disengaged with school because they believe it does not connect with their present or future lives (Rumberger et al., 2017). The education system is missing the opportunity to close the workforce skills gap by not educating students on the interconnectedness of their courses to their present and future lives (Henson, 2019).

Strategies for Career Specialist to Partner with Teachers in Shifting Class Culture

Career service providers (CSPs) have a keen eye for identifying the many ways students are developing career readiness while in school (Brown, 2023). However, this is not always obvious to non-career service providers. CSPs can partner with teachers and administrators by:

• Offering Enlightenment Sessions: Conduct lesson plan enlightenment sessions by identifying the professional skills students are developing in a lesson. Then work with the teacher to create a 5 - 10-minute reflection activity on how these skills are used in a career or job of interest (Connect the Work, 2025).
• Assisting with developing apprenticeship classroom models where students are compensated for soft skills, such as being on time to class and earning a C or higher on exams: These models allow for the practice of career conversations while helping students see the relevancy and practicality of classroom ethics. Use free or low-cost tools such as ClassBank (ClassBank,n.d.) to help students see the impact of their classroom work ethic as well as the skills they were developing such as time-management, following directions, responsibility, interpersonal and intrapersonal communication, organization, and knowledge and application. In this model, the students aim to have enough money in their account to pay for their mock living expenses set by the students when they designed their ideal post-high school lives.
• Providing staff workshops: To investigate careers aligned with class curriculum, create workshops on strategies to use “O*NET Data” specifically the various occupational and worker filters available at https://www.onetonline.org/. Some of the categories include the soft skills custom list, occupation by knowledge requirements, and work contexts. Career service providers can also collaborate with educators to create workshops on the many transferable skills students develop through the reinforcement of class work ethic.
• Providing education on career readiness resources: Resources, such as TFS Results’ “Career Tree” (TFS Results, n.d.), explicitly show careers that utilize the skills developed through each course.
• Adding employability skills to student guidelines/handbook: Students develop employability skills such as communication, time-management, conflict management, and integrity through following the school’s student code of conduct. Collaborate with the administration team to add a short statement to the student guidelines to incorporate the employability skills students are developing through each of the guidelines.

In bringing their expertise to classrooms and school planning meetings, career service providers can aid in increasing student engagement and graduation rates. Through lesson plan enlightenment, staff workshops, student guidelines with employability skills alignment, CSPs can help educators answer students' burning question of “when will I use this.” An increased awareness of their planned happenstance combined with opportunity for action will create a generation that is more workforce ready.

References

ClassBank. (n.d.). ClassBank. Retrieved May 1, 2025, from  https://www.classbank.com/ 

Bishop, T. (2017). The hard truth about soft skills. Muma Business Review, 1(18), 238.

Hosseinioun, M., Neffke, F., Youn, H., & Zhang, L. (2025). Soft skills matter now more than ever, according to new research. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2025/08/soft-skills-matter-now-more-than-ever-according-to-new-research 

Intelligent.com. (2024). 1 in 6 companies are hesitant to hire recent college graduates. Intelligent. https://www.intelligent.com/1-in-6-companies-are-hesitant-to-hire-recent-college-graduates/ 

Brown, A. L. (ed.). (2023). Facilitating career development: An instructional program for career service providers and other career development providers (5th ed.). National Career Development Association.

Office of Disability Employment Policy. (n.d.). Soft skills: The competitive edge. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/publications/fact-sheets/soft-skills-the-competitive-edge 

Ouchen, L., Tifroute, L., & El Hariri, K. (2022). Soft skills through the prism of primary school teachers. European Journal of Educational Research, 11(4), 2303 - 2313. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu-jer.11.4.2303 

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025). Education pays, 2024. U.S. Bureau Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2025/data-on-display/education-pays.htm 

U.S. Department of Education. (2011, October 20). Mission of the U.S. department of education. Home. https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/mission/mission.html 

Anjelica Tynes, M.Ed. is a career service provider with over a decade of secondary and post-secondary classroom experience. She leverages her classroom experience to help students develop career skills. Anjelica uses career counseling theories and assessments to help students explore and plan workforce opportunities aligned with their interests, values, personality, work style and aptitude. Anjelica  holds a Master of Education degree in secondary education and is a recipient of numerous fellowships for her work in career development, including the U.S. Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Research (2023 - 2024). Anjelica is a member of The National Career Development Association. She can be reached at atyneseducates@gmail.com