“The basic knowledge and skills that we all need to help us read the 21st-century work environment.” – CareerVision
“Providing students with the capacity to make informed decisions about choosing a career and deciding the best course of action to reach their goals.” – Blake (2015) via Career Convergence
“The career management skills needed by individuals to respond and adapt to change and to create, construct, design and identify paid employment opportunities, life and learning experiences that will enable them to create satisfying lives.” – Career Industry Council of Australia
Career literacy is a term that is being increasingly used in the career development space, but what does it actually mean? The above definitions suggest slightly different interpretations, but appear to share core ideas around developing knowledge about the employment landscape as it relates to an individual’s career planning.
For all that is available on this topic, there is clearly much room for dialogue and research to advance the concept of career literacy in the career development field. The following resources serve as an introduction to this topic. They may raise ideas and questions to inform discussion on the meaning of career literacy and how to put this concept into practice to support individuals’ career development.
Articles
Career Development for All: Take Stock and Plan Your Next Steps (National Center for College and Career Transitions)
This article states that starting career development in the early grades – and continuing it through to the end of high school – would embed career literacy in the next generation. A graphic presents a model of K-12 career development, starting with career awareness in elementary school, moving to career exploration in middle school and then career immersion and preparation in high school.
Career literacy empowers students to be active agents in their future planning (CareerWise)
Career coach Hoda Kilani (Right Career Fit) writes that activities such as creating career visions, generating career goals and building education-career portfolios will help students develop knowledge in line with the principles of career literacy. Kilani outlines a reflective career literacy exercise and issues a call to action to help students be active agents in their career planning.
Career readiness & literacy with CTE (ASVAB Career Exploration Program)
This article on career and technical education (CTE) defines career readiness and career literacy, stating that these are the overarching terms for students’ levels of preparedness in entering the workforce. Among the distinguishing features: career readiness is about skills, whereas career literacy “means that students know about all their career options and their options to gain career field entry.”
Helping At-Risk Youth by Emphasizing Career Literacy (Career Convergence)
This article presents the argument that high schools need to provide career navigation and career readiness options throughout students’ high school career. Further, it states that career intervention in the early years is an especially important intervention for students who might be at risk of later not graduating high school.
Responding to Students’ Career Development Needs by Promoting Career Literacy (Career Convergence)
This article is based on the premise that career literacy interventions can help bridge the gap students experience in career guidance during the transition from high school to post-secondary. The authors offer a definition of career literacy and examine a career literacy program to promote early career planning at a Texas university.
7 Steps to help clients futureproof their careers (Careering)
In this article from the Spring-Summer 2021 issue of CERIC’s Careering magazine, Career Constructors owner Tim Ragan centres career literacy in the habitual practice of exploring and optimizing one’s career opportunities. Ragan states, “It is being continually attuned to what is working, what is not, and having an action plan to address identified deficiencies and opportunities.”
Academic papers
Note that some, though not all, of these academic articles require an institutional log-in or payment for access. These are included to contribute an understanding of the scope of some of the existing research on career literacy.
Coherent Career Practice (Journal of Employment Counseling)
This 2011 paper by Kris Magnusson and Dave Redekopp presents coherent career practice as an integrated system with four core elements: career literacy, career gumption, career context and career integrity. They suggest that client challenges may be rooted in a “blockage” in one of the elements, which counsellors can identify to introduce appropriate interventions.
Developing the Key Constructs of Career Literacy: A Delphi Study (Journal of Research in Technical Careers)
This study aimed to understand the knowledge and skills needed for career literacy, as well as the optimal amount of time a student needs to acquire these skills. The authors suggested that students need 50 skills needs to be able to read, understand and make decisions on career-related information.
Engaging Youth in Their Careers (Canadian Journal of Career Development)
This paper describes the steps in designing a career literacy project where students are active agents in their career planning. It aims to inculcate career management as a staying power strategy and to foster a commitment to vocational awareness and proactive career management for life.
How the internet changed career: framing the relationship between career development and online technologies (NICEC Journal)
This 2012 paper by U.K. researcher Tristram Hooley examines the concept of digital career literacy, described as “the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are employed to pursue a career and make use of the online environment.” Hooley presents the “Seven C’s of digital career literacy”: changing, collecting, critiquing, connecting, communicating, creating and curating.
In a 2018 response to this paper in NICEC Journal, Tom Staunton offers “A critical response to Hooley’s Seven Cs of digital literacy.”
Pilot Testing a Digital Career Literacy Training for Vocational Rehabilitation Professionals (Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin)
This research project tested five training webinars with vocational rehabilitation professionals in several U.S. states with the aim of bridging the knowledge gap of VR staff to help clients with digital career literacy tasks. Results showed that professionals in the intervention group reported higher LinkedIn use but did not reveal significant changes in use of other online tools.
Preparing students for diverse careers: developing career literacy with final-year writing students (Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice)
This paper shares findings from a study on identity and career literacy that engaged final-year students in developing an ePortfolio and undertaking open blogging during their industry internships. Findings suggest that undertaking these activities alongside the internship was an effective strategy for developing the career literacy needed for the transition to graduation.
Other
Career Literacy Resources (DeBruce Foundation)
This page includes links to several pages including Agilities.org – a hub for free career literacy resources – and the Agile Work Profiler, an assessment with a ranked list of one’s top skills and interests as they relate to the workforce.
Hoda’s Career Info: Career Coaching Is A Partnership [Video]
In this video, career professional Hoda Kilani interviews Maureen McCann of ProMotion Career Solutions, discussing the definition of career literacy and the role it can play in an individual’s career development. The interview is part of a series in which Kilani speaks to people connected to the career development field about the work they do.
Improving the Career Literacy of Australian Students (Career Industry Council of Australia) [Report]
While this analysis is grounded in an evaluation of Australia’s approach to career development, its discussion of career literacy is relevant across other contexts. It reflects on career literacy as the process of developing career management skills. It also identifies the 11 competencies that are part of the Australian Blueprint for career development.
Making sense of 21st-century learning (TEDx) [Video]
In this 2014 presentation, Kris Magnusson defines career literacy as being able to acquire and make sense of the information available to an individual so that they can make choices that will benefit them in the future. He also talks about the role of hope in developing literacy skills.
Additional reading:
- Connecting educators to industry to improve youth career literacy (CareerWise)
- Cultivating Career Literacy: Facilitating the Most Important Research Project Your Students Will Ever Face [Conference presentation slides]
- How to Increase Your Career Literacy (FlexJobs)
- Racing Rats, Independent Cows, and Robots: Is Teaching Career Literacy in Early Grades Effective? (MindSpark)
- Reimagining “Career” and the New Curriculum [Conference presentation slides]
- What is Career Literacy™? (CareerVision)
