What is an Individual Career Academic Plan?

The ICAP – developed with collaboration among student, family, and educators – equips students with the awareness, knowledge and skills to create their own individualized, meaningful exploration of college and career opportunities. In order to reflect students’ changing passions, aptitudes, interests, and growth, the ICAP is a flexible, evolving document.

Why is an Individual Career Academic Plan Valuable?

Life beyond high school requires different, and ever changing, competencies. By 2025, three of four Oklahoma jobs will require education or training beyond high school. During the ICAP process, students discover the pathways that fit their unique talents and learn what academic preparation and experiences will prepare them for in-demand careers, some of which may not exist when they graduate from high school.

When students complete a meaningful ICAP process, they: 1. Connect the relevance of education to their future goals 2. Create secondary and post-secondary course plans to pursue their career and life goals 3. Strategically select a post-secondary pathway to align with self-defined career, college, and life goals 4. Establish better communication and engagement between school and home 5. Understand and demonstrate career exploration and career planning

An ICAP has a strong, intentional connection with readiness for career and college. An ICAP identifies student interests, skills, postsecondary and workforce goals and experiences that lead to a meaningful plan that charts the progress needed to prepare students for college, career and life. It should include:

■ Career and college interest surveys

■ Written postsecondary and workforce goals and progress toward those goals

■ Scores on assessments (required state and federal assessments and a college and career ready assessment)

■ Experiences in service learning and/or work environments including apprenticeships, internships, mentorships, job shadowing and others

■ Intentional sequence of courses that reflects progress toward the postsecondary goal (this may include identified career pathways or career endorsements)

■ Academic progress