Embedding Career Development in Everyday Teaching
Description
Across education systems globally, career development is too often positioned as an add-on, delivered through isolated programs, one off events, technology-based solutions, or specialist interventions that sit outside everyday teaching and learning. This webinar offers a practical alternative: career development as a core instructional practice, embedded directly into classroom instruction from the earliest years through secondary school.
Drawing on fieldwork across seven U.S. states with educators and students in more than 50 Career Connected Schools, this session shares evidence informed approaches that build career literacy by establishing a common career language. At the centre is the RIASEC framework, paired with dialogic methods that help learners map self and map the world of work. Integrated into core instruction, these approaches become a relevance wrap for any curriculum content, offering a low lift and low distraction way for teachers to help students connect learning to the world of work. The session will share how teachers and counsellors use these approaches across primary, middle years, and secondary classrooms, and how to support integration through a coaching cycle and gradual release.
The session also draws on research and evaluation led by Dr Cristina Santos, including work in Quakertown Community School District and the Montgomery County Career Advising Program, MoCoCAP, which includes data from tens of thousands of secondary students.
The session highlights what participants can take back and use, including methods to establish a common career language using RIASEC, practical methods for integrating career conversations into core instruction, and ways to celebrate and normalize this work across a school or system so it becomes routine.
For system leaders and policymakers, the webinar clarifies conditions for implementation, including professional learning, alignment with curriculum priorities, and shared roles across career services and teaching staff. Participants will leave with classroom examples and practical implications for scaling Career Connected Schools methods with equity and consistency.
Key learning outcomes
Explain career development as a core instructional practice, and why embedding it into everyday classroom teaching improves relevance, equity, and student engagement across schooling levels.
Apply the RIASEC framework and a shared career language to help students map self and map the world of work through integrated, dialogic classroom practices.
Identify practical strategies for implementation and scale, including coaching cycles, gradual release, and system-level conditions that support consistent, sustainable Career Connected Schools approaches.
CICA Competencies - Career development theory, Diversity and inclusion, Professional practice application, Career counselling, Working with diverse clients
A recording of the webinar will be made available to all registered attendees. If you’re unable to join the live session, you’ll receive access to the recording after the event for up to 14 days to watch at your convenience.
Lineup
Ed Hidalgo
Ed Hidalgo is a career development practitioner, trainer, and consultant with Educators Cooperative, where he supports schools and systems through the Career Connected Schools program. He focuses on embedding career development into everyday classroom instruction so it strengthens learning rather than adding competing demands. Ed has supported implementation across seven U.S. states, working with teachers, counsellors, and school leaders in more than 50 Career Connected Schools and engaging tens of thousands of students from the earliest years through secondary school. He is known for advancing the use of the RIASEC framework and dialogic methods to build career literacy, connect curriculum to the world of work, and normalise ongoing career conversations. Ed regularly collaborates with educators, families, employers, and policymakers and presents nationally and internationally on practical approaches to career development that support equity, relevance, and sustainability.
Steve Ruger
Steve Regur, Ed.D. is the founder and CEO of Educators Cooperative, where he leads initiatives that support schools and systems in strengthening teaching, learning, and student opportunity through research-informed innovation. His work focuses on helping educators move from ambitious ideas to sustainable implementation through practical strategies grounded in classroom practice. Over the past 25 years, Steve has worked with schools, districts, nonprofits, and education organizations across the United States and internationally. His work includes developing competency-based professional learning systems, providing embedded coaching for personalized learning, and strengthening professional learning networks. Steve is also the founder of the Career Connected Schools network and works with educators and partners to advance approaches that integrate career development, global competencies, and real-world learning into K–12 systems. He earned his doctorate from the USC Rossier School of Education, where his research examined the conditions districts need to support college and career readiness in a rapidly changing world.
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