Canva partners with American Student Assistance and AMLE to support youth career readiness

Gen Z students who are navigating post-secondary pathways are always looking for support and resources to make informed decisions about their future. That’s why we’re excited to announce our partnership with American Student Assistance⁠(opens in a new tab or window) (ASA) and Association for Middle Level Education⁠(opens in a new tab or window) (AMLE). ASA’s on a mission to change the way kids learn about careers and navigate a path to postsecondary education and career success. Meanwhile, AMLE is a go-to source for middle level education, peer-reviewed research, best practice, and professional development⁠(opens in a new tab or window).

In partnership, Canva Education⁠(opens in a new tab or window), ASA, and AMLE designed a collection of high-quality middle and high school student activities, specifically with career readiness in mind. We’re excited to support educators and empower students as they develop greater self-awareness and the skills to navigate postsecondary challenges.

Check out the collection of career readiness activities⁠(opens in a new tab or window). You can also search “ASA” directly in Canva or find the collection featured in AMLE's career readiness student activity playbook⁠(opens in a new tab or window).

Exposing middle and high school students to job opportunities and skills-based training can give them an edge for the future. It’s invaluable to prepare students to make informed, confident decisions about what they want to do after high school. Research⁠(opens in a new tab or window) shows that more than 65 percent of students feel they would have benefited from more career exploration in middle or high school.

Partnering alongside ASA and AMLE, we are incredibly excited to empower classrooms with career readiness skills. Here are a few highlights from the collection to check out with your students:

Identities are complex. This “identity circle” activity helps students figure out some of the different aspects of themselves that make them who they are. It will begin to explore how certain parts of one’s identity, like our gender, culture, and interests, all come together as important aspects of who we are.

Values are like compasses that guide our actions. We often pick them up from family, friends, and the world in which we live. So we’re exploring our values through this activity by thinking first about what values have been instilled in us, and then thinking about how those can guide us in determining our own priorities.

Explore potential careers all around you. Explore career clusters, salaries, education levels, and job details to better understand what’s involved. It’s important for students to begin thinking about and exploiting different career options available to them so this activity does just that!

Another important factor in career exploration is taking a look at your personal and professional networks and identifying people in your life who can provide advice, answer questions, boost your confidence, and help you learn. This activity will help students start to think about the people in their lives who can assist in all of these roles.

Now that you’ve learned a bit more about your identity, values and interests, it’s time to evaluate your current skills and identify where you’d like to learn more.

Self care can look like different things to different people. Here are some ideas to get you started.

The Canva Education⁠(opens in a new tab or window), ASA and AMLE partnership is an exciting step toward helping the next generation navigate future careers. Together, we’re excited to provide engaging resources to help make more informed, post-secondary decisions.

Canva is an all-in-one visual communication platform. Bring your ideas to life with high-quality templates from presentations, posters, infographics, videos, digital whiteboards, newsletters, websites, marketing collateral and more. Facilitate engaging learning in the classroom and empower your students with the skills of tomorrow. Canva Education⁠(opens in a new tab or window) is available for K-12 districts, schools, teachers and students (100% free for K-12) and Canva for Campus⁠(opens in a new tab or window) is available for higher education.