Education Career Action Plan

Education Career Action Plans (ECAP) refers to both a process that helps students integrate their academics with career development activities and a product that is created and maintained to document and support these activities. ECAP facilitates personalizing each student’s educational experience while providing opportunities to set goals in preparation for personalized visions of their future.

This is the document, often called a portfolio, which allows students to enter, track and update the following information:

course enrollment and postsecondary plans aligned to career goals
documentation of the range of college and career readiness skills he/she has developed

Schools are increasingly collecting this information in an electronic portfolio format so that students and parents might access their progress at any time through a password-protected web portal.

The benefits of student ECAPs are:

Personalized planning will help students reach their academic and career goals. It impacts student achievement and preparedness for a successful transition into the workforce and into additional academic pursuits related to career options.
It provides families with increased opportunities to be involved in their children’s education. It informs decisions based upon goal setting, research, and self-awareness.
It promotes enrollment and increased achievement in more rigorous courses relevant to students’ goals, including those related to Individualized Educational Plan (IEPs).
It develops a more qualified and motivated workforce to support community and state needs.