05/01/2026

Helping At-Risk Teenagers Bridge the Gap Between School and Work with Transferable Skills

By Billie Baran

The Need for Transferable Skills in the Workplace

The career landscape is ever-changing with technology updates, new trends, and advanced tools, which can be challenging to navigate for those preparing to enter the workforce. Based on the Job Outlook 2025 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), employers spanning diverse industries find potential employees with transferable skills highly desirable (Langer, 2025). Transferable skills include both soft and hard skills such as communication, problem solving, teamwork, time management, and computer skills (Rumage, 2025).

These skills are versatile and applicable to many jobs and industries. When educators and career service providers are working with high school students to prepare them for the next step in their career development, they cannot always predict exactly what the labor market will require once a student graduates. However, they do know that transferable skills have enduring value and are likely to remain relevant, so it is important that they help to foster and hone these skills in high school students, especially at-risk youth.

At-risk youth are described as students that are underserved and disenfranchised, often experiencing conditions that put them “at risk of not meeting academic or social expectations, or not graduating high school” (Winton, 2023, para. 1). Some of these challenges may include financial hardship, physical or learning disabilities, behavioral issues, mental health challenges, learning the English language, trauma exposure or household instability. While it is beneficial to empower all teens with transferable skills, it is especially crucial when it comes to at-risk youth. These students are more likely to experience higher unemployment rates, experience higher use of government assistance, cycle in and out of the judicial system, and receive lower income (Council of Economic Advisers, 2015).

The Importance of Empowering Marginalized Teens with Transferable Skills

Many at-risk youth already possess, perhaps unknowingly, transferable skills - skills that may have even been born out of the at-risk situations/conditions that they find themselves in (King, 2024). For example, a student who lives in a home where English is not the parents’ spoken language may help their parents communicate within the community (e.g. utility companies, doctors, school administrators), create accounts, schedule appointments, and complete applications on their parents’ behalf. Already, this student is exhibiting transferable skills such as multicultural competence, communication skills, and task management. A student living in an unstable neighborhood learns to manage interpersonal relationships and handle complex social situations via skills like resourcefulness, adaptability and problem-solving. Other students obtain transferable skills that they develop through classwork, extracurriculars, or afterschool jobs where they employ teamwork, collaboration, project management or work ethic. Additionally, some students are just naturally creative, technology-inclined or emotionally intelligent. However, students considered at-risk do not always recognize these skills within themselves, or, if they do, the students do not see them as useful when it comes to a future career (King, 2024).

In Armand King’s article “Unlocking Potential: My Journey in Teaching Transferable Skills to Youth in Marginalized Communities,” King explains how educators and career service providers can highlight these transferable skills and their relevance to help students understand that they are not defined by their past: “equipping at-risk youth with a versatile skill set can open doors that seemed forever closed and create paths where none existed” (King, 2024, para. 1). Removing mental barriers in this way can help them gain confidence and a sense of accomplishment. Additionally, focusing on transferable skills can lead to motivation and improved academic performance, as well as becoming more career- and/or college-ready. Mark Savickas’s Career Construction Theory (Bravo Career, n.d.) is a helpful lens through which to look at transferable skills with at-risk students, as the theory works under the assumption that a person is always under construction. Getting a student to engage with their past and present circumstances not as “right” or “wrong” but instead as “is it useful” removes an unnecessary binary and invites at-risk youth to view their experiences and skills in a very different, more productive way, that can better help them reach their goals. Career Construction Theory gives agency to a student, allowing them to deconstruct, rebuild and change their own story and begin to hone transferable skills going forward (Bravo Careers, n.d.).

How to Bridge the Gap

In high schools, faculty can collaborate across departments to integrate an awareness of transferable skills into the existing curriculum, including how these skills connect to specific subjects and the workforce. Additionally, there are many ways that career service providers can assist school faculty and staff with connecting transferable skills to real-world applications, specifically by employing Career Construction Theory’s key tenets of self-concept, life themes, and career adaptability (Bravo Careers, n.d.). Some interventions include:

• personalizing learning based on a student’s interests and goals, giving the student more purpose and drive to tap into otherwise idle transferable skills that are usually employed elsewhere in their lives outside of the classroom (King, 2024)
• incorporating O*NET (the U.S. Department of Labor’s free database of occupations) as a tool in lessons and assignments, allowing students to interactively connect certain skills to specific occupations
• focusing on a student’s strengths using assessments like Clifton Strengths to foster self-reflection, boost self-worth and create future goals
• Effective exercises and resources such as UNLV Career Services’ "Day in the Life" chart, which helps students identify skills from daily activities (aiding STAR method interview practice), and the "Skills Hero" activity, which boosts confidence by linking students' admired role models' skills to their own potential

Transferable Skills as a Catalyst for Change

Educators and career service providers can help at-risk students bridge the gap between school and the workforce by supporting students’ development of transferable skills. Interdisciplinary collaboration and fusing transferable skills directly into existing curricula are essential. Integrating Career Construction Theory can be a tool in this effort, as it can assist students in deconstructing negative experiences and situations, rebuilding a self-concept as useful rather than wrong, and adapting to an unpredictable labor market (Bravo Careers, n.d.). In this way, educators and career service providers can empower at-risk youth to see their challenges not as barriers to but rather the foundation of their future success, giving them agency, hope and possibility, allowing them to thrive.

References

Bravo Careers. (n.d.). Feeling stuck in your career? Career construction theory may be the answer. https://bravocareers.com/blog/feeling-stuck-in-your-career-career-construction-may-be-the-answer 

Council of Economic Advisers. (2015, July). Economic costs of youth disadvantage and high-return opportunities for change. Executive Office of the President. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/mbk_report_final_update1.pdf 

King, A. (2024, May 18). Unlocking potential: My journey in teaching transferable skills to youth in marginalized communities. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unlocking-potential-my-journey-teaching-transferable-skills-king-7xeoc/ 

Langer, A. (2025, April). Top skills employers are looking for in 2025: Problem-solving, teamwork, and communication. Office of Intramural Training & Education. https://www.training.nih.gov/oite-careers-blog/top-skills-employers-are-looking-for-in-2025-problem-solving-teamwork-and-communication/#:~:text=As%20the%20workforce%20evolves%2C%20so,and%20success%20across%20the%20board 

Rumage, J. (2025, March 4). Transferable skills: What they are and 12 common examples. Built In. https://builtin.com/articles/transferable-skills 

UNLV Career Services. (n.d.) Bridging an awareness gap: Integrating transferable skills in your classroom. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. https://www.unlv.edu/sites/default/files/page_files/27/Faculty-Transferable-Skills-Booklet_0.pdf 

Winton, S. (2023, January 30). At-risk students: Success and interventions. Servant Leadership Institute, Concordia University Irvine. https://www.cui.edu/academicprograms/education/servant-leadership-institute/perfecting-the-practice/blog/post/at-risk-students-success-and-interventions 

Billie Baran is a certified English teacher and recently earned her CCSP certification. She is the program manager for Admissions at Virtual Learning Academy Charter School. With over seventeen years of working in education, she is an experienced academic coach who is passionate about student-centered learning, and the power of relationship-building and positive reinforcement to help students uncover and reach their full potential. She can be reached at billiecbaran@gmail.com.