North Carolina requires every middle and high school student in its public school districts to complete and revise a Career Development Plan (CDP) that helps them explore their interests and align their education with their career goals. The state sets minimum requirements, and each district provides the platform students use to build and update their plans.

The challenge: a plan without exploration

Keeping every student's plan current is a real lift for counselors and Career Development Coordinators. The plan is only as strong as the exploration behind it, and students who have not had time to look at their options tend to fill in the same few careers they already know.

What students tell us

Across the 13th Year™ network, students are most open early, and their options narrow as graduation gets closer:

  • 32%of 9th graders are weighing more than one path after high school. By 12th grade, 16% are.
  • 53%of 9th graders are interested in more than one career field, compared with 33% of seniors.
  • 11%of 9th graders say they are not sure yet what comes next. Only 2% of seniors say so.
  • 23%of students planning on college are also considering another path, such as the skilled trades, the military, work or a business of their own.

For planning, that means the most valuable exploration happens in the first years of high school, while students are still open to what they find.

Figures come from more than 3,800 responses students submitted at 13th Year™ kiosks and school links across the 13th Year™ network in 2026, not only North Carolina schools. Students could choose more than one answer, and some responded more than once.

Dual enrollment

Dual enrollment in North Carolina

North Carolina's dual enrollment program is Career and College Promise, authorized under G.S. 115D-20(4). It includes a College Transfer Pathway and a Career and Technical Education Pathway and is also offered through approved Cooperative Innovative High Schools. Currently enrolled North Carolina high school students who meet pathway criteria, including home school and private school students, can take College Transfer and CTE pathway courses, and the North Carolina Community College System describes the program as tuition free to eligible students.

Students who explore careers early can choose between the College Transfer and Career and Technical Education pathways with a clearer sense of where each one leads. Daily exploration, for example on a 13th Year™ kiosk, can help students arrive at that conversation with clearer interests.

Official program information: North Carolina Community College System and NC Department of Public Instruction →

What students need before the planning meeting

The most productive planning conversations happen when a student walks in with something to talk about: a career they read about, a program that surprised them, a question about the military or an apprenticeship. That kind of curiosity comes from exposure, and exposure works best when it is frequent, self-directed and part of the school day.

Practical ways to build exploration into the year

  • Give every revision something new. Build in regular chances for students to explore between CDP updates, so each revision reflects what they have learned.
  • Show careers students have not heard of. Exposure to unfamiliar programs, trades and industries is what broadens a plan beyond the obvious choices.
  • Connect CTE to what comes next. Help students see how their career and technical courses lead to college programs, apprenticeships, the military and jobs.
  • Make exploration self-serve. Let students explore on their own time, so counselor and coordinator time goes to the conversations that need it.

Where the Student Pathway System™ goes

13th Year™ places an interactive college and career kiosk in your hallway, a modern guidance resource students use before, during and after school. Students explore colleges, skilled trades, military service and careers every day, so they have more to bring to their CDP each time they revise it. It supports, and does not replace, your district's CDP platform and the work of your counselors and Career Development Coordinators.

For administrators, the questions are usually privacy and workload. The 13th Year™ platform is FERPA aligned and designed with student privacy considerations in mind. It does not access the high school's student information system, and no student data is sold. Kiosks come at no cost to the school, and 13th Year™ delivers, installs and supports every kiosk, so it is built to support your counselors, not burden them.

See how 13th Year™ supports North Carolina high schools, or request a kiosk for your school.