{"id":4703,"date":"2025-06-10T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/?p=4703"},"modified":"2026-01-28T21:05:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:05:30","slug":"college-and-career-readiness-where-does-language-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/college-and-career-readiness-where-does-language-fit\/","title":{"rendered":"College and Career Readiness: Where Does Language Fit?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Spoiler alert: language education is important for college and career readiness (CCR)! Recently, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edweek.org\/teaching-learning\/the-skill-students-need-most-to-succeed-in-future-jobs\/2025\/04\"><em>Education Week<\/em><\/a> <em>(EdWeek)<\/em> launched an informal poll among K-12 language educators on LinkedIn and found that nearly 75% of the roughly 1,900 respondents listed \u201cadaptability as the most important skill graduates need.\u201d Other skills mentioned were ability to focus, empathy, resilience, critical thinking, self-regulation, and work ethic. As <em>EdWeek<\/em> explained, \u201cThis LinkedIn poll is not a nationally representative, scientific survey, but it does provide a snapshot of what people who work in K-12-related fields are thinking at a time when many are reevaluating what skills students need to function in a labor market where artificial intelligence and economic shifts are already changing many jobs.\u201d See the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edweek.org\/teaching-learning\/the-skill-students-need-most-to-succeed-in-future-jobs\/2025\/04\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What skills do high school graduates need? Here are a few highlights from educator responses to <em>EdWeek\u2019s <\/em>informal poll:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cCommunication skills: written and oral\u201d &#8211; teacher from Tennessee<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cIndustriousness and the ability to learn from mistakes\u201d -Ohio-based teacher<\/li>\n<li>\u201cListening, asking clarifying questions, and following directions\u201d \u2013 an educator comment on Facebook<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe world of work is being fundamentally changed by AI; however, the top skills required to navigate complexity and change remain uniquely human with emotional intelligence, cognitive flexibility, and <strong>communication<\/strong> referenced as top skills leaders believe will be essential for employees in an AI-powered future.\u201d &#8211; Paige Johnson, Microsoft\u2019s vice president of education<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What skills matter on the global front?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The World Economic Forum releases a bi-annual <a href=\"https:\/\/reports.weforum.org\/docs\/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_Report_2025.pdf\"><em>Future of Jobs Report<\/em><\/a>, which follows \u201cevolving technological, societal and economic trends to understand occupational disruption and identify opportunities for workers to transition to the jobs of the future.\u201d They report, \u201cAs we enter 2025, the landscape of work continues to evolve at a rapid pace . . . The <em>Future of Jobs Report 2025<\/em> brings together the perspective of over 1,000 leading global employers\u2014collectively representing more than 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies from around the world\u2014to examine how these macrotrends impact jobs and skills, and the workforce transformation strategies employers plan to embark on in response, across the 2025 to 2030 timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the most recent report, published in January 2025, a similar theme in skills needs can be observed. Topping the charts for core skills in 2025 are analytical thinking, resilience, leadership, creative thinking, multilingualism, and global citizenship, among others.<\/p>\n<p>Where does language learning come into the picture? Christos Pliatsikas, in his chapter \u201cMultilingualism and Brain Plasticity,\u201d explores multilingualism-induced changes in the brain, including implications around the development of analytical thinking, resilience, problem solving, creative thinking, and other skills measured in the multilingual brain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/setting-students-up-for-real-world-success\/\"><strong>Setting Students Up for Real-World Success<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What does it mean for my language program? <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As the topic of college and career readiness continues to garner attention among educational circles, consider the role language learning plays in contributing to a resilient, cognitively flexible, analytical thinking workforce. Not only do language programs matter for all the cognitive functioning just described, but you can also help students leverage their ACTFL credentials for employment opportunities and increased likelihood of a higher wage! Did you know multilinguals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/tracybrower\/2023\/10\/01\/improve-your-salary-and-career-by-speaking-a-second-language\/\">earn 5-20% more<\/a> than their monolingual peers? Increasing numbers of employers offer pay incentives for bilingualism. You can guide students to learn how to ask employers if there is a differential for speaking multiple languages, as substantiated by their ACTFL score or the Seal of Biliteracy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/leveraging-actfl-assessments-for-college-and-career-readiness-a-pathway-to-success\/\"><strong>Leveraging ACTFL Assessments for College and Career Readiness: A Pathway to Success<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There are many benefits in choosing a proficiency-based assessment that aligns with industry and government standards, and provides students with a trusted, widely accepted credential.<\/p>\n<p>For more information and to start testing with ACTFL assessments,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/contact-us\/sales\">contact<\/a>\u00a0Language Testing International today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pliatsikas, C. 2019. \u201cMultilingualism and Brain Plasticity.\u201d <em>The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1002\/9781119387725.ch11\">https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1002\/9781119387725.ch11<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>World Economic Forum. <em>Future of Jobs Report \u2013 2025. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/reports.weforum.org\/docs\/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_Report_2025.pdf\">https:\/\/reports.weforum.org\/docs\/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_Report_2025.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spoiler alert: language education is important for college and career readiness (CCR)! Recently, Education Week (EdWeek) launched an informal poll among K-12 language educators on LinkedIn and found that nearly 75% of the roughly 1,900 respondents listed \u201cadaptability as the most important skill graduates need.\u201d Other skills mentioned were ability to focus, empathy, resilience, critical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":4754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[80,515,302,514],"class_list":["post-4703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic","tag-aappl","tag-actfl-credentials","tag-actfl-language-proficiency-assessments","tag-college-and-career-readiness"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/shutterstock_653340904-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4703"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5285,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4703\/revisions\/5285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.languagetesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}