New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards
Career Education and Consumer, Family, and Life Skills
The Vision
Rapid societal changes, including innovations in technology, information exchange, and communications, have increased the demand for internationally competitive workers and for an educational system designed to meet that demand. Today’s students will be employed through much of the twenty-first century and will, therefore, need increasingly advanced levels of knowledge and skills. To obtain and retain high-wage employment that provides job satisfaction, they will also need to continue to learn throughout their lives. The career education and consumer, family, and life skills standards identify key career development and life skills that students must accomplish in order to achieve continuing success in various life roles related to continuing education, career development, and personal growth.
Members of the business and industry communities have identified vital career and technical education skills. In 1992, the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) identified productive use of resources, interpersonal skills, information, systems, and technology as essential workplace competencies. The SCANS foundation skills include basic skills, personal qualities, and the ability to identify and solve real problems, reason effectively, and apply critical thinking skills.
To compete in this global, information-based economy, students must be able to identify and solve real problems, use appropriate tools, reason effectively, and apply critical thinking skills. The career and technical education and consumer, family, and life skills standards identify key career education and consumer, family, and life skills which can also enhance personal behavior and professional conduct in life and careers. In addition to the SCANS report, the National Career Development Guidelines and National Standards for School Counseling Programs were used as resources. Educators may find these national standards as well as the national standards documents in other areas very useful resources.
