Unique Contributions of College, Career, and Work Readiness for Success

This paper reviews ACT's current definition of “college readiness”, and presents workable, policy-relevant definitions of "career readiness" and "work readiness" with respect to how they are different and how they intertwine throughout an individual’s journey through the world of education and work. A proposed framework is presented to clarify how these concepts uniquely contribute and interact to achieve successful outcomes both in education and workplace settings.

College Readiness

Unlike career readiness and work readiness, there has been less ambiguity around the concept of "college readiness" and the types and levels of skills that are needed for an individual to successfully transition from secondary to post-secondary education.1

ACT’s definition of college readiness is well-known and has been accepted by the educational community, and was the basis for the definition adopted by the Common Core State Standards initiative. Looking further into the definition of college readiness, the level of achievement needed for college success can be determined through a combination of college educationstandards and college readiness benchmarks. College education standards are defined as precise descriptions of the essential skills and knowledge that students need to become ready for college. College readiness standards are validated by student academic performance data through their alignment with benchmarks set for college readiness.2

College readiness benchmarks are often defined by scores on college readiness assessments, and represent the level of achievement required for students to have a high probability of success in postsecondary education (e.g., attainment of aspecific grade level in corresponding credit-bearing first-year college courses).3 When based on nationally representative samples, benchmarks are intended to be median course placement values for postsecondary institutions and as such represent a typical set of expectations. The combination of both college readiness standards and benchmarks represents a consistent set of academic expectations for all graduating high school students to be ready to succeed in postsecondary education.

ACT proposes expanding the definition of college readiness to include non-cognitive behaviors in addition to the traditional academic knowledge and skills.4 Research has shown that the path to academic and workplace success also requires emphasis on the “whole person” and includes nonacademic factors like behavioral tendencies, vocational interests, motivation, and self-beliefs. Teachers, researchers, and policymakers alike are realizing the need to focus not only on academics but also engagement and motivation to enhance learning and performance outcomes.5

Career Readiness

To date, “career ready” is most often used to describe the K-16 student population, which largely excludes individuals who have already proceeded through and exited the traditional K-12 education pathway. This has led to an assumption that career readiness is static; that it describes a single universal benchmark to be achieved once, at a particular point in time. This static view of career readiness disregards the likelihood that mostindividuals in today’s workforce will have multiple jobs over their lifetime and will likely need to complete more than one type of post-high school credential (e.g., postsecondary degree, occupational certification, workplace certification) in order for their skills to continue to be relevant in the workplace. ACT proposes that “career readiness” be defined in a way that accounts for a broader population and supports the dynamic nature of career pathways.

The combination of foundational cognitive and non-cognitive skills, along with career planning skills, provides a framework for career readiness that has been proposed previously,6 and all three have been shown to contribute to career success. Two types of foundational skills make up career readiness. (1) Cognitive skills include both academic and workplace domains. The necessary level of cognitive skills is contingent on the career path and an individual’s location on that path at any point during an individual’s career. Examples include reading, math, critical thinking, and problem-solving. (2) Non-Cognitive skills, also known as personal effectiveness or soft skills, are personal characteristics and behavioral skills applicable across a broad range of settings. Examples include adaptability, communication skills, cooperation, discipline, and integrity.

These skills are foundational skills: they are the fundamental, portable skills that are critical to training and workplace success. These skills are fundamental in that they serve as a basis—the foundation—for supporting more advanced skill development. And they are portable because, rather than being job-specific, they can be applied at some level across a wide variety of occupations. Individuals who develop these skills are more likely to be successful in training and in the workforce and are more competitive in the job market. Reading a technical manual, listening to instructions, showing up to work on time, writing a memo, putting forth extra effort, and giving an oral presentation are all examples of using foundational skills on the job.Career planning skillsare used to engage in informed exploration and make effective education and career choices. Research shows that the degree to which career interests fit a planned choice of college major or career impacts measures of success, such as academic success and persistence, job satisfaction and performance, and earnings.7 In both the K-12, postsecondary and workforce arenas, there should be an understanding of how to obtain information on career opportunities, how to assess interests, and how to interpret the information to help individuals develop a viable career pathway.

Work Readiness

Within the context of career pathways, “work readiness” describes the skill needs and demands of a specific occupation or job. “Work ready” describes what it takes for an individual to be considered as a viable applicant for a given job. While the level of foundational skills varies between career paths, the mix and level of foundational skills required for a specific occupation are even more diverse.

Similar to Foundational skills for career readiness, work readiness include both workplace cognitive andnon-cognitive skills. The difference is that foundational skills needed for career readiness are portable across all occupations (e.g., reading for information, applied mathematics, problem solving, and critical thinking). The foundational skills needed for work readiness are occupation-specific, vary both in importance and level for different occupations, may include more and different skills than just the foundational cognitive skills, and depend on the critical tasks identified via occupational or job profiles. Furthermore, an individual must achieve a level of career readiness needed for a career path before they can be considered ready to work in a specific occupation.

Occupational profiles are descriptions of the key skill areas and levels of skills required to enter an occupation and successfully perform tasks. Occupational profiles are usually developed via job analysis, or the process of identifying in detail the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties fora given job.8 One source of occupational profiles is the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) which identifies and describes the key knowledge, skills, and abilities for over 1,100 occupations.9 ACT also publishes occupational profiles based on the WorkKeys® system which contain the combination and level of skills needed to be successful in target occupations.10 The occupational profiles were developed by combining information from the job profiles for groups of jobs that share the same identification numbers in the O*NET database.

Much like college readiness, the level of achievement needed for work success can be determined via a combination of work readiness standards and benchmarks.11 Work readiness standards, as determined by the level of foundational skills profiled for a nationally representative sample of jobs in a given occupation, could serve as precise descriptions of the essential skills and knowledge that individuals need to become ready for an occupation. Likewise, work readiness benchmarksshould be defined by scores on work readiness assessments which would represent the level of skill achievement required for individuals to have a high probability of success in a job.