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Career Development in a Changing World

Intentional career education can broaden students’ awareness of possible pathways and strengthen the self-understanding, career exploration, decision-making, and confidence needed to move forward with greater clarity and purpose. This work is increasingly important as green initiatives, artificial intelligence, digitalization, and other economic and technological changes reshape occupations, required competencies, and education and training pathways (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2023; Yang et al., 2023).

The Alberta Professional Learning Consortium and College of Alberta School Superintendents’ (CASS) 2025 Professional Learning Needs Assessment for career education provides an Alberta-based definition informed by the perspectives of teachers, career counsellors, school leaders, and system education leaders. Career education is described as a student-centred, lifelong process that helps learners understand themselves, explore diverse career options, and develop the skills, experiences, and plans needed for future success. It integrates self-awareness, hands-on learning, transferable skill development, and community and industry partnerships while emphasizing relevance and equity across contexts. Through this process, students are supported in making informed choices, adapting to change, and approaching future transitions with confidence, purpose, and readiness.

Career development is not a one-time decision or simply a process of matching students with occupations. It is an ongoing process shaped by students’ developing identities, interests, experiences, goals, relationships, confidence, and circumstances. Research on high school career interventions has identified promising outcomes related to career adaptability, exploration, identity, decision-making, self-efficacy, and career readiness. However, limited longitudinal evidence makes it difficult to determine whether the effects of individual interventions are sustained over time. The research therefore supports providing students with repeated opportunities to understand themselves, encounter diverse possibilities, make informed choices, and revisit their plans as they gain new knowledge and experience (CASS, 2026; Wang et al., 2024).

Provincial Direction for Career Education

Recent provincial direction reinforces connections among Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K–12) education, postsecondary pathways, and Alberta’s changing labour market. The 2025 mandate letter to the Minister of Education and Childcare emphasizes policies, programs, and curricula that prepare students for lifelong success and collaboration with the Ministry of Advanced Education. Related direction to the Minister of Advanced Education calls for increased exposure to the skilled trades for junior and high school students and continued recognition of trades and professions as valued educational and career pathways (Smith, 2025a, 2025b).

The Government of Alberta 2026–29 Strategic Plan (Government of Alberta, 2026) further identifies the importance of aligning education pathways and postsecondary capacity with current and emerging labour market demands. Although this direction extends beyond the K–12 system, it reinforces the importance of helping high school students understand how their learning and pathway decisions connect with further education, training, and evolving workforce opportunities.

The Career Education in Alberta: Career Education Task Force – Final Report (Leger Marketing Alberta Inc., 2023) provides a broader provincial framework for strengthening career education in Grades 7–12. Its 21 recommendations are organized around four themes: career education programming, resources for the delivery of career education, equitable financial resources, and collaboration among education partners. The report emphasizes broader exposure to career possibilities; access to experiential learning; effective career planning and guidance; stronger collaboration among schools, postsecondary institutions, employers, and communities; and improved evaluation of career education programming.

This provincial direction positions career education as more than preparation for a particular occupation. It supports students in understanding diverse pathways, connecting their learning with future possibilities, and developing the knowledge, competencies, experiences, and adaptability needed to navigate transitions beyond Grade 12.

Alberta Grade 12 Student Voice

The CASS (2026) research report Ready for the Future? Alberta Grade 12 Students’ Perceptions of Essential Conditions for Career Success provides current provincial evidence about how students experience career education. The province-wide study gathered responses from 5,452 Grade 12 students. Grades 10 and 11 emerged as a common period for the onset of serious career thinking, reinforcing the importance of providing timely information, guidance, and experiences before students reach the end of high school.

Students described career development as strongly relational. Family members were identified as an influence by 91% of respondents, followed by teachers (69%), friends (62%), and school counsellors or career advisors (52%). Students also identified barriers that may affect their ability to pursue future pathways, including academic demands (59%), concerns about postsecondary education costs (56%), and personal or family circumstances (51%). Their responses emphasize the value of trusted relationships, self-awareness, clear information, and authentic experiences in supporting confident and informed career decisions (CASS, 2026).

Students valued opportunities to connect career ideas with experience through work-integrated learning, postsecondary visits, career-connected courses, dual credit, off-campus education, and conversations with knowledgeable adults. Their responses suggest that information alone is not enough. Students need opportunities to explore, participate, reflect, and revise their plans as their understanding develops. The findings also draw attention to differences in access across schools and communities and the importance of respecting and supporting diverse pathways (CASS, 2026).

