What if educators invited students to co-design the career-ready learning experiences in their schools?
That question launched the Consortium’s Future Ready Leaders (FRL) program back in 2021. Over the next four years, hundreds of FRL students collaborated alongside teachers, counselors, and administrators to create meaningful, personalized learning experiences for kids K-12. The program is back for its fifth year with more than a dozen schools already committed for 25-26.
FRL applies a design lab approach to career ready planning, with students and educators working side by side throughout an ongoing design process–identifying needs, brainstorming ideas, seeking input, and testing their plans in the real world. The Consortium team supports teams by facilitating a variety of brainstorming and feedback methods, while expanding students’ understanding of career opportunities through guest speakers and site visits to businesses, post-secondary institutions, and trade unions.
FRL teams work independently throughout the school year, but meet up with district teams for interactive design sessions.
Luke, an 11th grader at Elizabeth Forward School District, shared his appreciation for the interpersonal focus of FRL: “I learned a lot about being more social and open, and to not be scared of judgement but to get my ideas out there.”
“I found peer feedback most valuable,” reflected Madison, a current 11th grader in the California Area School District. “It was amazing to see other projects and give feedback to help them with their projects. Our team also really learned from feedback that we were given. We took notes of our feedback and will be considering all of it when we do our projects again next year.”
Past FRL projects have spanned a wide variety of career ready experiences over the years, including student-centered career fairs, student shadowing opportunities, mentoring, student-taught classes, younger peer demonstrations, and even weekly career ready video content.
Bailey, a senior at Elizabeth Forward School District, emphasized the impact of including student voice in career readiness: “We have actually created something that students like and give good feedback.”
Madison is excited to return to FRL again this year. “It was amazing to see the kids engaged and eager to learn about different careers they could potentially do in the future. I can’t wait to see our project grow next year!”
This year’s program kicks off on October 23rd at the Consortium’s office in McKeesport, PA. Any schools interested in participating should contact Jenn Sethman at jsethman@tcfpe.org.
