The Heart of Career Coaching – Guiding Kids Toward Purpose, Not Just a Path

When I was in high school back in the early 1990s, my experience with our school counselor was all about the schedule. We met once a year to make sure I had the credits I needed and that I was lined up to graduate on time. It was quick, efficient, and exactly what the system called for. At the time, that was the job, and my counselor did it well. But the world has changed. 

The expectations placed on students, and on the adults who support them, have shifted dramatically. Today’s students are growing up in a world that is more complex, more connected, and more uncertain than ever before. They’re navigating college decisions, credentialing options, and careers that didn’t even exist a decade ago. At the same time, the workforce is shifting beneath their feet. In response, the role of the school counselor has had to evolve, along with the role of every adult working with students.

That’s where the concept of career coaching comes in. This isn’t about replacing what counselors do. It’s about broadening the vision for how all of us can support students—helping them identify their strengths, explore options, and take purposeful steps toward the future they want.

This blog is about that shift. It’s a move from a system built around credit completion to a culture that encourages student discovery. It’s about how school personnel move from managing schedules to guiding direction. Most of all, it’s about how schools start that work earlier, in ways that give every student the power to take ownership of their path.

Designing for Discovery: How Systems Support Student Purpose

The question we need to start asking more intentionally isn’t just, “Are they ready to graduate?” It’s, “Are they ready for what comes next?” That’s where career coaching comes in.

Career coaching isn’t about telling students what to do or assigning them a path. It’s about helping them discover who they are and what matters to them. It involves creating space for students to reflect on their strengths, values, and interests. From there, adults guide them in connecting those insights to real opportunities beyond the classroom.

This work is personal. It centers the student. And it requires a proactive approach. Career coaching shifts the conversation from, “What do I want to do?” to something deeper: “Who am I becoming, and how do I want to contribute?”

Across the state of Indiana, schools are beginning to adopt this mindset. Educators are using tools and frameworks that lift up student voice. Teams are finding new ways to connect academic learning with personal purpose. And systems are being restructured to help students build a sense of direction earlier, so the choices they make in high school carry more meaning and relevance.

This evolution doesn’t replace academic advising. It expands it. It adds depth, clarity, and connection to a process that can otherwise feel transactional. In the process, high school becomes more than a place students move through. It becomes something they help shape.

But this kind of shift can’t rely on school counselors alone. Many are already responsible for hundreds of students. Career coaching isn’t just a role. It’s a shared culture. It takes coordinated effort across classrooms, leadership teams, support staff, and community partners. When systems are designed to support discovery, and when every adult sees themselves as part of that process, we create something lasting. It becomes a structure where purpose is no longer an afterthought, but the starting point.

Empowering Educators: Agilities Training as a Foundation

If we want students to think differently about their future, we first need to help the adults around them think differently too. That’s why one of the most promising developments in this shift toward career coaching is the use of Agilities Coach Training. This model helps educators guide students not just toward classes, but toward purpose.

Developed by The DeBruce Foundation, the Agilities framework identifies a set of transferable skills. These include developing others, selling & communicating, inspecting, and innovating. The goal is to help students better understand how they naturally think and work. Through the training, educators learn how to bring this language into everyday conversations, classroom lessons, and moments of reflection. In turn, students gain more insight into who they are and how those traits might translate into different roles or careers.

EES Innovation is currently partnered with two Northern Indiana Service Centers (NIESC and NWIESC) in a grant from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. Part of this grant is to offer this Agilities training as part of a broader career coaching grant. Shannon Harman at the service center has done an exceptional job leading this work.  What makes this so meaningful is that it’s not limited to counselors or college and career staff. Teachers, instructional coaches, and principals are also taking part. Each one is being equipped to have deeper, more intentional conversations with students about their strengths, their interests, and what excites them.

This matters because many students don’t have the words to talk about themselves in a way that connects to the future. The Agilities framework gives them that vocabulary. It also gives educators a common reference point, something they can use across grade levels and subject areas. That kind of consistency helps students begin to connect who they are today with who they might become.

