Foundations in 21st-Century Skills

The modules in the theme Foundations in 21st-Century Skills engage students in developing and applying research, communication, and problem-solving skills to the study of work and the workplace. Students examine topics such as product development, advertising, market research, industrial relations, and careers through activities such as primary document and case study analysis, interviews, and worksite visits. By building academic skills in the context of investigating the world of work, students connect the importance of what they learn in the classroom to their future roles in the workforce.

In From Concept to Consumer: Building a Foundation in Problem-Solving, students learn about the manufacturing process—design, development, production, and marketing—and consider the role of problem-solving, decision-making, and teamwork in the process. Through simulations in which students enact the roles of company employees planning to launch a new product line, the module Media and Messages: Building a Foundation of Communication Skills facilitates students’ practice of language and presentation skills for a variety of purposes and audiences. People at Work: Building a Foundation of Research Skills engages students in studying the history of working life in the United States and synthesizing what they have learned into Web sites they develop. And in Careers, Companies, and Communities, the focus on the workplace shifts to the present: Students examine how businesses respond to economic and technological changes, how companies interact with and affect the communities in which they reside, and how current career opportunities match up with their own career interests and aspirations.

The following table shows the Ford PAS modules by theme. Modules with subject area designations are most suitable for integration into existing academic courses; modules without designated subjects also teach academic content but are fully interdisciplinary and don’t focus on a particular academic discipline. Asterisks indicate modules that appear in more than one theme.

Each module has a Student Guide and a Teacher Guide (which includes the Student Guide pages). The Teacher Guide also includes a sample planning calendar showing how the activities may be scheduled. Each module has a coherent topic, and all modules include a module project, one or more quizzes, and a final test.