Effective Career Education: Equity, Coherence, and System Leadership

International research reinforces the findings of Alberta students. The OECD (2025) identifies associations between several forms of teenage career development and improved later outcomes related to employment, earnings, and career satisfaction. Relevant activities include career conversations, career talks and fairs, workplace visits, job shadowing, part-time work, volunteering, and internships or short work placements. These experiences can connect students with people in work, improve their understanding of education and training requirements, and broaden their awareness of possible futures.

No single activity is sufficient on its own. Career education is strengthened when accurate pathway and labour market information is connected with self-reflection, individualized guidance, meaningful conversations, curriculum, and authentic experiences. Partnerships with families, postsecondary institutions, employers, industry, and community organizations can extend the expertise, facilities, relationships, and opportunities available within individual schools. Alberta educators and leaders have similarly identified student career planning, industry partnerships, work-integrated learning, and current knowledge of labour market trends as priorities for strengthening career education (Alberta Professional Learning Consortium & CASS, 2025; OECD, 2025).

Access to career education is not experienced equally. OECD (2025) findings indicate that students from more advantaged social backgrounds participate more frequently in most career development activities, and social background also influences educational expectations, occupational plans, and access to supportive networks. Findings from Alberta identified additional barriers related to staffing, geographic isolation, timetabling, transportation, program availability, partnership capacity, and access to specialized expertise and facilities (Alberta Professional Learning Consortium & CASS, 2025).

The Alberta Professional Learning Consortium’s (n.d.) Career Education online resource provides complementary professional learning, planning tools, curriculum supports, and career progressions to assist educators and leaders in strengthening the design and implementation of career education. The resource reinforces the importance of building shared understanding and professional capacity alongside programming, partnerships, and student supports.

For system education leaders, coherence does not require every school to offer identical programming. It requires a shared direction, clear roles and processes, aligned resources, coordinated student supports, accessible pathway information, sustained professional learning, and intentional partnerships that respond to local strengths and constraints. Evidence related to student access, participation, experiences, pathway understanding, confidence, and transitions can help leaders identify where opportunities are strong, where barriers persist, and where programming or supports should be strengthened. Through intentional planning and continuous improvement, school authorities can broaden access to meaningful career education across schools, communities, student circumstances, and intended pathways.

References

Alberta Professional Learning Consortium. (n.d.). Career education. https://aplc.ca/curriculum-resources/career-education/the-foundation/

Alberta Professional Learning Consortium & College of Alberta School Superintendents. (2025). Professional learning needs assessment results: Executive summary— For career education. https://cass.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Career-Education-PL-Executive-Summary.pdf

College of Alberta School Superintendents. (2026). Ready for the future? Alberta Grade 12 students’ perceptions of essential conditions for career success. https://cass.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Ready-for-the-Future.pdf

Government of Alberta. (2026). Government of Alberta 2026–29 strategic plan. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/3393a7b5-07bf-4b9f-8aaf-a6d89273297b/resource/e3a600ae-3561-48bd-b91a-bbb2dcf18f43/download/budget-2026-goa-strategic-plan-2026-29.pdf

Leger Marketing Alberta Inc. (2023). Career education in Alberta: Career Education Task Force – final report. Government of Alberta. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/3c2dc71d-5922-4b18-84c3-3dedb361ec85/resource/9655a771-9dfa-4057-9ae4-29131433a9d5/download/educ-career-education-in-alberta.pdf

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2023). Building future-ready vocational education and training systems. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/28551a79-en

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2025). The state of global teenage career preparation. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/d5f8e3f2-en

Smith, D. (2025a, September 22). [Mandate letter to Minister of Advanced Education]. Government of Alberta. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/b0769b96-7a45-40b5-b57c-415ff82aca49/resource/6e4d71aa-ec6b-4b01-bf15-4d05e92dd172/download/ae-mandate-letter-advanced-education-2025.pdf

Smith, D. (2025b, September 22). [Mandate letter to Minister of Education and Childcare]. Government of Alberta. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/b0769b96-7a45-40b5-b57c-415ff82aca49/resource/80d330fe-102a-4671-83eb-9fcddd3424b6/download/ecc-mandate-letter-education-and-childcare-2025.pdf

Wang, D., Li, Y., & Wang, G. (2024). A systematic review on career interventions for high school students. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, Article 1461503. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1461503

Yang, C., Kaiser, F., Tang, H., Chen, P., & Diao, J. (2023). Sustaining the quality development of German vocational education and training in the age of digitalization: Challenges and strategies. Sustainability, 15(4), Article 3845. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043845