2025 ISBE Career Connections Conference

Join us for a session on GPEAK, an initiative developed by Illinois Central College in collaboration with key stakeholders including Peoria’s CEO Council, Regional Workforce Development Alliance, Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, and the Illinois Community College Board. The GPEAK system aims to develop and validate Illinois’ ten essential employability skills through a system of curricular resources, assessments, and badges. GPEAK students can earn badges by demonstrating mastery of the key performance indicators aligned to the essential skills. Discover how these resources have been transformed into an educator facing training site with easily digestible modules to empower instructors to cultivate college and career readiness by nurturing the development of essential employability skills. This session will be interactive with time to explore how you can incorporate GPEAK into your courses and programs to prepare students for college and career.

How do you make career exploration and development fun? Well…you dress up for your career, put up a wheel, and create a GIANT-sized Game of Life! Our CTE team will share our experiences engaging with high school students and captivating audiences through student-focused events. Utilizing key concepts from The Game of Life, students enter the game, pick a career card, spin the wheel, and answer questions to further their knowledge about what their future could look like. Keeping the spirit of the game alive, but making conversations real is the true key to our success. Resources as well as tips for modification in various settings and audiences will be shared with the group.

Portfolio-Based Internships will present an in-depth exploration of a collaboration between Round Lake Area School District 116 and Lake County Tech Campus, as the organizations developed a pilot program for HBS students to complete a portfolio-based internship in the Human and Public Service Pathway, specifically Law Enforcement and School Safety. The internship was built through a portfolio of School Safety and Law Enforcement experiences facilitated by Round Lake District Safety personnel, who acted as the employer and team of industry experts. Students developed HBS Technical Competencies and Essential Employability Skills through their experiences with diverse facets of School Safety and its role in supporting a positive school and community climate. The experiences collectively  totaled 60 hours. Issues around transportation equity were addressed with students completing the internship in their home district. The Portfolio-Based Internship is a valuable model for districts and CCR Stakeholders to potentially customize and scale across all seven Career Pathways.

The path to peak performance for students is to pace themselves and run a race designed by them with tools provided by us as educators. The goal to empower students and strengthen our workforce system and economy is one of these reasons why the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s Career Information System created the Work-Based Learning Tracker. Our work-based learning tracker provides guidance for students as they record and maintain data from their own real-world experiences, networking opportunities and employer engagement. The WBL benefits for students is increased readiness needed for the professional world, industry relevance, and increased potential of securing the job they want. As a work-based learning continuum activity, the Tracker meets the guidelines for the Postsecondary and Career Expectations framework and supports ISBE career readiness indicators. Attend this session and learn more about how you can help your students over their own personal finish lines.