I spend my days working with high school students, so “Isn’t it too early?” or “I have plenty of time!” comes out of their mouths a lot when I bring up the idea of a future career or post-secondary option. As an agricultural education teacher, I have a great opportunity to share about our one of state’s largest industries, but agriculture is not for everyone. Traveling with students allows me to showcase our state from east to west and north to south, but I’m still always looking for ways to expose them to new ideas. As a young teacher, HirePaths has helped me with this task!

We hope you’ve heard of Xello, the online learning tool used in more than 250 school districts across Kansas. (Whether you’re just learning about Xello or already have an account, you’re in the right place!) 

Xello is an interactive platform enabling K-12 students to discover their strengths, reflect on their skills, explore different career pathways and begin planning for their futures. Older students can also track their graduation progress, create a plan for their secondary education and learn how to best achieve their goals. 

Students in Kansas are gaining real-world banking experience at their schools. Student-run banks provide opportunities for high schoolers to bring their coursework to life. Plus, many leverage their experience to gain clarity about and even launch careers after school.

For some time, I’ve been thinking about how to get students involved with researching careers and sharing what they’ve learned with other young people through our various HirePaths media platforms. This spring and summer, we’re jumping with both feet into two new opportunities for Kansas kids to learn a thing or two about careers and making meaningful media!

Starting in middle school, students often have an array of extracurricular activities to choose from — athletics, music, drama, robotics and much more. In the 2023-24 school year, 26,032 Kansas high school students — a record number — joined organizations designed to foster career exploration and skill development.

Those 26,000+ Kansas students are into something that could lead them to a high-demand career!

Keeping track of everything you hear about your child’s education can be as difficult as decoding their slang. (What in the world is “sigma?” And is it a good or a bad thing?) Creating a Generation Alpha Dictionary is outside our realm of expertise too, but we’re happy to help you with education-related terms.

A common mix-up is using “certificate” and “certification program” interchangeably. While they may sound similar, they describe different things.

The Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) Kansas Career Sunflower is used in school districts to encourage career exploration. The sunflower helps students discover different occupation possibilities based on interests and skills. 

With recent updates to the model, we reached out to Natalie Clark, assistant director on the Career, Standards and Assessment Services team at KSDE, to shed some light on how the Kansas Career Sunflower has evolved. 

Kansas 4-H and HirePaths are now sharing career-related content to help youth learn about high-demand jobs and skills related to Kansas careers. As part of this partnership, many activities from the Kansas 4-H’s Clover Classroom library are now available on the HirePaths Free Lesson Plans page and the Activities for Kids section of the website.

Want to explore potential careers, but aren’t sure where to start? Agilities.org is a great resource designed to help people explore how their skills align with different careers and broaden their career options. Parents and teachers can also use it to inspire young career-seekers.

What Are Agilities?

Agilities are 10 clusters of activities that capture your job-related strengths and interests.