Received 01/15/12 Revised 01/10/13 Accepted 01/14/13 DOI: 10.1002/j.2161-0045.2013.00057.

Career-Ready Students: A Goal of Comprehensive School Counseling Programs

Norman C. Gysbers
This article opens with a rationale for and a denition of student career readiness. Next is a presentation of the qualities and attributes of career-ready students. Then discussion follows about what students need to become career ready. Following this is a presentation of how comprehensive school counseling programs help students become career ready, including discussion of the delivery system for school counseling programs that provide the activities and services that contribute to student career readiness. The article closes with the critical point that helping all students become career ready requires a whole schoolcommunity approach.

During this 2nd decade of the 21st century, the United States continues to undergo vast and far-reaching changes economically and socially, resulting in a rapidly changing workplace (Carey & Herr, 2012; Dutkowsky, 2013). These changes are requiring higher levels of achievement and preparation for the emerging workforce (Association for Career and Technical Education, 2006, p. 1). This means that the students of today and tomorrow will require an education that provides them with the academic, career and technical, and guidance and counseling knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be career ready upon graduation from high school.

What Is Career Ready?

Contrary to current popular literature, this article proposes to use the term career ready instead of career and college ready. Why? The word career is used because, when dened broadly, it includes the life roles, settings, and events of individuals lives that are constantly being inuenced by such factors as gender, ethnic origin, race, spirituality, social class, and sexual orientation (Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnston, 2009). As a result, the word career includes going directly to work after high school as well as attending a 2-year or 4-year college or university. However, the word career means much more than that because it emphasizes the total person, all of his or her life roles, all the settings in which he or she is involved, and the many events (planned and unplanned) that affect him or her. The focus is on the human career. The word ready is used
Norman C. Gysbers, Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri. Parts of this article were taken from Developing & Managing Your School Guidance & Counseling Program (5th ed.), by N. C. Gysbers and P. Henderson, 2012, Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Norman C. Gysbers, Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri, 201 Student Success Center, Columbia, MO 65211 (e-mail: gysbersn@missouri.edu).
2013 by the National Career Development Association. All rights reserved.

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in career ready because it means completely prepared for immediate action (Websters Unabridged Dictionary, 2001, p. 1606). When the words career and ready are put together, they convey a holistic picture of resilient individuals who are active and involved in shaping and directing their lives now and in the future.

Who Are Career-Ready Students?

Who are career-ready students? Career-ready students have a proactive, resilient, and adaptive style of interacting in the present and use that style to assertively move towards self-dened career futures that add meaning, purpose, and satisfaction to their lives (Gysbers & Lapan, 2009, p. 23). They have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to visualize and plan their futures. Career-ready students know how to engage in various current and potential life roles, including being a learner and worker. This means that they know the importance of succeeding in school and graduating. This means that they know how to take advantage of the current and possible future opportunities available to them, such as going directly into the labor force; obtaining an apprenticeship; selecting a certicate program; attending a 2-year technical school, community college, or 4-year college or university; or enlisting in the military. Career-ready students also understand that their lives unfold and evolve in various life settings, including school and the workplace. This means that they have work readiness behaviors and the interpersonal relationship skills needed to prosper in the workplace. On the basis of the work of Lapan (2004), Gysbers and Lapan (2009) identied the following behaviors and skills for career readiness: (a) social competence, (b) diversity skills, (c) positive work habits, (d) personal qualities, (e) personality and emotional states, and (f) entrepreneurship (p. 42). In addition, career-ready students understand how life events, planned and unplanned, can affect them over their lifetimes. This means that they know how to anticipate the possible impact that planned and unplanned events may have on them and their career planning. This also means that they know how to plan, but, at the same time, they take advantage of unplanned events (opportunities) that may arise.

What Do Students Need to Become Career Ready?

