Across K–12 systems, frameworks for building and measuring employability skills sit in very different places. Some districts still rely on graduate profiles written years ago. Others have updated criteria but struggle to tie that criteria meaningfully to daily instruction across content areas and assess student progress.
At the same time, students move through school building real strengths including communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and leadership, sometimes without realizing how those skills translate beyond the classroom. They may not fully understand what they are capable of or where they still need more practice, or how to name their competencies in ways that matter for postsecondary opportunities.
In Colorado, a partnership between Marzano Research and Generation Schools Network shows how developing microcredentials can help address both needs.
Making Employability Skills Visible
National evidence shows employers value employability skills highly but report large gaps between those skills and their perception of how well prepared graduates are.
Skills gaps identified by employers. Image source: Marzano Research’s Building a Future-Ready Workforce report (Cherasaro et al., 2025).
Angelini
Research summarized in Marzano Research’s 2025 report on employability skills underscores that these skills develop most effectively when expectations are explicit and students receive clear feedback tied to authentic tasks. However, even where updated employability skills frameworks are in place and skills are explicitly taught, students can sometimes struggle to articulate their readiness because they do not see how school-based learning connects to workforce expectations.
Developing microcredentials (or “badges”) grounded in research is helping address that disconnect by tying skills to observable evidence from academic work.
“It gives students something concrete that represents the skills they’re building,” said Gina Angelini, a Generation Schools Network area manager for community and career connected learning.
The Framework Comes First
The Colorado work did not start with microcredentials. Through the Colorado Rural Education Collaborative, participating districts worked with Marzano Research and Generation Schools Network to identify a focused set of employability skills grounded in both national research and local workforce needs. Marzano Research synthesized literature, clarified definitions, and mapped how each skill develops across grade bands.
“We didn’t want something that felt separate from teaching and learning,” said Angelini. “We wanted students to recognize these skills as part of what they were already doing.”
With the framework, teachers incorporate explicit skills-building into group projects, presentations, entrepreneurial experiences, and other career-connected learning, using rubrics to monitor student progress. View a sample teacher rubric for the Leadership competency area.
Helping Students Name What They Know
Gutierrez
Self-assessment and goal setting strengthen students’ ability to internalize employability skills and transfer them across contexts. So, the process was designed for self-assessment to play a central role in how students earn badges, giving them ownership over their own learning. They review student versions of the rubrics, reflect on evidence from their work, and submit a claim tied to specific competencies. Educators then review submissions to maintain consistency and rigor.
“Our team goes in and double-checks to make sure they actually met the score they needed to earn that microcredential,” said Audrey Gutierrez, another college and career readiness network manager at Generation Schools Network. “It’s important that the badge actually reflects what the student can do.”
Capturing Strengths Beyond Traditional Measures
Badges also help surface strengths that don’t always show up in grades alone. Applied learning environments often reveal employability skills more clearly than traditional assessments.
“It’s especially helpful for students who may not always show up as the top academic students,” Angelini said. “But when you see them working in these environments, their skills are clear.”
National research points to similar conclusions. Authentic assessment tied to real-world tasks gives more students a fair opportunity to demonstrate readiness, especially those with limited access to internships or professional networks.
Adding AI With Purpose
As Marzano Research’s employability skills research highlights, it is critical for students to have opportunities to learn responsible use of AI tools. Across industries, studies identify technology and information fluency as foundational. Employers expect individuals to be able to prompt AI effectively and apply judgement to evaluate and revise outputs.
As this microcredentials work continues, Marzano Research and Generation Schools Network are developing an AI coach to help guide students through the rubrics and prompt deeper thinking.
“The idea behind the AI coach is really to help students think through their self-assessment. We’re asking them to score themselves on the rubric, and sometimes students need help slowing down and really looking at their evidence,” explained Gutierrez.
Together with other opportunities to practice using AI, this will reinforce students’ understanding of how to use AI to supplement, not replace, human thinking.
“We want students to be able to explain how they used AI and why,” Angelini said.
“That’s part of being prepared.”
What District Leaders Can Take from This Example
For district leaders, this Colorado example highlights what becomes possible when employability skills work moves from aspiration to practice. Clear, research-based frameworks give educators and guidance counselors a shared definition of what skills look like and how to grow them. Microcredentials help students recognize and name the skills they are building through everyday learning. Purposeful self-assessment strengthens reflection, while AI tools can help support deeper thinking.
Together, these elements form a system that helps districts turn employability skills into something teachable and measurable across classrooms and pathways while helping students better understand their readiness and communicate it with confidence.
Source
Cherasaro, T., Rosario-Ramos, E., Yanoski, D., Wolfe, C., & Hymel, A. (2025). Building a future-ready workforce: Insights for employability skills framework 2.0. Marzano Research. https://s3.amazonaws.com/PCRN/docs/ESF-2.0-Employability-Skills-Analysis-and-Synthesis-Report.pdf
