Why It Works

Generation Z is now the first generation in history that demands personal purpose and relevance for everything they do. These non-negotiables must be fulfilled before they will move forward in their education and career journey.

To harness this unique generational dynamic, we’ve created a groundbreaking approach to enrolling, engaging, and completing students: the Career Tree.

Born of years of experience and research, the Career Tree is the first generationally focused solution to address these challenges for young people everywhere. Whether you’re an educator, employer, or community leader, the Career Tree delivers a fresh vision for purpose-driven education and passion-driven employment.

To change the game, we must tell a powerful story to students, parents, employers, and communities. The story must highlight the big-picture outcome: the fully developed pipelines between education with purpose that lead to employment with passion.

This clear path from learning to employment can be incredibly motivating to young people, and this is the story your custom Career Trees will tell. Discover how this classroom strategy brings your existing career development tools to life in a whole new way—so that real action is the next step.

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TFS Results is transforming futures with Career Trees! This visionary program is reshaping the landscape of career exploration for our community. The Career Tree is a dynamic approach that empowers students to navigate their futures with clarity and purpose, guiding them towards fulfilling career paths. We're fostering a generation of focused, inspired individuals ready to make their mark on the world. Explore the possibilities with the Career Tree!
Tony McCardle
Director of Career & Technical Education
Calcasieu Parish School Board
Mark Perna’s Career Trees have been an invaluable resource for West-MEC, transforming how we approach career literacy and student plan development. By laying out potential career trajectories in such a user-friendly manner, Career Trees empower students and families to make informed decisions about their education and career paths. The Trees have enhanced student engagement, motivation, and retention, advancing student achievement. 100% of program completers crossed the graduation stage with a tangible individual career plan. I highly recommend the Career Tree for any organization looking to provide a structured and inspiring approach to career development.
Stephen Weltsch
Former Assistant Superintendent at West-MEC
Current Executive Director at Arizona ACTE
The Career Tree is the focal point for everything we do. When we opened our doors last year, our vision was for each student to determine their own WHY for being there, and the Career Tree provided the practical framework to implement this vision. After week one, every student can explain why they attend Northeast, what their first job will be, and how to gain access to the professional opportunity. The Career Tree has been a big part of our success from day one and we highly recommend it to motivate and empower today’s young people.
Dr. Ryan Cordia
Principal
Northeast Career and Technical Academy
TFS Results is transforming futures with Career Trees! This visionary program is reshaping the landscape of career exploration for our community. The Career Tree is a dynamic approach that empowers students to navigate their futures with clarity and purpose, guiding them towards fulfilling career paths. We're fostering a generation of focused, inspired individuals ready to make their mark on the world. Explore the possibilities with the Career Tree!
Tony McCardle
Director of Career & Technical Education
Calcasieu Parish School Board
Mark Perna’s Career Trees have been an invaluable resource for West-MEC, transforming how we approach career literacy and student plan development. By laying out potential career trajectories in such a user-friendly manner, Career Trees empower students and families to make informed decisions about their education and career paths. The Trees have enhanced student engagement, motivation, and retention, advancing student achievement. 100% of program completers crossed the graduation stage with a tangible individual career plan. I highly recommend the Career Tree for any organization looking to provide a structured and inspiring approach to career development.
Stephan Weltsch
Former Assistant Superintendent at West-MEC
Current Executive Director at Arizona ACTE
The Career Tree is the focal point for everything we do. When we opened our doors last year, our vision was for each student to determine their own WHY for being there, and the Career Tree provided the practical framework to implement this vision. After week one, every student can explain why they attend Northeast, what their first job will be, and how to gain access to the professional opportunity. The Career Tree has been a big part of our success from day one and we highly recommend it to motivate and empower today’s young people.
Dr. Ryan Cordia
Principal
Northeast Career & Technical Academy

Watch how the Career Tree empowered these students with clarity and motivation!

How It Works

Through years of advising top-level education and business clients, we uncovered a simple truth: ongoing dialogue is the secret to meaningful career exploration for this generation.

The Career Tree is a conversation-driven strategy that motivates young people to think about the lifestyle they want to live—and the career that would make it possible. Dialogue, research, and self-discovery help move them forward so they can keep taking steps toward a bright future.

Every Career Tree is custom-designed for your unique pathways and features a selection of viable, living-wage careers at all levels of education and experience in that field. Through engaging exercises, personal study, and meaningful reflection, learners are encouraged to choose a potential career to affix as a leaf to the interactive Career Tree graphic in your learning space.

Their career and lifestyle aspiration then becomes the touchpoint for all their future achievements—inspiring them to perform at a higher level, think about their goals, and build a personal competitive advantage—because they want to.

