Advising for Digitally Enabled Careers
Awarded to Salyer, Chad on January 25, 2026 by Shared Lane.
Learners investigate pathways to digitally enabled careers and develop activities to advise their students.
Criteria
Key Method
Learners navigate information about pathways to digitally enabled careers by working through a toolkit of resources and designing learning activities for their students.
Method Components
Overview
What is a digitally enabled career?
Today, every business depends on technology and skilled workers. Digital skills are needed for over 80% of "middle skill" jobs that yield family-sustaining wages and have a career trajectory. Whatever path your students want to pursue, digital skills can help launch and grow their careers.
Navigating a Career Path. A Digital Careers Toolkit provides an orientation to digitally enabled careers in business, and the skills needed to enter in-demand jobs. There is current information about labor market data, skills and certifications, and postsecondary training options that are alternative routes to college. Learners consider strategies to advise students and families about how to weigh their options and receive tools that can guide their students toward making a postsecondary career plan.
Career Deep Dive. The Toolkit includes resources about several high-demand career paths — cybersecurity, data analytics, project management and UX design. For each career, users learn and practice relevant technical skills aligned to the work. These challenging technical activities are designed to give the learner an experience of what a job entails, so that they can reflect on whether this is an occupation they wish to pursue.
Learners work through the Toolkit resources with an eye toward adapting them for advising their students about digitally enabled careers.
Suggested Learning and Implementation Plan
- Learners sign in to a free Digital Careers Toolkit (found in the Resources section below) and work through several activities.
- Get oriented to digitally enabled careers and the skills required. Learners read information and research through the links provided.
- Understand multiple education and training pathways. Learners research training organizations that are linked, and do further research about training programs and colleges in their geographic area.
- Download the postsecondary planning templates provided in the Toolkit. Learners can adapt the templates provided, including a free digital tool called Padlet.
- Learners explore digitally enabled jobs and career paths:
- Learners select between one and four examples of digitally enabled careers to explore: Cybersecurity, Data Analysis, Digital Project Management, and UX Design. For each selected path, learners work through the Toolkit activities that include technical training on the free linked sites, watching videos and reading vignettes from people who work in the field, and interpreting relevant career pathway data.
- Learn to perform aligned entry level tasks by participating in free online workshops, taking online courses, or attempting provided activities. Learners can choose how much time they want to spend on these technical tasks, typically between 30 minutes and 3 hours.
- Learners reflect on which of these activities would be useful to your students to prepare for these careers.
- Optional: Learners review some of the Supplemental Resources provided to augment their learning about digitally enabled careers. These free resources include additional videos, sites with career navigation information, and more complex online courses.
- Learners apply knowledge:
- Learners consider their local and current job outlook for any of the careers selected in 2.1 above.
- Learners research additional training options available in their geographic area, including technical colleges and bootcamps.
- Learners develop activities to advise their students and families. These activities can be lesson plans, slide decks, newsletters or any resource that is customized for their students to explore these careers and consider their postsecondary options. Learners may adapt any of the activities from the Toolkit.
Assessment Details
To earn the micro-credential, learners must receive a passing evaluation for Parts 1 and 3, and a “Yes” for Part 2.
Assessment
Overview
Explain the context in which you work. Who are your students? What is the current state of career readiness planning in your school/district? Why are digitally enabled careers important in your community?
Reflection
What was most valuable about the process of developing the resources you uploaded in Part 2? What do you see as the most challenging aspect of implementing your artifacts? What are the implications for your school’s/district’s practice in other areas of career readiness?
If you already used the artifact you developed with your stakeholders, you may reflect on the outcomes.
Work Example
To earn this micro-credential, submit the following 3 artifacts:
- Artifact 1: Resource for a Student Group
Create a student-facing resource for a group of students with whom you work. Your artifact should center the content or learning goal specifically around the audience you wish to engage. Along with the resource, write 2–3 sentences to describe your audience and explain your choice of medium.- Examples of a group/subgroup you may want to engage: high school seniors, 9th graders, alumni who are out of school/out of work, young women, students who are learning English as a new language, etc. The resource will enable these students to learn about any aspect of digitally enabled career pathways.
Work Example
Artifact 2: Resource for an Individual Student
Personalize a resource for an individual student whom you know well. Your artifact should center the content/learning goal specifically around this student’s needs. Upload the document and write 2–3 sentences to describe your audience and explain your choice of medium.
- Examples of students you may wish to engage: a student with disabilities, a student who is a recent immigrant, a student who has experienced interrupted formal education, a student who is a long-term absentee, etc. The resource will enable this student to learn about any aspect of digitally enabled career pathways.
Work Example
Artifact 3: Resource for Families
Develop a resource specifically designed for the families of the students you work with, especially those family members who may be unfamiliar with digitally enabled careers. The resource will enable these adults to learn about any aspect of digitally enabled career pathways. Upload the document and write 2–3 sentences to describe your audience and explain your choice of medium.
