Career Planning for High-School Students

With an unemployment rate as high 20%, student loan default at a 40% high, and only 60% of college graduates actually using their degrees, it is time to take action. Career Management Essentials, CME, can help solve the problems of unemployment, student loan defaulting, and degree utilization after post-secondary graduation at any level of educational attainment. This is the curriculum that the US Department of Education desperately needs to implement in all high schools around the country as a mandatory course to teach transition from secondary education to the workforce.

As a security instructor for the US Department of Homeland Security, I have trained over a thousand officers at Miami International Airport in security procedures against terrorism. Also, I have a Master’s degree in Exceptional Education from Carlos Albizu University (CAU). It was during my post-graduate research that I discovered that America’s students were failing at establishing connections with employers while they were still in school and that they didn’t bother to do so until they were looking for a job after graduation. I also discovered that early connection with employers is what leads to employment, degree utilization, and financial independence.

My solution is found in a curriculum that integrates the input of economists, employers, career coaches, educators, and parents within the student career decision process. CME is built on the principles of multi-disciplinary collaboration and identifying career aptitudes within the parameters of consumer demand. The strategy teaches students how to capture the type of knowledge and work experience employers are looking for to then translate it into actions they can take, while still in school, to show employers that they already know and have done the job, even though they just graduated. When the last step of the CME strategy is reached, student qualifications (certifications, requirements, and work experience) mirror an actual opening in the job market.

In a nutshell, CME is a collaboration platform for career coaches, educators, employers, and parents to come together under a set of standard procedures, designed to increase the likelihood of desired transitional outcomes in ways that can be objectively measured and produce verifiable results.


The CME strategy is extremely simple. It consists of a series of baby steps arranged in a flow chart (CME Job Aid). Each step poses a question that the students and their parents must work on together to find the answer. These questions are designed to gain information about an employer’s specific requirements so that high school class selection, majors, and extracurricular activities can be directed at meeting those qualifications. Then, it identifies a subject matter expert or helper. These are the professionals in the best position, with regard to training and experience, to guide the student and parents through the actions they need to take to answer the question presented in the step. As the students follow the chart, they begin see how the CME creates a collaboration platform, where the multiple areas of expertise come together, for the first time, under a common goal so everyone is on the same page. This is how CME streamlines the guidance of economists, career coaches, human resource managers, school counselors, and teachers in a way that have never been done before to ensure that when the students graduate they have been trained to offer real solutions to employers.