Kansas City, MO, May 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- It’s graduation season, and The DeBruce Foundation, a national nonprofit foundation, has a gift for members of the Class of 2024 – free career resources to help them navigate their next steps.
The Graduation Toolkit is a collection of online career tools to equip and empower high school and college graduates, and it’s available for free. In its 5th year of sharing this graduation gift, The Foundation has updated the Graduation Toolkit to include more career resources than ever before. Grads can use these online tools to:
- Identify their top work skills
- Explore in-demand job opportunities
- Understand the income they’ll need
- Update their resume to highlight their strengths
- Map out a plan for their future
“Graduates have many career decisions ahead of them and so much value to contribute to their community,” said Dr. Leigh Anne Taylor Knight, Executive Director and COO of The DeBruce Foundation. “This Toolkit is our gift to help them have confidence in their value, take tangible next steps, and shine in the next phase of their career journey.”
Amidst an ever-changing workforce, public opinion research commissioned by The DeBruce Foundation shows that 9 in 10 young people aged 16-24 are confident they will achieve their career goals, but less than half in the study had taken steps toward a career, such as taking a career test or identifying job qualifications. Young people are increasingly prioritizing salary, benefits, and stability. This age group views college as an option, but not the only pathway to reach their career. Notably, they showed great interest in understanding their own strengths and interests in relation to careers. The DeBruce Foundation’s tools help them explore their strengths and interests, connect those to jobs in the US economy, and plan out their steps to get there. The sooner young people develop career literacy, the better outcomes they have in future earnings and job stability.
Graduates from the Class of 2023 weighed in on how the Graduation Toolkit helped them last year:
- “The Graduation Toolkit gave me the resources I need to discover potential careers that I may not have even known about. It helped me recognize the skills I have and how they can positively impact my future after graduation.” - Annalia
- “The Graduation Toolkit provides a level of certainty that is essential when transitioning into adulthood.” - Anyshya
- “Using the Graduation Toolkit from The DeBruce Foundation gave me a clear idea of where my Agilities could be leveraged as a career and helped me feel less stress about graduation.” - Anna
- “I was worried about how to present myself and my skills after college, but the Graduation Toolkit helped me to utilize my strengths and promote my capabilities in a professional manner.” - Caroline
To deliver this gift to high school and college graduates across the nation, The DeBruce Foundation is partnering with educational institutions and launching a public awareness campaign. They encourage nonprofit organizations, schools, parents, and counselors to share this resource to help the Class of 2024 achieve their goals.
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About The DeBruce Foundation
The DeBruce Foundation is a national foundation whose mission is to expand pathways to economic growth and opportunity. The Foundation is committed to helping individuals unlock their potential and find career pathways. By developing solutions such as the Agile Work Profiler, we change how people pursue careers. By partnering strategically, we increase experiences and exposure to widen career opportunities, starting with youth and working across the lifespan. Learn more at www.DeBruce.org.
About the Graduation Toolkit
The Graduation Toolkit features online career literacy resources developed by The DeBruce Foundation’s team of researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, and are based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Agile Work Profiler©, an assessment in the Toolkit, has already been used more than 200,000 times. Graduation Toolkit
Attachments
Chanelle Zak The DeBruce Foundation czak@lentsmazur.com Jarrett Jones Lents Mazur & Associates jjones@lentsmazur.com
