College and Career Readiness large

College & Career Readiness

July 6, 2023

​Workforce and education partners across the state work together to develop a college and career-ready workforce. They each have a role in ensuring their customers have the skills employers need such as:

  • Academic skills 
  • Industry-wide technical skills
  • Soft skills

The best approach for achieving this goal is to use a set of services, training, assessments, and outreach that help meet local employment needs. That is where Illinois workNet can help. Illinois workNet provides resources, tools, and assessments that partners, employers, and customers can use to help them reach their training and employment goals.

Take a look at the ways you can integrate Illinois workNet into your college and career readiness programs based on your role. For this article, partner roles are defined as:

  • Resource Room Staff – Provide assistance, but not in the sense of case management. Examples include librarians or resource room staff.
  • Instructors & Career Planners – Provide assistance with an instructor role or direct advising or counseling role, but not case management. Examples include teachers, instructors, advisors, or workshop facilitators.
  • Case Management Interaction – Provide Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) case management services.

Getting Started

First, help your customers get started with Illinois workNet using an individual or group approach. Learn about Illinois workNet using the Quick Start Guide (PDF). Then follow one of the approaches below.

  • Resource Room Interaction – Direct customers to set up an Illinois workNet account.
  • Instructors & Career Planners/Case Management Interaction – Invite them to join a Customer Support Center group.

Determine Services Needed

Next, you will need to identify areas where your customers need assistance. These areas can include updating their basic skills, updating their job skills or credentials for a new career, or simply finding a job.

Use the Service Finder to locate specialized assistance and support. Then determine how to connect customers to services using one of the approaches below.

  • Resource Room Interaction – Direct customers to the user guides and service locator. This will allow them to take a self-guided approach.
  • Instructors & Career Planners – Direct customers to the user guides and service locator, but also provide guidance. This will allow them to take a mostly self-guided approach but still have someone there to guide them.
  • Case Management Interaction – Help customers apply for WIOA intensive or training services with application information. If they are not eligible or do not want services, direct them to the user guides and service locator for a self-guided approach.

Develop a Job Search and Training Plan

Help your customers create a job search plan to explore and pinpoint marketable skills and interests. Then help them create a training plan and find a program that allows them to build their skills.

For both steps, your customers have two options. The first option is to take a self-guided, online approach with Employment 101. Read more about this approach on the Employment 101 page or the PDF flyer.

The second option is to complete individual components. These include various resources and tools that help in the process of creating a job search and training plan such as interest surveys, articles, and guides. You can find more information about these components in the Job Search Plan and Training Plan articles. You can also view printable user guides for Exploring Career Pathways in Download & Print.

During the process, follow one of the approaches below.

  • Resource Room Interaction – Provide user guides for customer self-guidance.
  • Instructors & Career Planners – View skill and interest survey results in your customer support center group and provide user guides for customer self-guidance. Also, view training program research and provide recommended next steps.
  • Case Management Interaction – Follow the same approach as Instructors & Career Planners. Also, provide workshops that incorporate Illinois workNet and advertise through the Event Calendar.

Illinois workNet provides several free assessments to partners that can be helpful during the process. You can also find printable user guides for Exploring Career Pathways and Finding a Training Program in Download & Print.

Show Qualifications

Now that your customers have created a job search and training plan, help them prepare and update their resumes and portfolios.

Start by showing your customers the Prepare Your Resume resources for tips and guidance. These include:

Then, they should use the Resume Builder in their My Dashboard to create customized resumes. They can also use the Skills Assessment area with the Builder to help identify skills and how and when they developed those skills.

Afterward, they can use the portfolio and cover letter tools in the Resume Builder to provide a complete package that can be accessed through one location.

Finally, they should update social media accounts to highlight current qualifications and show information that is appropriate for employers. See the Social Media Guide for tips and guidance.

During the process, provide feedback and guidance on marketing skills and qualifications, using one of the approaches below.

  • Resource Room Staff – Provide user guides for customer self-guidance.
  • Instructors & Career Planners – Provide user guides for customer self-guidance. Also, review your customers' saved items in the Illinois workNet Resume Builder. These are available for you to review in the customer support center group.
  • Case Management Interaction – Provide workshops that incorporate Illinois workNet tools and advertise through the Event Calendar. Provide user guides for customer self-guidance. Also, have customers send a link to their resume, portfolio, and social media pages for critique. Customers can provide a web address (URL) to the resumes and portfolios that they create in the Resume Builder.

You can find printable user guides for Exploring Career Pathways in Download & Print.

Find and Keep a Job

Finally, help customers through the process of finding job openings, interviewing, and accepting the job.

To start, your customers can use these tools and resources to locate job openings:

Next, they can take the following steps:

  • Use the Event Calendar to find job fairs and other job events.
  • Review Social Media Guides for tips on how to find job leads through social media.
  • Use the Resume Builder in their My Dashboard to customize their resume and portfolio and to create a website to pull everything together.
  • Read Employment & Hiring Planning articles for tips and guidance on job searching, applying for a job, interviewing, and troubleshooting job search progress.
  • Use the Job Search Record Worksheet to organize and track applications, follow-up activities, and interviews.
  • Practice and record interview questions and responses using the interview video and recording tools within the Resume Builder.

During the process, follow one of the approaches below.

  • Resource Room Interaction – Provide user guides for customer self-guidance.
  • Instructors & Career Planners – Provide user guides for customer self-guidance. Have students send you a link to their saved interview responses for critique. Customers can provide a web address (URL) to the interview responses that they record in the Resume Builder.
  • Case Management Interaction – Follow the same approach as Instructors & Career Planners. Also, provide workshops that incorporate Illinois workNet tools.

You can find printable user guides for Applying for a Job as well as Social Media Guides in Download & Print. ​