We are excited to announce some upcoming changes to the NAF Design, specifically related to our approach to Outcomes-Driven Work-Based Learning and to NAFTrack Certification.
First, it’s important to understand what NAFTrack is! We view NAFTrack as NAF's stamp on the skills and knowledge that students have acquired while in their academy. With a focus on Outcomes-Driven WBL, students are able to demonstrate the skills, aspirations and social capital they've developed in addition to providing relevant and meaningful feedback about their experiences. So, we have built the NAFTrack Certification platform as the technology to capture the Outcomes-Driven Work-Based Learning activities and provide feedback for students and educators.
Continued use of NAFTrack Certification: We will continue to offer NAFTrack Certification to students as the recognition of their experience, career planning journey, and skill mastery as validated by local employer partners. This certification signifies that the student has met NAF’s standards of future readiness, which holds value to NAF and within the context of NAF academies and their ecosystems. This certification represents a student’s achievement of a true NAF experience, including participation in multiple work-based learning opportunities, feedback, and mentorship from industry partners. Because this represents a high-quality experience aligned with our educational design, NAF will continue to track certification progress in the Academy Assessment as an indicator of high-quality academies and fidelity to our model.
New certification requirements: NAF is moving to a new equation of requirements that aligns with our outcomes-driven WBL approach, increasing the number of students participating in high-quality WBL experiences across the continuum, and ensuring that more students graduate from our academies identifying their next steps (aspirations), building the skills needed for success, and building their professional network to help them navigate their path forward.
For certification, a student must participate in 3+ WBL activities across the 3 phases of the WBL continuum (Career Awareness, Career Exploration, and Career Preparation) AND demonstrate a level of mastery of the 6 Future Ready Skills, as validated by an internship supervisor.
The requirements for NAFTrack Certification for the Class of 2025 are as follows:
Enrolled in a career connected program of study (as captured in the Data Collection form in the Fall of 2024). Follow this link for information about what "Career Connected Program of Study" means.
Participate in a WBL Preparation (Internship) Activity of at least 80 hours
One WBL activity from either Awareness or Exploration
Gradual requirement updates by graduation year: We have been gradually shifting toward the new requirements for the class of 2024 and 2025, with the expectation that the class of 2026 fully accomplishes experiences and requirements included in the full equation of the new NAFTrack Certification.
The following certification requirement update will be in place for the class of 2026:
The class of 2026 will be required to complete 3 WBL Activities, one from each category of Awareness, Exploration and Preparation.
With the changes in the formula for NAFTrack Certification, we shifted the tracking of course completion to the Data Collection and Academy Assessment Forms. This will significantly reduce the workload required for educators and allow you to focus on collecting WBL Activities in the WBL Tracker. If you are not yet familiar with the WBL Tracker, we have put together many resources and how-to materials available in the WBL section of ASH.
If you have any questions, we encourage you to reach out to your Portfolio Manager or contact the Support Team by submitting a ticket in ASH (click the Yellow Question Mark on the bottom right of this page).
