For more than a century, career advice has been about giving students a map. It was a detailed, reliable guide to a known world, showing the safest roads to predictable destinations. But the ground beneath students’ feet has shifted. That map now describes a world that no longer exists.

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The tectonic shift is the arrival of AI, which has automated the value of memory and elevated the value of judgment.

It is this reality — and my deep concern for the generation facing it — that motivates my new approach. Continuing to hand out the old map is a profound disservice. We can no longer afford to give students a map. We must put students at the centre of the career planning process and enable them to be in control.

Reality of the Crisis: When the Plan Collapsed

Maya followed every rule. Top marks in computer science, internships at tech companies, and a degree from a respected university. She applied to over 200 entry-level software positions, received three interviews, and received no offers. The golden ticket — study hard, get the credential, start at the bottom rung — was quietly rescinded while she wasn’t looking.

Meanwhile, her high school cousin, Alex, is staring down his future, uneasy about the advice he’s getting from parents and counsellors. They all say the same thing: “Study computer science, it’s stable.” Yet he sees his cousin Maya, who did exactly that, now stuck in a frustrating loop of applications and rejections.

The career advice that worked for one generation now feels like a map to a world that no longer exists, and the compact between education and employment must be redesigned.

The old bridge from school to employment has collapsed under the weight of AI automating routine information work — the very entry-level coding tasks Maya trained for, the repetitive analysis work that once filled David’s days.

That’s not a blip; that’s the new climate. Students need a transparent, iterative process to discern their next move, making their journey visible and understandable to their support network.

That scenario is the motivation for my GlidePath Studio to support placing students at the centre of a redesigned career planning process. GlidePath can be the instrument for this climate: a framework and digital tool for discernment — turning the choice of a post-school field into small, smart steps students can test and update each term. Using a plain-English Field Atlas and four lenses — interest, strengths, opportunity, tryability — students take one tryable step this term, reflect, and update their Top-10 preferences. Advisers and parents gain clarity without labels; students keep their hands on the wheel.

Students — Start Here

If the map keeps redrawing itself, you can’t outsource the steering. GlidePath is your instrument. It’s not a crystal ball; it’s an iterative discernment loop. You browse a simple Field Atlas (Applied AI & Automation, Cybersecurity, EdTech, Energy Systems…), star what sparks, take one tryable step this term, and next term you re-rank your Top-10 based on what the step taught you. Over time, you carry a living record — your GlidePath — of choices, reasons, and next moves that reflect you, not a system’s guess.

Discern → Decide → Do → Reflect. (A light loop you can run every term.)

How to Discern Without Drama

I borrow a friendly metaphor from Japan: Ikigai. In Japan, Ikigai is a lived, daily sense of “what’s worth getting up for,” tied to craft and community — not a thunderbolt of destiny. In GlidePath, Ikigai becomes a quick four-lens check you can run in minutes before you move:

• Interest — will this keep my curiosity alive?

• Strengths — can I contribute something now?

• Opportunity — is there real pull from the world?

• Tryability — can I take a small, safe step this term?

If a field lights up on all four, it climbs your Top-10. If not, shrink the experiment or park it. Next term: repeat. Discern → decide → do → reflect. (No mysticism — just better decisions, repeated.)

Your Assessment History Helps You Discern

Bring your assessment data — but keep the keys. Upload exam results, reports, and project feedback from across your school years. Too often, only the latest results are used, ignoring the rich pattern of your academic journey. GlidePath treats this historical data like a compass, not a cage: it highlights your consistent strengths, tracks your momentum, and reveals blind spots, then suggests a single one-term experiment that fits your trajectory. You own that signal; it informs your judgment but never dictates your path. That’s the point of student-owned, learner-powered assessment.

From Isolation to Cohort Signal

Right now, career planning often treats every student as an island. You’re alone with your confusion, your adviser researching trends, your parents offering well-intentioned advice. But one student is a hunch; an entire cohort of students is a discovery engine for the entire school community.

When each of you records a Top-10 and a one-line “why,” powerful patterns emerge — where curiosity is clustering, where it’s shifting, which fields are gaining momentum. Your collective agency becomes the cohort’s signal: a real-time demand indicator that informs the Careers Adviser about the pathways that matter most to you. Everyone can be insightful, together.

