Rubin Education is a platform offering flexible, digital courses for your middle school and high school students teaching employment skills in a way that 21st century students understand and enjoy. They learn to write and speak professionally, developing communication skills necessary for their college and careers. For the duration of the 12-month course, you have access to a convenient library of short videos, activities, and assessments. I found it reassuring that the videos are embedded and will not take your student to external links. You will receive an email with activation instructions. There is no timeframe within which you must begin. You decide when to begin your year. Access does not auto renew.
Rubin has gone above and beyond when it comes to making their courses accessible to a variety of learners. Text to speech, closed captions, and language translation (even with regional accents) are readily available. I can easily see a non-native English speaker using this course for employment skills.
We currently offer 2 courses from Rubin Education that can each be used as a semester worth of high school elective credit (60-75 hours). Or, you could choose to work these into a course on life skills, personal finance, consumer/business math, or other “adulting” type options. Your 1-year access includes a parent log-in and tracking for one student. Siblings could follow along, but their progress will not be mapped for credit.
Emerge is the heavier course of the two with a focus on communication. Students learn communications basics such as shaking hands and making eye contact, sending professional looking emails, and phone skills. You progress to networking skills, resume writing, and having a story to tell. Learn promotional skills like creating a big idea, building website content, and how to write for funding. Working up, your student will add leaderships skills – project management, public speaking, entrepreneurship, plus more polishing of their writing skills.
Students work at their own pace and complete the tasks at their convenience. Videos are usually about 2 minutes long and the activities will vary, depending on how much your student needs to practice. You can print the activities if you wish. Units begin and end with an assessment. You can earn digital badges and print skill certificates upon completion if that is something your student finds motivating.
Aspire is a survey of career exploration your student can dive into. Videos feature a professional working in their field talking about what their job entails, how they prepared for the career, salary, and how challenging it is. Many of the careers require two years of training or less, while others require a college degree. It’s a good mix that doesn’t exclude anyone and there are hundreds of options to peruse!
Your student will take an interest inventory and complete the RIASEC personality test. Resulting careers are under the following groups: Realistic, Investigate, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. These are tools designed to help your students recognize their interests and natural talents. Discussion questions are provided for parents. It is a lovely thing to see your high school students discover a career they feel passionate about.
While AI is on many minds these days when it comes to job skills, there are simply areas where a human is essential. Personal communication skills make you more employable. You are trading in social capital! ~Sara