This article was published by the National Association of School Principals (NASSP) in Principal Leadership Magazine

Career Readiness Courses: Big-time Game Changers

By Raymond Gerson

Principal Leadership 

September 1, 2016

Secondary school students can benefit tremendously from taking career readiness courses. These classes help students assess their skills, talents, interests, values, and personality type, and provide a solid framework for career exploration. In addition, students benefit by developing concrete employability skills, such as how to construct a good résumé, search for jobs, and engage in effective job interviews.

Unfortunately, many secondary schools do not offer these courses. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, many schools have cut school counselor positions due to budgetary constraints, and now there are fewer students receiving career guidance.  

One way to compensate for the lack of one-on-one career guidance is to provide students with career readiness courses. Career interventions, such as having students engage in activities that facilitate clarification of career goals, can positively impact their vocational development.

Career Readiness Courses in Texas Schools

In Texas, there are several State Board of Education (SBOE)-approved career readiness courses that can be offered for credit. The middle school courses—Exploring Careers and Career Portals—help students with career and self-exploration. The high school courses—Career Prep 1, Career Prep 2, and Problems and Solutions—are designed to help students develop employability skills. Another course, College Transition, is a high school course approved by the Texas SBOE that can help students with career and self-exploration and employability skills.

One way to compensate for lack of one-on-one career guidance is to provide students with career readiness courses.

Why Intrinsic Motivation Matters

In the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink reviewed more than 30 years of research comparing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The research concluded that intrinsic (or inner) motivation is generated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose. High performance and creativity come from the need to direct our own lives, to develop our abilities and talents, and to live a life of purpose and one that we feel really matters

An important question for educators to ask is, "How can we help students find a purpose that will generate intrinsic motivation and a love of learning?"

Discovering a Compelling Purpose

William Damon, a leading scholar on human development, conducted a landmark four-year study called "The Youth Purpose Project" (2003–06) about how young people are struggling to find a purpose. In Damon's interviews and surveys, only about 1 in 5 young people in the 12–22 age range were able express a clear vision of where they wanted to go, what they wanted to accomplish in life, and why. He and his researchers found that many young people lack a source of motivation due to a lack of a sense of purpose. A purpose answers these questions: Why am I in school? What do I want to achieve? Why is it important? Purpose implies a desire to make a positive difference in the world. Purpose increases intrinsic motivation and drives shorter goals. For example, "I want to make good grades and become an engineer who designs products to help people with disabilities to improve their lives."

Purpose: Putting the Horse Before the Cart

When educators place the emphasis on short-term success first and finding a purpose last, we are putting the cart before the horse. If we can help students discover a work purpose that really matters to them, they will be intrinsically motivated to succeed. According to Damon's study, a sense of calling or purpose requires awareness of one's abilities, an interest in using those abilities to serve a societal need, and an enjoyment in using one's abilities and talents. He found that young people with a strong sense of purpose had aspirations that were stimulated by two realizations:

There is something in the world that needs to be sustained or improved.

I can contribute something to this need.

It is important to give students exposure to a wide variety of problems and needs in the world so they can find a purpose that resonates with them and one where they can use their abilities.

A well-taught career readiness course can help students discover their "calling" or work purpose. This is why it is so important for students to be given an opportunity to take a career readiness course with strong career and self-exploration components.

Sidebar: Making It Work

How Principals Can Successfully Implement a Career Readiness Course

Make the course at least one semester long. The course should include self-knowledge assessments, career research and matching, employability skills, and multiple interactive activities.

Guide students in discovering a strong career purpose. Help students identify problems, needs, and areas that they are passionate about that match their skills and talents.

Provide excellent materials. Students need top-notch books and materials, and teachers need appropriate instructional resources.

Student Activity to Identify a Purpose

Employers are looking for problem solvers. Each job comes with its own unique set of problems, and problems create needs. These needs create jobs for the purpose of filling the need.

For example, illness is a problem for many people. This creates a need for many different types of medical interventions and services. Crime is a problem, so there is a need for careers that can help reduce crime.Students need exposure to and awareness of many different types of problems and societal needs. They need to understand how different careers play a role in resolving problems and filling needs.

Students should think about which problems and needs they feel deeply about. If a student had the power to fulfill a particular need, which one would it be? Which ones could utilize their talents to make a contribution that matters and brings them joy?

Career courses that offer students an opportunity for career and self exploration can help them to discover a purpose that stimulates the intrinsic motivation to succeed in school and in their careers.

Monday, August 10, 2015

ASAE Annual Meeting

Cobo Center, Detroit

Jennifer Jones, CAE, Director of Communications, MDG (@mdgsocial)

Jennifer Johnson (@JenJohnsonCAE), CAE, Director of Strategy, MDG

Dennis Sadler, Deputy Executive Director of Operations, National Association of Secondary School Principals (@NASSP)

  Feeling old? So did the 100-year old National Association of Secondary School Principals. In response it partnered with a marketing and communications firm resulting in a a new brand,  website, communications strategy, membership structure, and ultimately a new culture that breathed new life into its membership. Learn from their wisdom to discover a new model for association staffing that increases efficiencies, produces changes, and allows organizations to focus on their core competencies.

  Executive Director JoAnn Bartoletti came into the National Association of Secondary School Principals in 2011 and set to work to implement the results of a comprehensive management study that identified vital improvements to be made in the 25,000-member organization. But after developing a strategy plan, they determined that the organization lacked the internal resources to implement the recommendations.

