EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 21 (name icon Book open 4)

October 30, 2024

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers

As we enter the new school year, many parents are focused on preparing their children for success. But if your child starts online school this fall, the preparations look a bit different.

There’s no need to worry about new wardrobes or bus schedules. Instead, it’s all about setting the stage for a successful start to the school year from home.

What are the key steps for online learning success? How can we create an ideal home learning environment?  And how do we balance academics with developing critical skills for the future?

In this episode, Laura Massey, the student career coaching manager at K12, joins Kevin to share her insights on creating effective study spaces, managing time in a virtual classroom, and helping our children develop the skills they need in this digital age.

Listen on: Apple PodcastSpotify

Follow us on:

Icon FB Icon INS Icon Twitter Icon YTB

Meet Laura

Laura Massey is the Student Career Coaching Manager at K12. With 13 years of experience in career coaching and high school education, Laura is an expert in guiding students through the world of online learning and preparing them for what’s ahead.

Laura Massey: We hear it time and time again. The Gallup poll recently unveiled that about 92 percent of employers view these durable skills as important or even more so important than the technical and the hard skills.

Kevin P. Chavous: As we enter the new school year, many parents are focused on preparing their children for success. But if your child is starting online school this fall, the preparations look a bit different. There’s no need to worry about new wardrobes or bus schedules. Instead, it’s all about setting the stage for a successful start to the school year from home.

Laura Massey: This is a generation I’m observing that very much so likes a customized experience for themselves. So they don’t want to necessarily just do what their parents did. They don’t necessarily just want to do what their parents’ best friend is doing. They want to do something for themselves that makes sense and is right for them.

Kevin P. Chavous: What are the key steps for online learning success? How can we create an ideal home learning environment? And how do we balance academics with the development of critical skills for the future? Today I’m joined by Laura Massey, the student career coaching manager at K12. With 13 years of experience in career coaching and high school education, Laura is an expert in guiding students through the world of online learning and preparing them for what’s ahead. She’s here to share her insights on creating effective study spaces, managing time in a virtual classroom, and helping our children develop the skills they need in this digital age. Laura, welcome to the show. Laura Massey, once again, welcome to the show.

Kevin P. Chavous: Laura Massey, once again, welcome to the show.

Laura Massey: Hello, Kevin. Thank you so much for having me here. I am so excited. Grateful for the invitation.

Kevin P. Chavous: I’m excited too. I mean, you do good work. You’ve had a diverse career in education. But I have to ask the ultimate question, why education? Why did you decide to embark on that path of participating in the education of our young?

Laura Massey: What was interesting is when I was in high school, I was a determined individual. I discovered that I really loved delivering information, telling people’s stories, reporting that out. I really just loved doing it and I found myself to be good at it. So that’s the path that I took and I got my communications degree and I had wonderful and amazing internships and I worked at local affiliates.

I was working actually for the American Cancer Society and there was, I worked in a college town and so working their Relay for Life event. I loved working with those students. I loved growing them and then it made me really take pause like, why do I love it so much? And then I took kind of inventory, Kevin, and I was like, wait, I gravitate in every other job working with interns working with new hires, working with like those new younger people coming into the organization. So it was interesting because a friend actually brought to my attention around that time, you know, there’s a marketing position at the local high school and Kevin, I was floored. And then there came to be an opportunity for a career specialist that we had at our high school again, wait a second, a career coach, a career specialist, the high school level, like that’s higher education speak, right, Kevin? And I mean, I know it sounds crazy to some people. I love working with teenagers. This age group just really, they’re so multiple. They want to know they want to grow.

And they’re just sponges that are ready to take that next step for their lives. And they’re emerging adults. And just, I love it. I know that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Like you’re saying, you know, going into education.

Kevin P. Chavous: Well, you know, you are now the student career coaching manager at K12. And obviously K12 is online educator. Talk about the different challenges and opportunities doing what you do in an online education environment.