Achievement Type
- Achievement
Tags
- Career Awareness
Supporting Information
Supporting Research and Rationale
- Fuller, J., Lipson, R., Encinas, J., et al. (2021). Working to learn: Despite a growing set of innovators, America struggles to connect education and career. Published by the Project on Workforce at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Business School Managing the Future of Work Project.
https://www.hbs.edu/managing-the-future-of-work/Documents/Working-to-Learn.pdf
This study examines the connection between education and employment, and calls for closer alignment between postsecondary institutions — colleges and training programs — and employer needs. The research is based on analysis of the programs currently offered by postsecondary training organizations. - Carnevale, A. P., Cheah, B., Wenzinger, E. (2021). The college payoff: More education doesn’t always mean more earnings. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/collegepayoff2021/
This study explores how life-time earnings vary by factors such as education level, occupation, gender, race and ethnicity. It makes a connection that variations in earnings are not always related to education levels, and argues for better guidance on the economic outcomes of college and career pathways. The research is based on analysis of national workforce earnings data. - Equitable Futures Project. Striving to thriving: Occupational identity formation among Black and Hispanic young people and young people from households with lower incomes. The Equitable Futures Initiative, 2020.
https://www.equitablefutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Striving-to-Thriving-Full-Report-October-2020.pdf
This project seeks to understand how young people’s identities, values, emotions, and lived experiences support or interfere with their education and work success. The research is based on focused discussions with young people across the country about their perceptions of education and work. - Carnegie Corporation of New York. Family voices: Building pathways from learning to meaningful work. Gallup Inc, 2021.
https://www.carnegie.org/publications/family-voices-building-pathways-learning-meaningful-work/
This study polls families about their aspirations for their high school graduates. It finds that nearly two-thirds of families say they face barriers due to financial resources and lack of information about careers and education pathways. The research draws on a national, random, web-based survey conducted by Gallup Inc. - ExcelinEd. Pathways matter to families: What parents and young adults believe and want to know about education-to-workforce pathways. 2021.
https://excelined.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ExcelinEd.PathwaysMatterToFamilies.Findin_xIVK.pdf
This research finds that students, parents and families want a better understanding of career pathway options. The report offers solutions for schools and districts. Based on web surveys of participants. - Hacker, I., Briggs, A. (2021). Overlooked and under connected: Exploring disparities in digital skill levels by race among older youth in the US. Urban Institute.
https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/103460/overlooked-and-underconnected-exploring-disparities-in-digital-skill-levels-by-race-among-older-youth-in-the-us.pdf
While digital skills are critically important for labor market success, this study finds that digital skills gaps disproportionately impact Black and Latino youth. The research is based on students taking online digital assessments. - Lund S., Madgavkar A., et al. (2021). The future of work after Covid. McKinsey Global Institute.
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19
This is an expansive sweep across industries and countries, documenting changes in the workplace since the global pandemic. The research underscores the digitalization of work and the need for workers at all levels to possess digitally enabled skills. Data is based on national statistical agencies. - Dawson, N., Martin, A., Sigelman, M., Levanon, G., Blochinger, S., Thornton, J., & Chen, J. (2022, December). How Skills Are Disrupting Work: The Transformational Power of Fast Growing, In-Demand Skills. In Business-Higher Education Forum. Business-Higher Education Forum. 2025 M Street NW Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6197797102be715f55c0e0a1/t/6388b6daaae0b3075d6c7658/1669904091972/SkillsDisruption_Final_2022.pdf
Burning Glass Institute released a "State of Skills" report in December 2022 that supplements and acknowledges the digital skills that are encouraged for advisement in the micro-credential.
Resources
Digital Careers Toolkit
Learners will sign up at https://toolkit.sharedlane.co to access a free Digital Careers Toolkit. This is a digital resource that can be accessed on any computer or mobile device. The Toolkit contains multiple pages, with links to resources and tools. It is designed for users to browse over multiple sessions. The Toolkit resources and activities are youth-facing and educators will filter the activities for their students. The Toolkit includes planning templates for educators to share with students.
Learners navigate the following components of the Toolkit:
- Career Explorations
- Try hands-on-keyboard technical tasks aligned to various entry-level jobs.
- Watch videos and read bios of professionals who work in the field.
- Interpret infographics, such as career pathway maps, company Tables of Organization, labor market data.
- Analyze job descriptions for entry-level roles.
- Advisement strategies
- Prompt students to articulate career goals aligned to their interests.
- Understand the skills needed to pursue digitally enabled careers, and identify students who could be encouraged to consider these paths.
- Weigh the Return on Investment of postsecondary training paths.
- Adapt templates that guide students to make a postsecondary plan.
Supplementary Resources
Learners can supplement the Toolkit with the following resources. Note that these are all free but require sign-in.
- My Next Move
https://www.mynextmove.org/
On this site, users browse information about careers, skills and filter their local job outlook. The site provides accessible links to Bureau of Labor statistics and the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Alternatively, learners may go directly to the source: https://www.bls.gov/ooh. Learners can use this site to research local labor market information for the careers they researched through the Toolkit. - Roadtrip Nation
https://roadtripnation.com/edu/careerfinder
The site provides an overview of many different careers through high-quality videos, biographies and other materials that speak to the career journeys of professionals from diverse backgrounds. Learners can supplement information about the careers they researched through the Toolkit. - Spark 101
https://www.spark101.org/ - The Edge Factor
https://www.edgefactor.com/V5/pages/Welcome.aspx Learners that want additional visual information that provides a video job shadow should use these sites, which both contain videos of professionals on the job, with a science and technology emphasis. These videos can supplement information about the careers they researched through the Toolkit. Note: Spark 101 requires log-in to view short, 10-minute videos about individuals at various workplaces. They take viewers inside the work of professionals, with an emphasis on science and technology careers. Note: The Edge Factor is a fee-based library of videos showing on-the-job experiences. Schools can subscribe, but there are also some free samples. - Skillsbuild
https://skillsbuild.org/students?ref=opt
Users can register to take free courses about a range of tech careers. Sponsored by IBM. - America, U. (2022). Pathways to digital skills development for Latino workers.
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Pathways-to-digital-skills-development-for-Latino-workers.pdf
This report released in May 2022 from Aspen Institute Latinos & Society demonstrates in-demand digital skills that employers are looking for across major US markets. This research is based on analysis of job descriptions. Many of the skills map to digitally-enabled careers that are part of the advising for digital career repertoire contained in this micro-credential.