This week: a deliberate slowing down, skills that travel, employability skills—and more.
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A Career Choices Series Newsletter
September 29, 2026 ~ Issue 26.6
FROM MINDY'S DESK
Why We Still Make Students Pick Up a Pencil
Why would a curriculum designed for today's students still include a workbook?
Because in a digital world, sometimes slowing down is the innovation.
When students are considering questions such as Who am I? What matters to me? What kind of life do I want?, speed isn't necessarily an advantage.
Our model deliberately asks students to slow down. Think. Write. Reconsider.
Technology comes later.
Students return to their handwritten work when they log in to My10YearPlan.com to refine their responses and eventually synthesize their thinking into something much bigger: a personalized education, career, and life plan.
It's not print OR digital.
It's think → rethink → refine → plan.
And at a time when artificial intelligence is rapidly expanding, giving students space to do their own thinking may matter more than ever.
RESEARCH WORTH READING
The Skills That Last
Technical skills change. Job titles change. Technology changes. Some skills, however, have staying power.
A new video from the Chronicle of Higher Education explores the growing emphasis on ‘durable skills’—human-centered abilities once commonly referred to as ‘soft skills.’ Communication, critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, and other transferable abilities are increasingly recognized as essential preparation for a workforce that’s constantly reshaped by technology.
For us, that idea sounds very familiar.
The Career Choices series has always been about preparing students for more than an initial career choice. Students learn to think critically about who they are, what they want from life, how their decisions connect to their goals, and how to build a plan that can evolve as they do.
That matters because career readiness isn’t simply knowing how to perform one job. It’s developing the skills to make decisions, solve problems, communicate effectively, adapt to change, and continue moving forward when the original plan changes.
The terminology may change, but the mission remains the same: give students the skills, self-knowledge, and agency to successfully navigate whatever comes next.
IN PRACTICE
From Durable Skills to Employability
The research is clear: students need more than academic knowledge to succeed after graduation. They need durable, transferable skills that help them communicate, adapt, problem-solve, and succeed in the workplace.
So, how do we help students actually build these skills?
In the video below, Dr. Karen Miles, Executive Director of the Get Focused Stay Focused Nonprofit, shares research supporting the GFSF program and explores the role employability skills play in preparing students for what comes after high school. Jump to 9:46 to hear her discuss how these skills fit into career readiness.
It’s an important distinction: career readiness isn’t just helping students pick a career; it’s helping them understand the skills the career requires and giving them opportunities to intentionally develop those skills.
That work begins with Career Choices, where students create a personalized 10-year career and education plan, and continues through the Get Focused…Stay Focused!® Follow-Up Modules in grades 10-12. As their plans become more focused, students identify more skills they’ll need to succeed—culminating in a Skills-Based Education Plan to help them acquire these skills.
ON THE ROAD
Where We’re Headed
Conferences will be taking us all over the map this fall. If you’re attending any of the events below, be sure to stop by, say hello, and tell us what you’ve been up to.
Jump$tart National Educators Conference
Denver, CO • Nov. 6–8
CTE Conference
Rancho Mirage, CA • Nov. 18–20
ACTE CareerTech Vision 2026
New Orleans, LA • Dec. 2–5
THIS WEEK'S TAKEAWAY
Careers change. Skills travel.
The future may be unpredictable, but you can help students build skills they’ll carry with them.