Laura Massey: Absolutely. Well, Kevin, it might not be surprising that, you know, blame it on the day job. I love to take an opportunity for, to give students advice. That not only helps them now in the here and now how to be a successful online student, right? How to navigate online school successfully, but develop those skills that will also help them once they get into the workforce. So honestly, the advice and the counsel that I’m giving students and parents honestly are anchored in those, what used to be called soft skills, but now we’re calling them more durable skills, professionalism skills.
And those are really the foundation of what we’re really guiding them to. So we really talked to them about, first off, how to set that goal for your school year, how to set that intention and be grounded in that. That’s metacognition, durable skill, right? How to get involved in the classroom, outside of the classroom, especially in an online environment.

Those are kind of unique ways that students have to navigate that. That’s a fortitude skill talking about how to organize themselves, how to organize their time. Also to making sure that they are making sure time management. That’s a big thing with online school, right? They’re not necessarily in the building from 8:30 to 4:30 a day, right? They’re in and out of online classrooms. So how are you managing that time? Well, and again, these are all the skills that employers are wanting to see as much as their teacher, right? And we hear it time and time again, you know, the Gallup poll recently unveiled that about 92 percent of employers view these durable skills as important or even more so important than the technical and the hard skills.

I’ve had employers straight up tell me, Laura, I can teach a kid how to do this job. I can’t do that. I can’t teach them how to communicate. I can’t teach them how to have teamwork. So when we can really draw that line for those students that here’s how to be successful in an online school environment, it will then also translate to their future success and

Kevin P. Chavous: then their confidence grows.

The number one concern that parents express when it comes to online education and it somewhat relates to your conversation with employers where they want to make sure that these durable skills are in place that kids know how to, you know, collaborate and, you know, respond to challenges and, and look, look the person in the eye and chat with them.

The whole idea of socialization, because, you know, many people feel that understandably that if you’re in an online environment and you aren’t managing your time, it can be an isolated experience without a dedicated effort to build a community around that learning experience. So talk about the socialization challenge, especially when you’re working with young people to think about a career which by definition means you’re going to be engaging with others.

Laura Massey: Absolutely. And that’s a fantastic question, Kevin, because that is a hundred percent. We hear it time and time again. And again, working with an older population, I will say that that gives me a different perspective, right? I’m working with more high school, even, you know, there’s a growing population of middle schoolers. School students interested in career development. So I’m even starting to engage more that Gen Alpha crowd. But this is where I think that there’s kind of a twofold approach to it is the way that I kind of see it. Number one, this is the opportunity because again, you’re not confined to that 8:30 to 4:30.

Finding ways of creative ways of how do you then engage with your community? How do you find opportunities to explore what is out there? That’s why we work a lot within the career and college prep programming with career training, with work based learning. So that is giving them a layer of socialization and connection to potentially what they want to do and explore.

And we’re seeing that number is growing year over year. We’re seeing more and more students participating in internships, jobs, job shadowing. So that’s a real way to get them engaged and honing that skill, though. That’s kind of outside of the classroom, right, Kevin? So now let’s pivot it into, okay, what is it like inside of the classroom?

And I will say that one thing that really stands out for me, and we’re seeing this more and more, and I’m hearing this from educators. I’m seeing it on my own and even in virtual work or internship environments. There is definitely a noticeable hesitation of a lot of our students to turn on their cameras, unmute themselves.

And that’s just baseline engagement, Kevin, you know what I mean? They are operating a lot in the chat, which is great. And that is one layer of it. But how do you really, again, hone those skills in a much more dynamic way when you’re on cam, when you’re conversing off mic, right when unmuted rather on the mic.
And so one way that we really work with students, and honestly, a lot of what we do is really developing different tangible skills for them to build their confidence, right? And we know that there’s a lot of different variables as to why students don’t turn on their cameras. They’re not unmuting themselves in these environments, and some of them are extenuating circumstances, but sometimes, Kevin, it’s as simple as they don’t understand why it’s a big deal.
Like what’s, what does it matter? Why, why does it matter that I have my camera on or off? They don’t understand. And realize that that is a layer of connection, a layer of socialization. And again, even taking it back to, you know, employability skills, Forbes just had out an article that more than I actually want to ask you, I want you to guess this percentage.