Helping students become career ready begins in elementary school and continues on into middle school and high school. What do students need to become career ready? They need to have opportunities to
engage in critical life contexts (e.g., school and community) with purpose and direction; respond to opportunities and make good decisions; act with personal agency and empowerment; exhibit a mature commitment to a self-dened direction; feel hopeful, motivated, and optimistic about their lives; be able to persevere to overcome obstacles and turn unexpected events into positive opportunities; be creative and curious; and be able to balance entrepreneurial skills and motives with concern for others and the fragile ecosystems that we need to survive. (Gysbers & Lapan, 2009, p. 25)
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How Do Comprehensive School Counseling Programs Help Students Become Career Ready?
School counseling has changed over the past 3 decades from a position-services orientation to a comprehensive program rmly grounded in principles of human growth and development. School counseling has become a developmental program focusing on prevention as well as remediation. As a developmental program, it has strengths-based content consisting of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that contribute to the overall development and success of all students to their becoming career ready. The content is organized around the three domains of academic development, career development, and personal/ social development. Although these domains are typically portrayed as being separate, in actual practice, they are delivered interactively (holistically) to students through the comprehensive school counseling program. The content in all three is required to prepare students to become career ready. To provide students with the strengths-based content in these three domains, comprehensive school counseling programs use a direct-service delivery system consisting of a guidance curriculum, individual student planning, and responsive services. The content and activities of the guidance curriculum and individual student planning are provided to all students on a systematic and sequential basis, whereas responsive services are available to all students if they need these services. The fourth delivery system is system support. It is an indirect service to students in that it contains management activities that support the comprehensive school counseling program as well as the other educational programs in the district (Gysbers & Henderson, 2012).

What Is the Strengths-Based Content for School Counseling Programs?

The strengths-based content in the three domains of academic, career, and personal/social development is usually cast as standards, as is true in other educational disciplines. In the state of Missouri, the standards listed under each domain are called big ideas. There are three of these for each domain as follows:
Personal and Social Development Students in Missouri schools will acquire personal and social knowledge needed for: PS 1: understanding self as an individual and as a member of diverse local and global communities. PS 2: interacting with others in ways that respect individual and group differences. PS 3: applying personal safety skills and coping skills. Academic Development Students in Missouri schools will acquire the knowledge of academic development needed for: AD 4: applying the skills for educational achievement. AD 5: applying the skills of transitioning between educational levels. AD 6: developing and monitoring personal educational plans. Career Development Students in Missouri schools will acquire the knowledge of career development needed for: CD 7: applying career exploration and planning skills in the achievement of life career goals.

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CD 8: knowing where and how to obtain information about the world of work and post-secondary training/education. CD 9: applying employment readiness skills and the skills for on-the-job success. (Gysbers, Stanley, Kosteck-Bunch, Magnuson, & Starr, 2011, pp. 8991)

What Is the Delivery System for School Counseling Programs?

