Are College and Career Readiness the Same?
College and career readiness refers to content knowledge, skills, and habits that students must possess to be successful in post-secondary education or training that leads to a sustaining career. Being college ready and being career ready are similar, but not necessarily the same. More and more jobs require some amount of post-high school training, and, in any event, all workers are going to need to be adaptive learners throughout their careers to cope with changes to their jobs and the way they work. Some notable differences finds College ready referring to a more specific course of study for a certificate or degree and career ready being about job attainment. Additionally, many of the attitudinal characteristics necessary for success in the workplace are also needed for College or Career studies.
Every career pathway and college degree requires knowledge, skills, and abilities that are unique to that field of study. For example, nursing and computer programming courses varied substantially in their required prerequisite academic content necessary for success. Computer programming courses requires significantly more mathematics skills than nursing courses; nursing courses require significantly more scientific knowledge than computer programming courses.
Research indicates that although specific content for post-secondary success varies by field of study, institution, and certificate or degree program, both college and career share many important elements of readiness. These include skills all students need to be ready for a variety of post-secondary learning environments, such as study skills, time management skills, persistence, and ownership of learning. Additionally, students need to have a range of cognitive strategies to help them tackle complex tasks and apply content knowledge in novel and non-routine ways. The goal is for high school graduates to be both college ready and career ready, enabling them to pursue a range of opportunities.
Key College an Career Readiness Terms and Concepts
Post-secondary: Any formal setting in which an individual pursues additional instruction beyond high school. These might include two or four-year degree programs, certificate of licensure programs, apprenticeships, or military programs.
Work Ready: Individual meets basic expectations regarding workplace behavior and demeanor.
Job Ready: Individual possesses specific knowledge necessary to begin an entry-level position.
Career Ready: Individual possesses sufficient foundational knowledge, skills and general learning strategies necessary to begin studies in a career pathway.
College Ready: Individual places into and passes, without remediation, a credit-bearing entry-level general education course.
College Eligible: Individual meets the admissions requirements for a two- or four-year college or university. This typically includes meeting high school graduation requirements, completing A to G coursework, maintaining an acceptable grade point average in specified courses, and obtaining satisfactory SAT or ACT scores.