There’s a percentage of us executives that say, if you have your camera on during virtual meetings that they view you having more of a future in the company. Okay. What percentage of us executives do you feel have that view?

Kevin P. Chavous: 75 percent 92. I knew it was a lot. And, and, and, and you know what? I don’t like the fact that you gave me a quiz question that I wasn’t prepared for.

I don’t like that at all, but anyway, I’ll let it, I’ll let it slide, but I knew it was a high percentage. And you know, because if you’re, if you’re going to use zoom meetings, you know, you, people want to see you, they want to, they want to hear you feel your engagement visually, as opposed to, you know, the old conference line where everyone’s just on a, on a, on a phone.

Laura Massey: Exactly. And Kevin, let me make you feel better. I guessed at first in the sixties. I think I was 66. I think percent is what I came up with. Thank you. So don’t feel that. You’re not, you’re not grading on a curve. No, not at all.

Kevin P. Chavous: Okay. Alright. So I was really shocked at the number. I really, really was.

Laura Massey: And like you said, it can makes complete sense. So again, framing it and making them understand why it’s a big deal or a big deal, why it’s important, right, is really, really important for these students. And then, okay, what are your hurdles? Like, why aren’t you turning on your camera? Is it because there’s something distracting going on in the background and you don’t understand how to, you know, set up a virtual background?

You know, what are kind of those arenas? And then also, too, is it just because is it just the fact that you just don’t feel comfortable with it, right? The fact that you’re seeing yourself on camera, so on and so forth. Well, there’s strategies you can hide yourself. You don’t always have to be seeing yourself.

So it’s ways like that to really develop themselves and to build up their confidence. So then once they feel comfortable turning on their camera, unmuting. Then there’s another layer of socialization and engagement that starts to happen. And that human connection can really start to happen between student and teacher, student and student.

So that’s one area that we definitely have recently started to focus on.

Kevin P. Chavous: I love what you’re saying, Laura. As a career coach of teenagers, how do you strike that balance? Between on the one hand, you know, trying to get them to understand why things are the way they are in terms of the work world. I mean, in this generation,

Laura Massey: we’ve seen Gen Z is really changing things up for us.

Kevin P. Chavous: They don’t want, and people say, we don’t want to do email.

Laura Massey: They don’t want to do email. They are. They’re taking mental health and putting it on the forefront and no longer sweeping things under the rug like other generations before them, right? They’re questioning the concept of college. So balancing in their mental health is something that is incredibly important. And that’s why we really do take a holistic approach with that. We work alongside the counseling teams very closely as well to make sure that all of the child is being developed in that way, which I think is incredibly important. And again, because it takes a lot of legs, right, to support the child.

And that’s definitely one of them. And yeah, there’s a lot of adults I think out there that are having to think about things a little bit differently, you know, not sometimes though, the students want it differently, but there is a layer of, I’m observing, and a lot of my colleagues are observing, are observing students are overwhelmed and just uncertain with what to do.

They know what they don’t want to do, or they know that they want to take a very different, an uncharted path than what people before them have taken. But then what do I do? Right? Like, how do I go about doing this? And that’s where, you know, services like what we provide with career coaching is we can help them with that.

And because I, another thing about this generation, they really like customized plans. They want something that is very unique for them. They’re still like every teenage generation, their peer influence matters, right? But this is a generation I’m observing that very much so likes a, a customized experience for themselves.

So they don’t want to necessarily just do what their parents did. They don’t necessarily just want to do what their best friend is doing. They want to do something for themselves that makes sense and is right for them. So, and I love that. I love that energy.

Kevin P. Chavous: Well, I agree. I also think, just parenthetically, let me say that I think that many of the challenges we see among this generation of students are similar to the challenges we see in adults.

