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Student Support Coordinator Resources

Student Support Coordinators (SSCs) play a vital role in the adult education system to help adult learners identify and address barriers to education and employment success. The resources and tools below can help SSCs provide student-centered support and collaborate effectively with partners to improve shared outcomes.

Student Access, Orientation, and Intake

  • Coordinating Marketing, Recruitment and Intake: This resource can help programs consider how to coordinate marketing, recruitment, and intake with their workforce development system and postsecondary education partners to improve student outcomes.
  • Career Awareness Context Checklist: This checklist is designed to be used by adult education program staff to develop a comprehensive scope and sequence for the career awareness context. For planning purposes, staff can work together to determine which topics to include in their delivery of career awareness and whether topics should be delivered by a student support coordinator or embedded into instructional activities that align with the College and Career Readiness Standards.
  • Integrating Career Pathways Elements into Adult Education Programming:  This resource provides adult education agencies with fundamental information and multiple resources to infuse a career pathways approach into their programming.  The guide is intended to provide information and resources for a diverse adult education staff with varying levels of experience. 

Goal Setting (Career Awareness, Career Exploration, and Career Planning)

  • Ten Strategies to Support Retention of English Language Learners (ELLs): This worksheet lists strategies that can be used to enhance your retention of ELLs. There is space to add notes as you implement each strategy as well as space to add your own ideas. 
  • Career Information Checklists: This document includes four leveled checklists. Each level has more complex activities. Student support coordinators and teachers can use the checklists with students to track career exploration, career awareness, and workforce preparation progress.
  • How-To Guide for Using Career Pathway Maps: This guide can be used to empower students to use career pathway maps to set goals, record milestones, and track progress along a career path.
  • My Next Move:  This online, interactive tool can help job seekers and students learn more about their career options. 
  • O*NET OnLine:  This website has detailed descriptions of the world of work for use by job seekers, workforce development professionals, students, researchers, and more. 
  • Pennsylvania Career Guide: This publication can be used by all individuals who are preparing for continuing education and/or entrance into the workforce. Examples of the useful information in this guide include career outlook highlights, an interest assessment tool, tips for marketing yourself, sources of financial aid, and contact information for many commonwealth services, including PA CareerLink® locations and select state agencies.
  • Pennsylvania Center for Workforce Information and Analysis: This website provides timely, objective, and credible workforce and economic statistics and analysis to help customers make informed policy, business, and career decisions that strengthen Pennsylvania’s economic security.
  • CareerOne Stop: This website contains tools to help job seekers, students, businesses, and career professionals. 

Barrier Screening and Partnership Collaboration

  • OARS Model: Essential Communication Skills: This resource includes culturally sensitive and appropriate questions for student support coordinators to ask adults when providing one-on-one support related to assessing barriers, setting goals, and planning for transition. 
  • Student Education and Career Plan: This document can be used by students and adult education staff to track student planning and progress towards a career plan. Save this Word version and use it as a working document, editing and adding information as needed. 

    Transition (Postsecondary Education and Training, Employment, Integrated Education and Training, ESL to ABE, Reentry)

    • Supporting Language Learners with Career Planning Overview: This one-page document provides links to resources that can support English learners with meeting their educational and career goals.
    • Supporting Language Learners with Career Planning Student Document: This document provides guiding questions to help English learners develop a career plan. It has different questions for adults who are pursuing employment versus adults who are pursuing postsecondary education and training.
    • PA CareerLink®: Adult education practitioners can work with their PA CareerLink® partners to access support for adult learners who will use this website for job searching. In the PA CareerLink® job-seeker portal, job seekers can search for jobs across Pennsylvania, create and upload a resume, and make themselves available to thousands of employers. PA CareerLink® will also recommend jobs based on job-seeker preferences.
    • Financial Aid Toolkit: This is a one-stop shop designed for practitioners to access information, including financial aid tips, outreach suggestions, handout templates, and videos to promote post-secondary education and training with students.
    • National College Transition Network: This resource provides information to help to prepare adult learners to succeed in postsecondary education that leads to jobs with family-sustaining wages.
    • Education and Career Navigation Framework: This framework is a comprehensive structure designed to facilitate the identification and organization of the knowledge, skills, and other factors needed to help individuals make informed, personally relevant decisions and build actionable, achievable plans.