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A Maine non-profit hired by the state to teach students soft skills to better prepare for careers believes it鈥檚 found a way to train and measure those skills 鈥� and other states are taking notice. 

Jobs for Maine Graduates, created by the Maine state legislature in 1993, has built a 鈥渃ompetency to credential鈥� system that teaches high school students 30 鈥渟oft鈥� or 鈥渄urable鈥� skills 鈥� including communication, leadership, goal-setting, and adaptability 鈥� and awards badges to students who master them.

The plan is now used in 94 high schools 鈥� about two thirds of all high schools in Maine 鈥� mostly for at-risk students. Officials now want to expand it and are announcing a separate non-profit, GenUS, Friday, to promote the program to all Maine students and other states, 麻豆精品 has learned.  

鈥淪oft鈥� or 鈥渄urable鈥� skills have drawn increasing attention with the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Experts say the skills will grow more important as more jobs become automated;聽with soft skill credentials on resumes and college applications separating students from other job candidates.

A Kansas nonprofit is already testing the program in nine Wichita-area high schools and plans to expand it to 120 high schools across that state this fall. GenUS is also discussing further expansion with education officials and non-profits in Kentucky, West Virginia and Wisconsin. 

GenUS founder Craig Larrabee said he believes the program is the first in the nation to begin teaching career skills in middle school and develop them in high school. The program also has a system for teachers to gauge whether students have mastered a skill well enough to be granted credentials they can use on applications.

鈥淚t will provide value to young people when they’re going on to higher education and or into the workforce,鈥� Larrabee said. 鈥淚t’s a dynamic approach, and potentially can keep up with some of the change that’s happening in the world around us.鈥�

The program also combines the 30 micro-credentials into eight larger credentials to show employers and colleges 鈥� digital literacy, entrepreneurial mindset, financial literacy, job and career ready, leadership development, multicultural foundations, pathway navigation and personal growth.

The hope is that colleges will also start awarding credit for the credentials, just like they do for scores on Advanced Placement tests.

Chuck Knapp, CEO of Jobs for America鈥檚 Graduates – Kansas, said his program has a similar goal as Maine鈥檚 鈥� helping at-risk students prepare for careers 鈥� but has struggled to teach or measure skills consistently from school to school. He called Maine鈥檚 training and guidance a 鈥済ame-changer鈥� he wants to bring to Kansas.

鈥淭he way this is structured and the way the rubric is structured to determine whether the students have actually attained the skills is far beyond what we’ve ever been able to do,鈥� Knapp said.

鈥淚t teaches students transferable skills that will help them regardless of the career path,鈥� Knapp said. 鈥淲hether they’re a doctor, a teacher, an engineer, it doesn’t matter. You will use these skills, and now we can actually determine that they’ve attained the skills through this program.鈥�

The program is also helping guide work by Education Design Lab, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that works to better connect students to careers, with microcredentials as a main strategy. CEO Lisa Larson, former president of Eastern Maine Community College, has served on Jobs for Maine Graduates鈥� board and believes its plan can be valuable nationally.

鈥淚t鈥檚 giving students a set of skills that employers are saying are critical and are validated鈥� that these have been demonstrated in multiple ways,鈥� she said.

The XQ Institute, a nonprofit seeking to modernize high schools, earlier this year listed developing measurements of soft skills as one of its 10 keys to adapting high school education for the future.聽

鈥淲e need to create more non-traditional learning opportunities for our young people,鈥� Larrabee said. 鈥淲e need to make sure our young people understand the world’s not about degree attainment anymore. Degree attainment is fine, but with this we’re talking about credentials and multiple pathways.鈥�

The skills that Jobs for Maine Graduates teaches are similar to those that other organizations have promoted 鈥� including the 40 academic and personal 鈥渃ompetencies鈥� XQ highlights, the 10 skills that the America Succeeds nonprofit believes businesses most want from applicants and those that the Skills For the Future partnership between the Educational Testing Service and the Carnegie Foundation are trying to create tests for that schools anywhere can use.

But Maine鈥檚 list has some significant differences, particularly inclusion of practical job search and career-building skills such as network building, personal branding and job attainment.

One of the lessons for those skills centers on GNAP, a structure for how someone should introduce themself when meeting someone new 鈥� with a Greeting, their Name, their Affiliation and their Purpose for meeting.

鈥淭hat’s something we practice in the classroom,鈥� Larrabee said, offering GNAP lessons as a model for how the program teaches and measures all skills. 鈥淭hen we bring either adults into the classroom or bring our students out (into the community), and we have them practice that simple communication effort of eye contact, appropriate handshake and being able to share with somebody with confidence who you are, what you’re, who you’re affiliated with, and what your purpose is.鈥�

Teachers observe and track how students improve and if they have mastered that practice.

Schools or non-profits can choose to take on all of Maine鈥檚 program or just part of it 鈥� just the middle school program, just the curriculum, or just training for teachers in gauging mastery in the skills. Some schools in Maine are using parts of it, in addition to the 94 that use it fully.

Larrabee said that he鈥檚 happy to have schools try out parts of the system to start learning how it works, since they can add other parts later. He hopes schools will try it, rather than go through all the work of starting their own systems from scratch.

鈥淒on’t invent something that’s already been built and tested and has all the bells and whistles and the professional development that comes along with it,鈥� he said.

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