How can schools help students connect what they learn today with the opportunities available to them tomorrow?
In Episode 3 of Redesigning Readiness: Conversations About Career-Connected Learning, Dr. Joseph Goins chats with Dr. Katie Graham, Nebraska’s state director for Career and Technical Education (CTE), about building learning experiences that help students explore possibilities, make informed decisions, and prepare for life after high school.
Drawing on Nebraska’s statewide efforts, Graham explores a central challenge for educators: how to make career-connected learning a meaningful part of every student’s education, so young people can see how their learning relates to their futures.
Career-connected learning helps students explore what’s possible
Effective career-connected learning involves far more than introducing students to specific careers. It gives them opportunities to discover what they enjoy, learn about themselves, and see how their education can open doors.
As Goins explains during the conversation, students need many opportunities to explore. Each experience can help them learn something about the world of work or about themselves, even if it leads them away from a particular career.
The goal is to give students meaningful experiences early and often, allowing them to build awareness and understanding before making decisions about their futures.
Creating opportunities requires making them accessible
Nebraska has developed strong connections among schools, employers, postsecondary institutions, and other workforce partners. Graham describes a growing statewide focus on work-based learning, apprenticeships, dual credit, and other ways to connect education with career opportunities. At the same time, communities need flexibility to shape programs around their own students and local economies.
Even when opportunities exist, however, students may face practical barriers to participating. Transportation, scheduling, staffing, employer capacity, and rural geography can all affect access. Schools and employers also need time and coordination to make experiences possible.
As Graham explains, offering an opportunity is only one part of the equation.
“We can’t measure success simply by asking whether opportunities exist. We have to ask who’s actually accessing and completing them.”
— Dr. Katie Graham
This distinction raises important questions for educators and workforce partners: Which students are participating? Who is missing out? And what changes would help more students complete meaningful experiences?
Give students the information to choose their own paths
Graham also challenges the assumption that a four-year college degree represents the best outcome for every student. She emphasizes that while a bachelor’s degree can be an excellent choice for many students, while other students may find the right fit through community college, apprenticeships, industry credentials, military service, or direct entry into employment.
Students need accurate information about the possibilities available to them. The messages students hear from adults, including parents and educators, can shape which pathways they consider.
“It’s our responsibility to give students good information about cost, about time, about credentials, about earnings and about advancement opportunities and about further education so they can make informed choices.”
— Dr. Katie Graham
Providing that information helps students evaluate their options and make decisions that reflect their authentic goals.
Measure outcomes and build for the long term
For Graham, participation is an important part of career-connected learning, but it cannot tell the whole story. Schools and states also need to understand what happens after students participate: whether they complete programs, earn credentials, continue their education, enter employment, and move toward their goals.
That requires dependable data, clear expectations, sustained employer engagement, and coordination across education and workforce systems. It also means investing in the infrastructure that helps effective programs continue and grow, rather than treating career-connected learning as a series of disconnected initiatives.
Effective career-connected learning also takes patience. Graham emphasizes the importance of building on existing efforts and giving programs time to develop, rather than feeling pressure to create something new every year. Lasting progress, she says, depends on strengthening relationships, establishing reliable systems, and supporting approaches that work over time.
Nebraska’s experience illustrates the balance involved in statewide implementation. Shared goals and expectations can help establish consistency, while local communities need room to respond to their own circumstances.
Connect academic learning with meaningful work
Graham and Goins also discuss the divide that often separates academic instruction, technical education, and experiential learning. When schools treat these as distinct areas, students may struggle to see how classroom learning relates to their lives and futures.
Math provides one example. Goins describes how students sometimes question why they need to learn particular concepts. Career-connected applications can help educators answer that question by showing students where academic skills are used in real situations and professions.
Graham sees an opportunity to rethink how these parts of education fit together:
“If we designed education around preparing students for both continued learning and meaningful work, I think many of the artificial barriers between academic technical and experiential learning would disappear.”
— Dr. Katie Graham
Connecting academic concepts to authentic applications can help students recognize the value of what they’re learning while preparing them for a range of future opportunities.
Expanding possibilities for every student
When Goins asks what gives her hope, Graham points to a growing willingness to question the idea that there is only one definition of success after high school. She is encouraged by the curiosity and adaptability of young people, as well as the educators, employers, postsecondary institutions, and communities working together to expand their opportunities.
Students, she says, are “curious, capable, and incredibly adaptable.” Meaningful experiences beyond the classroom can help them recognize strengths and possibilities they may not have seen in themselves before.
Ultimately, she hopes students leave school with more options, stronger skills, meaningful relationships, and the confidence and resources to take their next steps.
Listen to the full episode... and more!
Hear the complete conversation between Dr. Joseph Goins and Dr. Katie Graham on Redesigning Readiness here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Explore the series: Visit the Redesigning Readiness hub for more episodes, resources, and insights on helping students connect what they’re learning today with the opportunities of tomorrow.
Want to be notified when a new episode drops? Sign up for email reminders and be the first to know when the next conversation is available.