Shift Teaching Forward: Advancing Career Skills to Prepare Tomorrow's Workforce

A practical guide to preparing students and job candidates for the demands of the modern workplace  How can we prepare learners for an ever-changing world and job market? What are 21st century employers looking for in applicants, and how do we coach jobseekers to be ready on day one? Now is the time to rethink and expand how we prepare job seekers for the roles that will launch their careers. In Shift Teaching Forward, Kelly Cassaro gives educators the knowledge, insight, and practical advice they need to prime students for the social, emotional, and behavioral skills they need to thrive in tomorrow’s workplace.   Shift Teaching Forward showcases the ecosystem of elements that characterizes a successful job-training program. As educators, we need to focus not only on standards alignment and technical skills, but also on the soft skills that will make students stand out as job candidates. In today’s labor market, being able to do the job is just the first step. We need to prepare students to interact with others, contribute to inclusive workplaces, and become collaborators—whatever their industry or career goals. This book shows the way.  Discover why social, emotional, and behavioral skills are so critical for workplace success   Get ideas and insight for integrating soft skills into secondary, postsecondary, and vocational training programs  Develop training programs that will improve collaboration and inclusivity in your workplace  Prepare learners for the future of work by embracing the full range of job readiness skills  This book is ideal for secondary, postsecondary, and vocational educators and administrators, and it will also appeal to organizations looking to develop in-house talent. 

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 1 The Jobs Landscape Is Changing 9 Change Is the Only Constant 10 The Pandemic and Everything After 13 Understanding the Future of Work 14 Who Does the Work 16 How the Work Is Done 19             Giving Students the Advantage 25 2 The Connection between Education and Employment 27 The Bridge between Secondary Education and Employment 29 Challenges and Barriers 33 Sage on the Stage, Guide on the Side 34 Evolving Mindsets 38 The Importance of Equity in Education 39 A Sense of Belonging 42 Embedding Employability into the Curriculum 43 Guaranteed Work Experience 43 3 Two Frameworks for Understanding Social-Emotional Skills 45 SEL in the Jobs-Training Landscape 46 What Is Social and Emotional Learning? 49 Which SEL Skills Need to Be Taught? 51 The CASEL 5: Core SEL Competencies 52 Durable Skills Framework 60 What Are Durable Skills? 61 Closing Thoughts on Social and Emotional Learning 74 4 Does Teaching Social-Emotional Learning Work? 77 Emotional Intelligence and Academic Achievement 78 Links between Moral Reasoning and Academic Performance 80 School-Wide SEL Programming’s Impact on Academic Performance 81 School-Wide SEL Programming’s beyond Academic Achievement 82 Characteristics of Successful SEL Programs 83 Longevity of Impacts from SEL Interventions 86 Emotional Intelligence and Job Performance 88 The Case for SEL: A Summary 89 5 Evaluating Social-Emotional Learning Needs, Activities, and Outcomes 91 Start with the End in Mind 92 What Does Formative Evaluation Involve? 94 Eight Steps to Support the Formative Evaluation Process 94 What Does Process Evaluation Involve? 98 Exploring the Kirkpatrick Model 99 What Does End-of-Program Evaluation Involve? 102 Best Practices in Experimental Design 104 How Do We Robustly Measure SEL? 106 Ethics 109 6 Overcoming Student-Specific Employability Challenges 115 Increasing Exposure and Igniting Interest 117 Increasing Social Capital 119 Identifying and Overcoming Pressures 120 Identifying Student Strengths 122 Cultivating a Sense of Belonging 123 Challenges beyond the Educator’s Reach 125 7 Establishing Common Language for an Employability-Driven Classroom Culture 127 Common Language for Career-Focused Competencies 128 Common Language for a Culture of Learning and Teaching 131 8 Classroom Strategies to Increase Employability 143 Three Strategies for Creating a Supportive Culture 144 Role Plays and Case Studies 150 Bring In the Learning and Take Out the Learning 155 Embrace AI in Your Teaching Practice 158 Micro-Moments for Increased Career Awareness 160 9 Developing Curriculum Where Employment Comes First 169 The Employability-Focused Curriculum Design Process 170 Employment at the Center of Design 188 A Note on Design Thinking 190 Conclusion 193 There Is Power in Community 194 Start Somewhere, and Start Small 195 Everything Begins with Intention 197 Go Forward 198 Resource Guide 199 References 207 Acknowledgments 211 About the Authors 213 Index 215

About the Author :
KELLY CASSARO is Chief of Learning at Generation, a nonprofit that tackles global unemployment. She has spent twenty years in the U.S. K-12 and global workforce development spaces as a teacher, school administrator, staff developer, curriculum designer, board member and strategic leader.