Careers Advisers New Role: From Custodian to Inspirer

You already carry the care of a community. GlidePath doesn’t replace that trust; it amplifies it. Your meeting no longer starts with “So… what are you thinking?” It starts with a student’s living Top-10, their one-line why for each, and the one tryable step they’ve booked for this term. You’re not extracting guesses; you’re coaching discernment — naming trade-offs, framing evidence, shaping next moves in language a teenager can use and a parent can understand. And in the AI decade, you’re free to evaluate ideas over origins — clarity, originality, and reasoning — rather than policing authorship.

The Power of Cohort Patterns

Instead of treating each student as an isolated case, you gain something rare and actionable: a field-level signal from your entire cohort. When your dashboard shows that fifteen students are actively exploring cybersecurity while only three are investigating traditional accounting, that isn’t just data — it’s programmable insight. You can approach local cybersecurity firms for guest speakers, organise sector visits, or pilot micro-placements because you know there’s genuine student demand. Your time tilts from guesswork to targeted opportunity-making.

Your Field Atlas role — Steward-in-Chief

You become the curator of the common map that frees students to focus on exploring the territory, not drawing the map. Your Field Atlas role involves:

• Curate 20–30 fields with clarity (a Year-10 one-liner), opportunity (real pull in the world), and tryability (concrete steps students can take this term).

• Keep the language human — no jargon, no hype — clear descriptions of what people do.

• Apply a simple entry test — every field must pass clarity, show genuine opportunity, offer tryable steps, and maintain integrity.

• Cadence: Termly refresh wording; twice yearly consider additions/retirements; annually publish a short review of what the Atlas unlocked and where to double down.

This appears simple, but it’s rigorous — and it aligns with the crucial drive to teach students how to discern.

Assessment Data is a Kind of Secret Weapon

GlidePath transforms how to leverage summative and formative assessment data. Instead of narrowing to recent results, the system reads years of student performance to spot patterns: subjects where they show consistent strength, areas where momentum is building, and transferable skills. The analysis appears as plain-English summaries, so a 10-minute check-in has substance. You spend your time where it matters: turning field-level patterns of student interest into targeted opportunities — guest talks aligned with emerging curiosity, micro-placements where momentum is real, partnerships in fields your cohort is actively exploring. And you can keep the evaluative emphasis where it belongs in the AI era: ideas, argument, and articulation.

How GlidePath Leverages AI

GlidePath is not just a new process; it’s a modern framework powered by AI to enhance and accelerate discernment. While the student is always in the driver’s seat, AI acts as the intelligent engine in three key ways:

1. AI as a Compass for Assessment Data. GlidePath leverages AI to act as a compass for your academic journey. Instead of just looking at recent results, an AI agent can analyse years of your assessment data — exam results, project feedback, and reports — to identify non-obvious patterns, consistent strengths, and areas of momentum that a human might miss. It transforms this raw data into the “plain-English summaries” that give you and your adviser a clear, insightful starting point for a discernment conversation.

2. AI as a “Socratic Partner” in Reflection. The critical “Reflect” phase of the discernment loop is also amplified by AI. After taking a “tryable step,” you can engage your AI agent — grounded in your Context Profile — as a Socratic partner. This dialogue helps you connect your real-world experiences to new possibilities, turning reflection from a simple summary into a powerful engine for discovery.

3. AI for Curating the “Field Atlas”. For the Careers Adviser, AI becomes an essential tool for keeping the “Field Atlas” dynamic and relevant. An AI can continuously scan industry reports, news, and job markets to identify emerging roles and skills. This allows the adviser to move from manual research to strategic curation, ensuring the opportunities presented to students are aligned with the real-time shifts of the modern workforce.

What advisers gain: time and clarity. You’re no longer a bottleneck and become what you’ve always been at your best: an inspirer who lights paths and invites students to walk them.

Parents — Why “Discernment” Empowers Your Child

We’re not hunting the perfect job. We’re teaching your child to discern well and decide well — again and again. Each term, they practise a light loop:

Discern with the Ikigai check → Decide one step this term → Do it → Reflect and update the Top-10.