The solution? Partner with another company that does. Enter MDG (Marketing Design Group), a talented, nearly 40 year-old marketing agency that was surprisingly unknown until its acquisition by current President Denise Paccione, and Vinnie Polito, Founder and Managing Director of Westport, CT event-management firm VP International.

With this new blood, the firm expanded its prominence in the event-management industry.  A logical next step was increased exposure among associations, so it expanded from San Diego to add a Washington, DC office. Then on July 1, 2014, MDG inked its unique arrangement with NASSP as its new, embedded marketing department, adding a Reston, VA office (the association’s newly renovated basement with its separate entrance) to MDG’s letterhead.

This involved a substantial culture change–some would say culture shock–at NASSP. Bringing the entire resources of a full marketing agency into the building increased inhouse resources and experience substantially. Plus, there was not nearly the learning curves associated with hiring multiple vendors on a project-by-project basis – with each passing day, MDG and NASSP got to know better how they worked best.

But to pay for all of this, there was a reduction in force that only three original marketing employees avoided. MDG then had to recreate behind-the-scenes processes, considered just as important as creative. (In fact, the thought and streamlining put into these processes yielded new efficiencies that helped offset newly requested projects not originally anticipated.)

Plus, NASSP’s new marketing department had to show it operated from clearly defined priorities from JoAnn Bartoletti. It wasn’t a production shop simply processing intake forms and responding to requests, but a marketing partner to each department. To realize this, it had to communicate with all of its internal customers at least as easily as its predecessor had.

MDG therefore initiated “lots of meetings” and worked for buy in so that the association staff truly understood the two-way street. MDG held kick-offs with each NASSP department and assigned strategists to work as Points of Contact (POCs) with Membership, Advocacy, Events and the Executive Office. These POCs began attending intra-departmental meetings, suggesting marketing services and leveraging the agency’s experience to deliver on everything promised. Plus more.

With this ease of access and MDG’s interest in proving itself, inevitably, POCs were asked to provide services not necessarily itemized in the initial scope of work. Further, as with any reduction in force, it became apparent that important aspects of the association were no longer owned by anyone.

This was probably the most risky point of the arrangement: if POCs over-promised beyond the capability of the new downstairs marketing office to produce, their internal customers would see the delays and mistakes the two organizations had worked so hard to prevent. Or if MDG’s efforts to avoid that outcome caused them to pull back on the reins too soon, NASSP might feel communication and responsiveness were hindered by red tape.

But MDG had a smart resolution to this dilemma: instead of fearing “scope-creep,” it was anticipated. POCs were given leeway to “over-deliver” during the initial period until it was clear that the working relationship between marketing and its internal customers was better than ever. After a few months, senior leadership on both sides met to revisit the scope of work, using the data of what each department had requested in the interim.

NASSP and MDG were thus able to reprioritize and adjust the scope based on goals and cost-effectiveness, adding some items in under a helpful “special projects” clause while postponing others. As Jennifer Jones said, “both teams understood the importance of not making the new department into a catch-all for every possible project and recreating the same circumstances that had hindered its predecessor.”

The results of the new arrangement speak for themselves:

Rebranding (logo refresh, new color palette, look and feel, messaging guidelines, new tested control package for much less cost and a tripled response rate)

Identification of messages that resonate with members

New materials that convey each proven message

Improved lead generation by active cultivation, plus the centralization of virtually unknown spreadsheets once quietly stored away on individual workstations

Increased member touch points

Expanded renewal season from 3 months out to 5 months out with 5 emails and 2 print mailings, plus expanded outreach efforts well beyond renewal date. (As Jennifer Johnson puts it, “I will never stop asking a member to renew.”)

Launched this past Spring the successful “Same Legacy. New Benefits.” campaign to revitalize the National Honor Society that had stagnated–along with a dues increase to pay for the effort.

Transformed annual conference, Ignite, into a must-attend event with a 26% increase in registrants.

Improved PR and social media by improving response time and developing strategy to guide the direction of the online presence previously established.

Conducted a Communications Audit using surveys, focus groups, influencer breakfasts with cross-tabs to review current communications vehicles, delivery methods and frequency.

Developed and implemented Communications Audit recommendations: Principal Leadership was rebranded and updated with new columns, length, format and size. Leadership for Student Activities was renamed to Advise and reduced from 9 to 6 issues per year, saving money and making the publications more relevant. The main website, NASSP.org, is undergoing a major redesign to make it more user-centric and mobile-friendly. The print news publication is being phased out in favor of more emailed news that arrives faster. A new blog has been added, School of Thought, under which the two preexisting legacy blogs now reside as sub-blogs.

  These project wins mean that the culture shift has, itself, been a success. NASSP’s marketing is now smarter, more focused on strategic priorities and purposeful about what could be. Employees of both organizations were encouraged not to look at this partnership as a cost-savings, but as an investment, with the understanding the marketing dollars left over at the end of each year, a once-common occurrence, represented missed opportunities. This purposeful change has opened the door for new opportunities, like revamping its National Honor Society site and celebrating NASSP’s upcoming 100th anniversary–while feeling faster, more agile and healthier than ever.

[Disclaimer: For the past 16 years, NSI Partners has been NASSP’s search-marketing vendor and so has worked with NASSP under both models.]