High School

Employability Skills

1.0 Credit

Estimated completion time is 36 weeks.

Enroll Now

Experiences

Open

Digital Badge

Experiences allow you to explore a career field you’re curious about while mastering competencies for school credit. Through experiential learning, you will learn skills and apply these skills to tasks you would complete as part of a career, rather than completing traditional assessments like essays or tests. During your experience, you’ll work with a professional in the field to support your learning. You’ll earn a badge for your accomplishments, which you can share on social media and higher education platforms, or with colleges, potential employers, peers, and/or colleagues to display your qualifications.

Here’s how experiences work:

Each competency you work on is addressed through a separate deliverable predetermined by you and your instructor.
Guided learning for each module consists of research and/or work with a professional in the field. Your instructor will coach you through this process.
Each module culminates in a final demonstration of understanding, which includes a deliverable and a discussion-based assessment with your instructor.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re curious about a career in healthcare. You decide you’d like to learn about this career area, make a professional connection, earn a badge and earn competencies. You decide to work with an Occupational Therapist who helps you apply your learning to the creation of an informational video. The video aims to advise the family members of patients regarding adaptive equipment and accommodations to help them support their family members as they go about their daily tasks. You’ve earned competency! (This is just one example of the many ways experiences can bridge competencies to careers.)

*A parent/guardian permission form and background check of the outside expert are required for students to work with outside experts without parental supervision.

**Please have an idea for an outside expert in mind prior to enrollment or consult with our counseling department by emailing [email protected] prior to enrollment for support identifying one.

Competencies

Career Pathways (Requires Onsite Experience)

Students will demonstrate an understanding of preparing for a career by explaining the job, education, and skill requirements for that career and explore the chosen career through an onsite visit.

Workplace Expectations and Regulations

Students will demonstrate an understanding of workplace expectations and regulations in a career by explaining the regulations and expectations for that career.

Communication (Requires Onsite Experience)

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the effective communication utilized in a career by explaining the skills of written, oral and nonverbal communication; the techniques of listening, providing and receiving feedback, and asking questions for that career; and discussing communication techniques through at least two interactions with an outside expert or mentor.

Interpersonal Skills

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the interpersonal skills that contribute to strong relationships by explaining the attributes of self-awareness and self-reflection and the skills of negotiation, decision-making, and understanding others point of view.

Teamwork and Collaboration (Requires Onsite Experience)

Students will demonstrate an understanding of teamwork and collaboration utilized in a career by explaining the concepts of common purpose and interdependence, the skills of flexibility and reliability for that career, and discussing teamwork and collaboration through at least two interactions with an outside expert or mentor.

Self-Direction

Students will demonstrate an understanding of self-direction by explaining the concepts of goal-setting and assessment of progress towards that goal and the skills of prioritization and time management.

Creative Problem Solving

Students will demonstrate an understanding of creative problem solving by defining a problem, assessing the alternatives, making a decision and designing a solution to address the various needs of the stakeholders.

Customer Service

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the effective customer service utilized in a career by explaining the skills of using career-field knowledge and empathy to help customers and the techniques of conflict resolution.