And as much as, you know, comfortable conversations and having a comfortable space for those conversations can bridge a lot of gaps. And I think that’s what you’re doing is, is having those conversations and there’s a trust that emerges, which allows young people to feel comfortable expressing themselves and allows them to feel open.

Laura, one last question. We’re talking about the digital age. We’re talking about the future. This is where I really want to know, how does the online education experience help young people jumpstart into the digital age? Workplace of the future.

Laura Massey: I think there’s a couple things at play here Kevin first and foremost. I mean, we’ve got tech savvy students, I mean these students know how to do things that us as grown adults still stumble through right? and The more more technology that is being kind of infused and integrated into their educational experience Makes them that much more of a savvy employee one day, right?

It truly, really does. And also too, though, I think what, and this is taking a slightly different direction, I think what also to that online environment allows them to do is again, We have a little bit different flexibility within their schedule, so on and so forth. So these conversations that you’re talking about that can happen, I think that we’re really primed in a position to be having these conversations because we are embedding it into pieces of our curriculum.
We are taking it on, you know, the career and college prep programming. We’re growing in numbers astronomically. This environment allows them to truly think about these things and have conversations and make plans in, in ways that haven’t been done before. And so I think that they really do have, have an upper hand in that way of what they’re learning to do.

That’s just naturally embedded in their day to day. Again, even something as simple, Kevin is time management. When you have your schedule set for you. Are you really honing time management skills? Not really. You are simply following your schedule, right? But when you have to be responsible for setting that schedule for yourself and then managing it accordingly, that’s a different skill set that you’re developing.

Kevin P. Chavous: So true.

Laura Massey: Yeah, it really is.

Kevin P. Chavous: Well, Laura Massey, appreciate what you’re doing. Thank you so much for joining us on what I want to know.

About the Show

Education is undergoing a dramatic shift, creating an opportunity to transform how we serve learners of all ages. Kevin P. Chavous turns to innovators across education, workforce development, and more to ask: “How can we do better?”

Related Podcasts

Listen to more podcasts about this topic.

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 24 (name WIWTK K12.com PodcastPage Thumbnail 360x216)

Episode 164

How K12 Online School Shaped Alexa Curtis’ Entrepreneurial Success

A conversation with Alexa Curtis

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 25 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 141

How can we best support the future workforce?

A conversation with Dr. Kathleen St. Louis Caliento

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 26 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 132

Is college the right path for every student?

A conversation with Mark C. Perna

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 27 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 127

Can job training programs better prepare our students for the future?

A conversation with Chuck Goodrich

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 28 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 114

Could a skilled trade career be a better path for more students?

A conversation with Brian Hughes

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 29 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 110

How can we best prepare students for college?

A conversation with Mitch Daniels

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 30 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 67

What is the future of standardized testing for college admissions?

A conversation with David Coleman

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 31 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 66

How can we reform education to better prepare students for the future?

A conversation with Dr. Bill Daggett

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 32 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 64

What are the benefits of dual enrollment, and how can schools implement it?

A conversation with Douglas Rodriguez

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 33 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 43

How can we better prepare students for college and careers?

A conversation with John Thrasher

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 34 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 35

Can apprenticeships solve the manufacturing skills gap?

A conversation with Tony Davis

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 35 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 31

What is the future of lifelong learning?

A conversation with Steve Lee

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 36 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 11

How can we prepare students for the careers of the future?

A conversation with Stedman Graham and Jeff Selingo

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 37 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 8

How can we develop the next generation of problem solvers?

A conversation with John Hunter and Jaime Casap

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 38 (name WIWTK Thumbnail)

Episode 7

How do employers value skills vs. degrees?

A conversation with Cheryl DeSantis and Marc Morial

EP. 167: Preparing Gen Z for Online School and Future Careers image 39 (name WIWTK Thumb Ep3)

Episode 3

Does the United States economy still have room for students’ dreams?

A conversation with Heather McGowan and Karl Rectanus

Featured Resources

Discover more resources that address the topics impacting students, families, and educators today.