Office of College, Career and Technical Education

MyCAP college, career, & civic ready

Introduction

My Career and Academic Plan (MyCAP) is a structured, student-driven, college, career, and civic readiness framework designed to ensure every student, Pre-K through grade 12, gains the knowledge, skills, and experiences in personal, social, emotional, and behavioral development, career development, and academic and technical learning to navigate an individual path to success.

The MyCAP process engages students in a continuum of learning grounded in the discovery of individual interests, skills, and talents. The process allows students to be the drivers of their education as they navigate career exploration aligned with personal interests, skills, and talents, choose courses that are aligned with both their personal attributes and career interests, and identify the personal, social, emotional, and behavioral skills needed to create and implement their individual plan for postsecondary success.

In addition to the MyCAP process created at the school level, MyCAP requires a tool for individual student development. The tool (an online platform) provides a place for individuals to access a range of self-exploration, career exploration, and future planning tools and strategies that capture student growth and development in an online portfolio. (see MEFA Pathway below)

District And School Goals

MyCAP implementation supports district and school goals such as:

  • completion of MassCore (recommended rigorous high school program of study); increase the number of students who take and pass Advanced Placement (AP) and college-level academic courses;
  • increase the number of students choosing designated Pathways;
  • increase student attendance and engagement;
  • increase high school graduation rates;
  • increase the number of students enrolling, persisting, and attaining a postsecondary credential.

MyCAP Training and Technical Assistance

The Department, with support from the Public Consulting Group (PCG), provides several ways in which schools can access support and training as they create their MyCAP process:

  1. Three-day workshop series for districts/schools new to MyCAP
  2. Two workshops for those districts/schools in year 2 or year 3 of MyCAP implementation
  3. MyCAP "Coaching" opportunity for districts/schools in need of more intense support
  4. Office Hours for specific challenges

MEFA Pathway

MEFA Pathway is a robust online system that supports the implementation of MyCAP and is free to all districts/schools in the Commonwealth. This system, developed in partnership with the Massachusetts Education Financing Authority (MEFA), allows students to create a secure individual portfolio, search for colleges and careers, create a resume, document course selections and completion, sets goals for personal/social development, career development, and academic and technical learning, complete the Common Application for college admissions and more. New for the school year 2025-2026 is a Work-Based Learning (WBL) component where students can identify opportunities for internships, apprenticeships, and/or capstone projects and document the learning from their experiences.

Districts/schools may choose to purchase a different online system, but the state highly recommends the use of MEFA Pathway for MyCAP as well as for those schools required to use it for work-based learning including CTE Chapter 74 programs, Innovation Career Pathways, Early College designated programs, and other career connected learning programs supported by state funds i.e., Connecting Activities

Resources for MyCAP Implementation

  1. Implementation Guidance
  2. Family Engagement
  3. MyCAP High School Scope and Sequence
  4. MyCAP Middle School Scope and Sequence

For more information about MyCAP contact Lisa Harney , Coordinator of Secondary Supports.

Last Updated: August 9, 2022

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