The Career Trees in every classroom, as well as our hallway, have created tremendous opportunities to share the value of our programs with parents, legislators, and community leaders.
Debra S. Heban
Former Director, Career & Technical Education at Whitmer Career & Technology Center
The Career Tree has absolutely transformed our narrative in the community. Students, parents, and stakeholders now see how our programs are the on-ramp to opportunity. For us, everything starts with the Career Tree.
CyLynn Braswell
Former Executive Director for College & Career Readiness and Innovation at Northwest ISD

In the classroom,
the Career Tree:

In the community,
the Career Tree:

  • Sparks students’ internal motivation with the Light at the End of the Tunnel strategy
  • Shifts students from a class-taking mentality to a program completion mentality
  • Shows students the relevance of their education to the life they want to live upon completion
  • Helps students overcome decision paralysis by choosing a relevant “for-now” career direction
  • Empowers students to complete their pathway with a personal competitive advantage
  • Works seamlessly with your existing career development tools to create an ongoing culture of dialogue and growth

In the community,
the Career Tree:

  • Delivers a compelling narrative to shift people’s thinking about education and careers
  • Connects the dots and builds pipelines between education and employment
  • Gets more of the right students, in the right programs and pathways, for the right reasons
  • Partners with industry to align instruction with real-world careers
  • Showcases the dynamic competitive advantage your organization delivers
  • Creates a common framework to bolster local economic growth and shrink the skills gap
The Career Tree is a fantastic way for students to see career paths and how to get there.
Jacqueline Giacalone
Business Teacher at William Floyd High School
We have found that the Career Tree integrates smoothly with our existing curriculum. It’s not something we have to add to already-packed lesson plans; it works within those lessons to bring relevance to the learning experience.
Jeremy Beardmore
Assistant Superintendent at Mid-East Career & Technology Centers

The Story It Tells

Many people simply don’t know about the myriad of different ways to get the skills and training for the real world of work. The Career Tree allows you to tell a fresh story to parents, employers, community leaders, and other stakeholders about how your organization prepares young people to make the most of their journey.

Who It’s For

Because it’s customized to each organization and pathway, the Career Tree is used in a wide range of learning environments:

  • High schools
  • Middle schools
  • K–12 districts
  • Special needs classrooms
  • Technical and community colleges
  • Universities
  • Workforce development settings
  • Employment settings
  • Adult education centers
  • And many others across North America

For the learner, the outcome becomes clear, personal, and relevant to the effort needed to achieve it. This creates and delivers education with purpose, driving significantly more students to completion at all levels of education and experience.

Whether they’re headed to college, specialized postsecondary training, the military, or directly into the workforce, the Career Tree equips young people to go with purpose, build a powerful competitive advantage—and thrive in a fast-changing world. And it’s easy to implement.

Every day, teachers and trainers are using the Career Tree to foster student success and completion based on each student’s own unique interests, talents, and abilities. This ongoing dialogue, flowing through the conduit of a teacher/student human connection, allows students to continually calibrate their goals without losing motivation or progress.

And with its seamless integration into your existing lesson plans and career development tools, the Career Tree doesn’t create another thing for teachers to do. Instead, it supersizes everything you’re already doing—and ties it all together.

The Career Tree has been an amazing tool that makes instruction easier and more relevant to students today. I’ve never before seen such great dialogue in the classroom.
Melissa Conner
Director at Stafford Technical Center
The Career Tree has inspired the creation of a planning culture that starts in 6th grade and extends through post-secondary education. We’re shifting the paradigm to understand that our programs lead to thousands of viable career opportunities for all students.
Nichole Spearman-Eskelsen
CTE Director at Salem-Keizer Public Schools, Oregon

Available Resources

WALL GRAPHICS

Customized Interactive Wall Graphics and/or Banners for every classroom, branded in your logo and colors.

CLASSROOM MATERIALS

A comprehensive Curriculum Guide and robust classroom worksheets and materials.

ONLINE PORTAL FOR STAFF

Exclusive Online Portal to build your Trees, with 24/7 access to all the best practices and tools to use your Career Trees to the fullest. Log In here

COACHING & PRIORITY SCHEDULING

Continued coaching, product support, and priority PD scheduling available with Career Tree creator Mark C. Perna and the TFS Results team.

NEW! COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE TRACK

Let Career Tree creator Mark C. Perna help coach your students on the importance of crafting a personal competitive advantage—and the vital professional skills to thrive!

More than ever, young people need to develop life and career skills like:

• Communication
• Problem-solving
• Human connection
• Stress management
• Work ethic
• Learning from failure
• And many more

Our Competitive Advantage Track (included with your Career Tree license) lays out these game-changing abilities in a highly customizable, plug-and-play format. Each module (or “Slice”) includes a short, heartfelt talk by Mark about a particular skill and why it matters. With discussion starters and activities to deepen the learning experience, all you have to do is add students.

The Competitive Advantage Track delivers an easy, engaging way for young people to start their journey toward the personal competitive advantage they need—one skill at a time.

Access to the Competitive Advantage Track is included with your Career Tree license.

Expanded Curriculum Available Exclusively in the Career Tree Portal

STAFF VIDEO TRAINING

Engaging, video-based training series delivered by Career Tree creator Mark C. Perna.

Get a sneak peek at the first two videos in our robust training series! With a fresh generational perspective and practical examples, Mark ensures that every educator can effectively leverage the Career Tree in their learning environment. Watch now for why and how the Career Tree is shifting the education paradigm.

Staff Training: Sneak Peek

Success Stories

Thousands of students and trainees across North America are using the Career Tree to expand their options and opportunities. Here are a few real-world results our clients are experiencing.

The Career Tree Professional Skills Score creates value not just…

by Mark C. Perna

“The Career Tree is an enormous symbol of hope, thoughtful…

by Mark C. Perna

The Career Tree shows prospective students and parents the real-life,…

by Mark C. Perna

Discover the Career Tree Today

Schedule a demo to find out how the Career Tree can empower your students with a personal competitive advantage. We look forward to connecting with you!

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