Their assessment results don’t label them; they inform the next experiment. When the world shifts — as it will — the Field Atlas can shift too, curated by someone whose job it is to track these changes. The growth you’ll see is the kind that compounds: clearer thinking, smarter choices, follow-through. Personal reflections remain student-controlled; anything shared beyond that is aggregate field-level only.

Beyond Individual Planning to Leverage a Cohort Perspective

Your child isn’t navigating alone anymore. They’re part of a cohort whose shared exploration creates better opportunities for everyone. When their curiosity aligns with classmates’, schools respond with relevant speakers, partnerships, tasters, and pilot placements. When their interests diverge, they aren’t penalised — they’re supported to explore less crowded fields with equal rigour. That’s the core promise of GlidePath in an AI decade: not predicting the future, but building the capacity to navigate whatever future emerges.

Why the Urgency — and Why this Approach

Let’s say the quiet part out loud. The old bridge between education and employment has collapsed because memory-based value has been automated. When routine software coding tasks can be handled by AI systems, when data analysis can be completed in minutes rather than hours, the premium shifts to reasoning, judgment, and context — skills that aren’t built by passive recall, but by practice, reflection, and iterative decision-making.

GlidePath Studio is a practical adaptation: small steps, repeatable decisions guided by a shared Field Atlas, a quick Ikigai check, a tryable step, and humane, longitudinal use of assessment data. It puts the student in the driver’s seat, equips the Adviser with clean field-level signals generated by cohort exploration, and gives parents visibility into growth that matters.

How to Run GlidePath Next Term

Week 1. Students pick three fields from the Atlas, run the Ikigai check, and — before they leave the room — book the one step (an email, a conversation, a micro-project, or a shadow opportunity).

Week 10. Each student writes 150 words — what changed, what rose, what fell, and why — then re-ranks the Top-10 and meets the Adviser with substance.

Termly (Adviser). Publish a short Atlas Release Note and a field-level snapshot; use the patterns of cohort interest to arrange speakers, organise field visits, and develop pilot placements. Twice yearly, consider adds/retirements; annually, share a one-page review of what the Atlas unlocked and what to double down on next year.

That’s it. The map will keep changing. The answer isn’t a bigger map — it’s a better driver, powered by cohort signal.

Rule-of-Three Recap

• Centre the learner. A GlidePath is student-owned navigation — crafted with the aid of technology, updated each term — not a prediction handed down.

• Mobilise the cohort. 150 students produce honest, field-level signals that Advisers can act on — without ranking kids. This shared signal shapes real opportunities.

• Elevate ideas over origins. In the AI era, focus evaluation on clarity, originality, and reasoning — not provenance. This frees everyone to build what truly matters.

Appendix

The Student’s Role: From Passive Recipient to Active Seeker

In the new career landscape, students must shift from passively receiving advice to actively discerning their path. This involves several key practices:

• Embrace Discernment over Prediction: Instead of trying to predict the perfect job, students should engage in a continuous cycle of exploration. Using a framework with lenses like interest, strengths, opportunity, and tryability, they can take small, testable steps each term.

• Build an Identity Blueprint: Moving beyond a simple resume, students can create a Context Profile. This forward-looking document maps their core values, the problems that energise them, their unique perspectives, and their non-negotiables. This profile serves as a personal navigation tool to filter opportunities and communicate their purpose with clarity.

• Generate a Signal: By documenting their explorations and ranking their top fields of interest, students contribute to a larger cohort signal. This collective data shows where curiosity is clustering and what fields are gaining momentum. A single student’s interest is a hunch, but the aggregated interest of 150 students becomes a powerful discovery engine for the entire school community.

The Career Adviser’s Role: From Custodian to Inspirer

The adviser’s role shifts from being a gatekeeper of static information to becoming a curator of experiences and a coach for discernment.

• Leverage Cohort Patterns: The adviser gains access to a real-time dashboard of student interest. Seeing that fifteen students are exploring cybersecurity while only three are looking at traditional accounting is no longer just data — it’s actionable insight, and it allows the adviser to move from guesswork to targeted opportunity-making.

