Career literacy is a strong predictor of employment security in the modern economy, a recent report by The DeBruce Foundation suggests.
Career literacy is associated not only with employment security, but also with higher incomes, satisfaction with nonwage benefits and long-term savings, and a capacity to manage employment disruptions and transitions, according to the report, which draws from nationally representative surveys of about 36,000 Americans ages 18-64 conducted between 2021 and 2025.
The DeBruce Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports expanding career pathways and providing career readiness resources, defines career literacy as the ability to understand, plan, and navigate a wide range of career pathways over a lifespan.
It is “understanding what you like to do, what you do well, having a vision for your future, and then being willing and having the confidence to look at different kinds of opportunities that are out there in the career marketplace, because [the job market is] going to continue to change,” said Leigh Anne Taylor Knight, the executive director and chief operating officer for the DeBruce Foundation, in an interview with Education Week.
Having career literacy skills is especially important for today’s students because when they enter the workforce in the future, it’s very likely they’ll have multiple careers over time, she said.
Job seekers are experiencing an uncertain time in the labor market and a rapidly changing economy because of the growing use of generative artificial intelligence. A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that landing a job for most people has gotten tougher in the past couple of years.
The DeBruce Foundation report also suggests that career literacy skills develop over time, which means it’s important to start teaching them as early as possible. That is why schools play a role in building those skills, Taylor Knight said.
For the longest time, we have been pushing students to what their interests are, and no longer is that serving us. Students need to be looking at their aptitudes and understanding what their best skillsets are, because that's what's going to serve them in the long run.
Students need to know what skills they typically like to do and what skills they do well, and how those skills relate to the workforce, Taylor Knight said. This can help students develop a vision for where they might find themselves in the career market.
Students also need to develop their job search skills, Taylor Knight said. They need to be able to recognize opportunities, evaluate their options, and move forward with more agency, she said.
Many school districts are responding to rising demand for work-based learning
Many K-12 districts are expanding their work-based learning and career and technical education programs to meet the rising student demand for opportunities to explore and engage with a broad range of post-high school pathways. Some are also ensuring that students graduate with industry-recognized credentials and/or college credits.
Those opportunities are essential for setting students up for success in their first career. Schools “need to also be giving them information about how to think about the next three career steps that they are going to take,” Taylor Knight said.
Brooke Kusch, the vice president of the counseling and career development division for the Association for Career and Technical Education, agreed that schools need to start thinking about ways to incorporate broader career literacy into their career readiness curricula. ACTE represents CTE professionals at all levels of education.
“For the longest time, we have been pushing students to what their interests are, and no longer is that serving us,” Kusch said. “Students need to be looking at their aptitudes and understanding what their best skillsets are, because that’s what’s going to serve them in the long run.”
Many states require students to have some kind of career plan before they graduate, but those plans aren’t always used to their full potential, Kusch said.
For instance, in Oklahoma, where Kusch is a career counselor at a CTE center that serves high school students and adults, the individualized career plan “is an unfunded mandate, and it’s kind of just a box that has to be checked,” she said.
“It’s not utilized to get a career-literate understanding and so forth,” Kusch said. “It could be done better, but we’re on the right path.”
The challenge for schools is that there are many graduation requirements that make it difficult for them to build in flexibility for students to explore as many careers as they want, experts said.
“You’ve got to have this many maths, this many sciences, and that only leaves so many hours in the day for a student to get additional training,” Kusch said. “So if you want a student to leave high school with certifications and be more career literate, what cost are we looking at there?”
CTE advocates know this is a challenge. Many CTE programs operate in silos, with little coordination and alignment among K-12, post-secondary options, and the workforce. Advance CTE, a national nonprofit organization that represents state CTE leaders, unveiled a new vision earlier this year that focuses on breaking down those silos and better connecting students’ education with career opportunities.
“Schools can’t do this alone,” Taylor Knight said. “This actually takes businesses, chambers, and civic entities getting involved, and parents and others in the community.”