Strengths-based guidance content for all students K12 is provided through the comprehensive school counseling programs direct-service delivery components, namely, guidance curriculum, individual student planning, and responsive services, but particularly through the guidance curriculum. Guidance Curriculum The idea of a guidance curriculum is not new. Davis (1914) outlined such a curriculum in the early 1900s. Today, the guidance curriculum is part of most comprehensive school counseling programs. In the state of Missouri, the big ideas listed under the three domains of academic, career, and personal/social development are further divided into concepts. Then, for each concept, grade-level standards identify and dene the student outcomes expected for each grade K12. The guidance curriculum is presented systematically and sequentially in classrooms in which school counselors teach, team teach, or support the teaching of guidance curriculum activities or units. Teachers may also teach such units. In addition, school counselors organize and conduct large-group sessions, such as career days and college days. Although school counselors responsibilities include organizing and implementing the guidance curriculum, the cooperation and support of the entire faculty and staff are necessary for its successful implementation. Also critical is that parents or guardians be invited to provide input to the guidance curriculum that is taught in the school their children attend and that they be encouraged to reinforce learnings from the guidance curriculum at home. Individual Student Planning The individual student planning component of a comprehensive school counseling program assists students, beginning in middle school, with developing and using student learning plans (e.g., personal plans of study, career plans, student education). What are student learning plans?
Student learning plans, often referred to as roadmaps, assist students in creating courses of study that are aligned with high school graduation requirements, personal interests, and individually-dened career goals. Learning plans are dynamic documents that are updated regularly as students educational and career goals change. They are developed collaboratively by students, parents and school staff, including teachers and guidance counselors. Students use learning plans to reect upon and document their skills, hobbies, accomplishments, academic record, personal goals, career interests and other information relevant to them as individuals. Learning plans also include provisions for portfolio development and assessment of student progress toward dened objectives. (Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, 2011, p. 3)
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The foundation for individual student planning is established during the elementary school years through guidance curriculum activities. Self-concept development, the acquisition of learning-to-learn skills, interpersonal relationship skill development, decision-making skill building, and awareness and beginning exploration of educational and occupational possibilities are sample subjects that are covered during these years. Subjects such as these continue to be covered through the guidance curriculum during middle school and high school, providing new information and experiences to enable students to regularly update, monitor, and manage their plans effectively. Building on the foundation provided in elementary school, beginning planning for the future is undertaken during the middle school years through the individual student planning component. During this period, students plans focus on high school course selection, taking into account graduation requirements and the requirements of their postsecondary academic and career goals. Guidance curriculum activities continue to support and guide the planning process. During the high school years, plans developed in the middle school are reviewed and updated periodically in accordance with students postsecondary personal, academic, and career goals. The individual student planning component provides time for regular individual work with students as well as group sessions focusing on individual student planning. Guidance curriculum activities continue to support student planning by giving emphasis to the development and use of decisionmaking, goal-setting, and planning skills. The importance and relevance of basic academic and career and technical education preparation skills are stressed. The goal is for students plans to become journeys of discovery through which they can use the past and present to anticipate and prepare for the future. Responsive Services Responsive services consist of activities to meet the current needs and concerns of students whether these needs or concerns require counseling, consultation, referral, or information. Parent or guardian involvement with and participation in activities of this component are critical in helping students overcome barriers to their academic progress and personal/social development. Parents involvement may include referring their children for assistance, working with school counselors and other school staff to identify issues of concern, and giving permission for needed special services.

A Whole SchoolCommunity Approach

Although school counselors make substantial contributions to helping all students become career ready through their work in comprehensive school counseling programs, so do teachers, administrators, parents, and members of various community organizations. Helping all students become career ready requires a whole schoolcommunity approach. The goal of student career readiness must be reected in school building and district policies and the districts comprehensive school improvement plan. The school districts curriculum must provide the knowledge,
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skills, and dispositions to help students become career ready. Finally, the goal of student career readiness must also be reected in the activities of local chambers of commerce; service clubs; and business, industry, and labor organizations.

References
Association for Career and Technical Education. (2006). Reinventing the American high school for the 21st century. Alexandria, VA: Author. Carey, E. N., & Herr, E. L. (2012). Career transitions: A new reality. Career Developments, 28, 59. Davis, J. B. (1914). Vocational and moral guidance. Boston, MA: Ginn. Dutkowsky, S. (2013). Trends in training and development. Retrieved from http://careers. stateuniversity.com/pages/852/Trends-in-Training-Development.html Gysbers, N. C., & Henderson, P. (2012). Developing & managing your school guidance & counseling program (5th ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Gysbers, N. C., Heppner, M. J., & Johnston, J. A. (2009). Career counseling: Contexts, processes, and techniques (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Gysbers, N. C., & Lapan, R. T. (2009). Strengths-based career development for school guidance and counseling programs. Chelsea, MI: Counseling Outtters. Gysbers, N. C., Stanley, J. B., Kosteck-Bunch, L., Magnuson, C. S., & Starr, M. F. (2011). Missouri comprehensive guidance and counseling program: A manual for program development, implementation, evaluation and enhancement. Warrensburg: University of Central Missouri, Missouri Center for Career Education. Lapan, R. T. (2004). Career development across the K16 years: Connecting the present to satisfying and successful futures. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. (2011). Student learning plans: Supporting every students transition to college and career. Cambridge, MA: Author. Websters unabridged dictionary (2nd ed.). (2001). New York, NY: Random House.

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