In Puerto Rico, the Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico (DEPR) runs the Programa de Consejería Profesional en el Escenario Escolar (PCPEE), its professional school counseling program. DEPR describes the program as addressing students' academic, career and socioemotional development and as supporting each student in planning their life and career. Done well, that planning grows with the student. Done in a hurry, it becomes a conversation that is held once and forgotten.

The challenge: a plan without exploration

Life and career planning is only as strong as the options a student has actually seen. A DEPR guide for students lists occupational exploration hours among the requirements for finishing high school. When those hours and the planning conversation are treated as boxes to check, students can finish both without ever looking closely at a college, a trade or a career that fits them.

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 Puerto Rico schools. Students could choose more than one answer, and some responded more than once.

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

  • Connect exploration to life and career planning. Ask students to bring what they discover about colleges, trades and careers into their conversations with school counselors in the PCPEE, so their planning reflects real choices.
  • Make occupational exploration hours count. DEPR lists occupational exploration hours among the requirements for finishing high school. Help students use that time to look at careers they are curious about, not only ones that are convenient.
  • Show both academic and occupational routes. DEPR offers occupational and technical programs as well as academic ones at the secondary level. Give every student a way to compare postsecondary study, technical credentials, military service and work before they decide.
  • Make exploration self-serve. Let students explore on their own time, so counselor time goes to the conversations that need it.

Where the Student Pathway System™ goes

13th Year™ places an interactive college and career kiosk in a school's hallway, a modern guidance resource students use before, during and after school. Students can explore colleges, skilled trades, military service, scholarships and careers on their own time, then bring what they find into their life and career planning with school counselors. It supports, and does not replace, the PCPEE and school counselors.

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 Puerto Rico high schools, or request a kiosk for your school.