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Schools use many vendors to provide curriculum and assessments for career readiness and student wellness initiatives. JAKAPA is a nice complement to serve as an impact measure and provides an individualized daily support to enhance learning from other tools. So far, we do not have any direct competitors. JAKAPA can be a great stand-alone effort to help students build the soft skills they need to succeed. We can also be integrated with other programming to amplify impact and extend learning.
JAKAPA and soft skills
JAKAPA measures, trains and tracks 32 soft skills in five areas: social engagement, self-management, emotional resilience, innovation and cooperation. Soft skills are the non-academic skills. These include such things as communication; perspective-taking; time, task and detail management; stress regulation; abstract thinking and problem solving.
97% of employers say soft skills are essential. However, 51% of employers do not believe education is helping close the soft skills gap. Students often learn soft skills in the home, so the skills gap is definitely an equity issue. Further, soft skills predict future financial success more reliably than social class origin or IQ.
Our skills are directly related to many positive academic and personal outcomes. Soft skills are the foundation of career development and a missing piece in our educational system. Schools tend to focus on academic and technical training. However, 85% of success comes from soft skills while only 15% comes from academic and technical skills. Further, teaching and assessing soft skills improves academic outcomes. Student soft skills training can increase graduation rates by 30%. It can improve math testing scores by 7.5% for boys and 10% for girls. And, it can increase assignment completion and performance by 9.3%. In fact, soft skills are the highest ranked predictor of academic achievement and educational attainment.
Soft skills are a critical part of getting students ready for their futures. While helping them understand their career interests helps them build pathways toward their futures, JAKAPA helps them build the skills they need to successfully navigate those pathways. Many programs that exist to enhance career readiness and student wellness focus on interests or preferences. JAKAPA focuses on building self-awareness and developing the underlying foundational skills that influence those interests and preferences and prepares students for success in any pathway they choose.
Vendor alignment with JAKAPA
Below outlines a few common vendors and how JAKAPA aligns to their programs.
Naviance
Naviance offers assessments and career pathways programming to help students understand various career options and credentials/technical skills needed to enter an industry or job. They are focused around the career clusters. JAKAPA is different. We focus on foundational skills that every person needs regardless of career choices. These foundational skills help students succeed in relationships, school and at work. Schools using Naviance can use JAKAPA to customize assessments based on soft skills that are most relevant for various clusters and empower students to develop those foundational skills. The skills JAKAPA measures, trains and tracks can be applicable to any career cluster, even if students’ career interests change over time.
Leader in Me
Many schools use Leader in Me by Franklin Covey as a youth development and leadership tool. The program is especially immersive in elementary school. In high school, the program is more about providing opportunities for students to apply the leadership and personal skills they gained through the earlier program.
JAKAPA can be a highly valuable tool to provide vertical alignment with Leader in Me concepts in high school. We have completed a crosswalk that shows how our skills align with Leader in Me components. JAKAPA can be a highly effective assessment and teaching tool to continue developing the underlying skill set needed for success in school, work and life. We can also help districts understand the impact of their investment in Leader in Me throughout a child’s earlier education. Our program can help schools continue to apply the Leader in Me concepts through skill building and self-awareness development.
Ready to See What JAKAPA
Can Do for You?
"My JAKAPA demo quickly helped me understand how easy it would be to implement THE JAKAPA soft skill solution IN My school."
—Missouri Educator
Panorama
Panorama administers student wellness surveys. They can help districts understand their students’ perspectives and actions. JAKAPA is a great tool to help you make that data actionable. Soft skills impact life satisfaction, friendship quality and peer acceptance. They also have an impact on academic, health and financial success outcomes. JAKAPA can provide a skills-based answer to help you understand the underlying skills deficits that impact your Panorama data. We also provide a daily training and tracking system that can help you move the needle to more positive survey results.
Next steps
If your district is using other vendors for curriculum or assessments related career readiness or student wellness, reach out to JAKAPA. We can do a crosswalk to help you understand how we can enhance and amplify the impact of the product you are using. Or, if you are looking to replace a vendor with something new, we can help you understand how JAKAPA can build on what you have already been doing.
Go to jakapa.com to learn more, and schedule a demo today!
Ready to Discover JAKAPA? Let's Dive In!
At JAKAPA, we are passionate about developing soft skills and are excited to share more with you!
Explore the possibilities of implementing JAKAPA in your district by clicking here.
If you’re eager to understand the inner workings of JAKAPA, click here.
Prefer a hands-on approach? Engage with our clickable prototype by clicking here.
Is JAKAPA the perfect fit for your district? Take the plunge and schedule a short demo with our team by clicking here.
We can’t wait to connect with you!