As Dr. Leigh Anne Taylor Knight, Executive Director and COO of The DeBruce Foundation, explains:

“When a young person takes the Agile Work Profiler, it empowers them to make decisions about themselves and their future, based on what they’re good at and what they like to do. It gives them agency for their future and confidence in themselves.”

It’s a shift from asking, “What do you want to be?” to exploring, “What do you do well, and where can that take you?” That kind of reframing can change everything.

Building Purpose Early: Why Career Coaching Starts Before High School

Career coaching isn’t a high school add-on. It’s a mindset that should grow alongside students as they develop. From the earliest grades through graduation, young people are forming a sense of identity. With intentional support, they gain the tools to move from curiosity to confidence and, eventually, to purposeful planning.

Too often, high school begins with guesswork. Students choose electives based on convenience or what their friends are taking. They select diploma paths without fully understanding what those choices mean. And when it’s time to enroll in dual credit courses, pursue work-based learning, or earn a Readiness Seal, they’re making decisions without a clear sense of who they are or what they’re working toward.

That isn’t a student problem. It’s a systems problem.

Students who begin career coaching earlier don’t arrive at high school trying to figure everything out at once. By that point, they’ve already explored their interests, reflected on their strengths, and started linking school to the world beyond it. Tools like interest inventories, the Agilities framework, and early exposure to career-connected learning help make that possible. Whether a student is solving a complex problem or helping a classmate complete a task, these small moments become opportunities to build self-awareness and language.

Middle school offers a chance to deepen that work. Students can engage in structured exploration, connect with local employers, and expand their understanding of what different careers involve. Experiences like guest speakers, industry visits, and career-focused projects broaden their perspective and give shape to their thinking.

By the time they reach high school, students are ready to make more informed choices. They can align what they’ve learned about themselves with their course schedules, credentials, Readiness Seal, or internship experiences. At this stage, career coaching becomes a process of linking purpose to planning, helping students shape an experience that feels relevant, motivating, and real.

Uncertainty doesn’t disappear, but with early coaching, students have a framework to navigate it. They still get to explore, change their minds, and discover new passions. The difference is that they’re doing so with confidence and agency, rather than confusion or hesitation.

That’s the shift we’re aiming for. When career coaching is built into the full K–12 experience, high school becomes more than a checklist. It becomes a launchpad, a chapter shaped by curiosity, clarity, and direction.

What If Career Coaching Became the Culture?

Career coaching isn’t a program. It’s not a one-time meeting or something reserved for a specific grade level. Instead, it reflects a different way of thinking about how we support students throughout their entire journey. It calls on every adult in a school system to take part in that process of discovery.

This shift has already started. Across the state, counselors, educators, and school leaders are rethinking how they engage students in conversations about the future. They’re building purpose into planning, using tools like the Agilities framework to give students language, and treating identity development as essential to academic success. Still, there’s more we can do.

Imagine this work not as isolated innovation, but as statewide alignment. In every district, in every school, students would have access to adults who help them explore who they are and where they want to go. School boards would prioritize purpose. Building leaders would protect space for reflection. Teachers would treat direction as just as vital as content.

This is more than a shift in student support. It’s a shift in system design. A culture of career coaching doesn’t increase the workload. It sharpens the focus on what matters most. It creates schools where students leave not only ready for what’s next, but excited to take it on.

That’s the system we’re building. That’s the future we have the chance to shape. And it all begins with a question worth asking, again and again: What if?

Up Next: 🔹 The Power of Durable Skills – Preparing Students for What Matters Most 🔹 Building School-Community Partnerships That Deliver a Double-Sided Return on Investment

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🔹 What If This Is the Moment? Embracing Indiana’s High School Redesign

Reference:

Taylor Knight, L. A. (2024, October 28). Expand career options using Agilities. HirePaths.  https://hirepaths.com/blog/2024/10/28/expand-career-options-using-agilities