Level 2: Workplace Readiness Skills Curriculum - CTECS

Career and Technical Education Consortium of States (CTECS) is offering a new durable skills curriculum and assessment package at the high school level, called Workplace Readiness Skills (or California Career Ready). When students pass the test, they can share their nationally recognized credential on Tallo to prove their achievement directly to talent seekers. The curriculum and test are meant to complement current programs, especially in Career and Technical Education (CTE) and any career path selected by the student.

We also offer a Level One curriculum to help students transition into high school and spark interest in career pathways and self-awareness.

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CTECS has the solution, if you are interested in:

setting a baseline and measuring learning growth of these research-based but sometimes difficult-to-teach behavioral expectations from employers
expanding career potential and confidence of students
helping students learn who they are, how to set goals, and how to overcome barriers to succeed in their future careers
offering a meaningful, proven, employer-recognized credential for a career-ready student.
providing the WRS Digital Badge to prove their workplace readiness directly to employers.

Twenty-two research-based skills are addressed with activities under each skill standard, and the curriculum is growing. This curriculum thoroughly prepares students for success on the CTECS Workplace Readiness Skills Assessment_© or the CTECS California Career Ready Assessment_©. For more on the Assessment, please go to our About WRS Assessment page. Pass the assessment and earn this nationally-recognized credential and badge.

Each activity can be delivered in short time, so it works perfectly to complement your existing programs of study, and is especially great for CTE or alternative education classrooms. You may use it as a stand-alone, where appropriate and approved.

If you agree that workplace readiness skill education is crucial preparation for your students transitioning into postsecondary opportunities and the world of careers, this curriculum provides those crucial pieces that can often be overlooked in traditional classroom settings.

Key Links

Curriculum Outline

Video: Online Orientation

Video: Teachers Present How They Use the Curriculum

Sample Activity

Quick Start Guide

Ordering

Level 2 Curriculum Flyer

Request a Follow-up or Demo

Infuse

Activities are short and to-the-point, so they are a perfect complement to what you are already teaching and were designed with this in mind.

Optional Components with each Activity:

Assignment/artifact
Materials (handouts, worksheets, additional links)
Teacher presentation that simplifies how you teach it
Extension ideas
Differentiation
Pre-Activity and Post-Activity Process Questions for evaluation
Background information behind the concepts
Correlations to standards
Summary
Vocabulary with a link to Quizlet.

Free-Form

Proceed through the course as you like. Teach any activity in any order. Mark delivered instruction as complete. The curriculum is a great choice for any who want a roadmap for helping students achieve self-awareness, to understand workplace behavioral expectations, to try out professional skills from ethics to etiquette, all based on the context of your program. It is a great choice for teachers who want to get back to teaching and who want to go beyond simply checking a box to account for minimum administration expectations.

Compatibility with Your System

To gain access, you only need to login to our Word Press site. Once you are on our page, feel free to cut-and-paste any element you choose into your system as long as you have sole access. We have a deeper version, offered by request, which allows you to enroll students into the system where they can self-direct their learning, submit assignments and quizzes to you, and automatically records their progress. However, the standard version is simple and meant for you to deliver and shepherd students through their learning. This gives you control over the information.

Correlated

The curriculum was built around the CTECS Workplace Readiness Skills (WRS) standards, which are research-based and validated. These are the standards tested by the CTECS WRS Assessment, which was launched in 2011, and which some states use to satisfy graduation requirements or to complement CTE program seals. Further, the WRS skills are correlated to the California Standards for Career Ready Practice and related assessment. Therefore, the curriculum is the same content in California, just arranged a bit differently to help Californians.

Outcomes

Focused on the individual learner to produce career-ready candidates who know who they are, what they want from a career, and how to get there. Learning will help them explore new career possibilities, capitalize on assets from their personal and professional inventories (aptitudes, technical skills,
& goals), adapt to change, overcome perceived barriers, and stay disciplined, creative, confident, and motivated.

Self & Society

In the post-pandemic era, we have an opportunity to both reverse our educational losses and advance progressively without taking anything away from traditional CTE. We should prepare them for the world of work while understanding they are young learners. Therefore, social and emotional learning (SEL) are embedded within nearly every activity and emphasized within a career exploration context. A career offers the realization of the self or identity in society. We want to enable individuals to synthesize deeply personal mindsets, values, and goals within a social landscape of ethics, behavioral expectations, and collective mission, all while expanding their options for potential careers.