• Curate a Dynamic “Field Atlas”: The adviser becomes the “Steward-in-Chief” of a living map of potential career fields. This involves curating 20–30 relevant fields, keeping the language human-readable, and ensuring every field offers concrete, tryable steps a student can take this term. The Atlas is refreshed quarterly to keep pace with industry changes.

• Coach Discernment: Meetings are no longer about guessing what a student might want to do. Instead, they start with the student’s living Top-10 list and the small steps they’ve already taken. The adviser’s job is to help frame evidence, name trade-offs, and shape the next small experiment, turning field-level patterns into targeted opportunities like guest speakers, micro-placements, and sector visits.

The Partnership in Action

The partnership creates a powerful feedback loop that helps students navigate the fog:

1. Students Explore and Signal: Each student uses the Ikigai-inspired framework to take a small, tryable step in a field of interest and updates their Top-10 list.

2. Advisers Analyse and Curate: The adviser analyses the aggregated “cohort signal” to see where interest is spiking.

3. Opportunities are Created: Based on this data, the adviser curates relevant experiences — inviting a guest speaker from a popular field, organising a visit to a company showing high interest, or developing a pilot internship.

4. Students Gain Clarity: Students participate in these targeted opportunities, which provide them with real-world feedback to inform their next step and refine their Top-10 list.

This collaborative model turns career advice from a static, one-time decision into a dynamic, iterative process of discovery. It builds students’ capacity to navigate uncertainty, a critical skill in a world where the bridge between education and employment has collapsed.

About the Author: Greg Twemlow — © 2025 | All rights reserved. I write at the collision points of technology, education, and human agency, including:

Learning as Self-Authorship — Becoming the author of your learning, life, and legacy.
Creativity as a Sovereign Practice — Expressing what only you can bring into the world.
Agency in an Age of Intelligent Systems — Making decisive, value-aligned choices.
Remixing the World — Transforming existing ideas into new forms that inspire thoughtful examination.
Living in Alignment — Staying in tune with your values, ethics, and the people who matter.

Greg Twemlow, Designer of Fusion Bridge — Contact: greg@fusionbridge.org

Appendix — How High Schoolers Can Navigate the Career Fog that AI Created: Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What does “Career Fog” mean in the AI era?
A: Career Fog describes the uncertainty students face when old career maps collapse under AI disruption. It reflects a climate where entry-level roles and predictable pathways no longer exist, and discernment becomes the critical skill.

Q: What is the GlidePath Studio?
A: GlidePath Studio is a student-owned framework for navigating careers in the AI decade. It helps students run an iterative loop — Discern → Decide → Do → Reflect — supported by a Field Atlas of tryable options and a Top-10 preferences record.

Q: What is the Field Atlas?
A: The Field Atlas is a curated set of 20–30 career fields, each described in plain English, showing opportunity and offering concrete, tryable steps for students each term. It gives students a living map without predetermining their path.

Q: How does the Ikigai check fit into GlidePath?
A: Adapted from the Japanese idea of Ikigai, the check uses four lenses — Interest, Strengths, Opportunity, Tryability — to help students decide if a field is worth exploring this term.

Q: How does GlidePath use assessment data?
A: Students can upload exam results and feedback from across school years. Instead of labelling them, GlidePath treats this history as a compass that highlights consistent strengths and blind spots, helping students choose their next step.

Q: What role does AI play in GlidePath?
A: AI supports three key functions:

1. Acting as a compass by analysing long-term assessment data.

2. Serving as a Socratic reflection partner after tryable steps.

3. Assisting advisers in curating and refreshing the Field Atlas.

Q: How do Careers Advisers benefit?
A: Advisers move from guesswork to coaching discernment. With access to cohort-level signals, they can curate guest speakers, micro-placements, and opportunities aligned with genuine student demand.

Q: Why does cohort data matter?
A: When students share their Top-10 fields and one-line “why,” advisers see real-time patterns of curiosity across the cohort. This turns isolated guesses into collective discovery, enabling schools to respond with targeted opportunities.

Q: What is the ultimate goal of GlidePath?
A: The goal is not to predict perfect jobs but to build each student’s capacity for discernment — the ability to make clear, value-aligned choices in a shifting world. It equips them to navigate uncertainty with confidence