Overview

  • Career Awareness & Exploration (CAE), formerly known as Career Readiness, encompasses the K-12 curriculum and experiences designed to help students see what, and who, they can be at an earlier age. Through a deeper and more purposeful self-exploration process, students will gain a better understanding of themselves and potential career opportunities while simultaneously examining 21st Century job skills.

    The CAE curriculum and experiences are tailored to connect students with high-demand careers which will align with Kalamazoo RESA Career & Technical Education (CTE) programming - strengthening the education-to-career pipeline.

    To kick off the CTE redesign process, the CAE team began implementing the innovative Career Exploration programming for sixth through eighth grades in the fall of 2020. Present day, the CAE team is working to expand their efforts and programming to all students in grades K-12.

Interactive Learning Continuum

Click here to view/download the Interactive Learning Continuum PDF.

Say Hello to Xello

  • An evolution of Career Cruising, Xello is an academic and career planning program that prepares K-12 students for success through an engaging platform that builds self-knowledge, personalized plans and critical life skills. As part of the Kalamazoo RESA Career & Technical Education rollout, Xello is now available to every K-12 student across Kalamazoo County.

    The innovative career planning program provides students with a wide range of tools and data trackers to assist them on their journey to personal understanding. From assessments to help identify learning styles, storyboards for students to build a professional talent portfolio, recognize career pathways of interest, upload videos, projects, letters of recommendation and much more, Xello has the tools students need to gain a better understanding of their interests, how they fit into career fields and eventually potential occupations.

    Benefits of Xello: 

    • Students gain career awareness, exploration and preparation all in one platform. Xello grows with students throughout their K-12 curriculum. 
    • Students can create and revise their Educational Development Plan (EDP) and Talent Portfolios easily every school year. 
    • Educators can review students’ interests, skills and abilities over the course of their K-12 curriculum to help guide them in their career readiness journey.