From Practice to Proof: Nevada’s Next Chapter in Individual Career Mapping
Written By: Tammy A. Westergard, MLS, CWDP, Workforce-Librarian-in-Residence
In the last post, we introduced Individual Career Mapping (ICM) as a people-first approach to career development, one that blends immersive exploration, structured assessment, personalized coaching, and data-driven planning to help Nevadans move forward with clarity and confidence.
So, what comes next?
Across Nevada, ICM is entering its next phase: moving from a promising, practitioner-led model to an evidence-informed workforce system that not only works in local settings, but can be measured, refined, and scaled.
From individual journeys to system learning
At the heart of ICM is labor-market literacy: the ability to understand real jobs, real pathways, and real opportunities. As ICM expands across libraries, schools, courts, shelters, and community organizations, GOED has been intentional about preserving what makes the model effective while strengthening how we document and learn from it.
That means:
- Treating exploration, readiness, and credentials as distinct stages, not interchangeable outcomes
- Using immersive VR field trips to correct misconceptions and deepen occupational understanding
- Positioning assessments as guidance tools
- Anchoring coaching and delivery in trusted local navigators through a Train-the-Trainer model
- Tracking learning, readiness, and credential progress through a statewide data dashboard
This disciplined approach allows Nevada to ask better questions, not just “did someone earn a credential?”, but did they understand the world of work well enough to choose the right path in the first place?
Libraries and navigators as workforce infrastructure
As ICM scales, one lesson has become clear: technology alone does not create workforce transformation. The model works because it is delivered by people, librarians, educators, navigators, and coaches who are embedded in their communities and trained to guide participants through a consistent, supportive process.
Sharing Nevada’s approach, nationally
This momentum will be shared on a national stage at the ACT Workforce Summit at UNLV January 30, 2026, where Nevada will open the day with a keynote and lead three data-focused sessions.
Together, these sessions will highlight:
- How labor-market literacy can be defined and measured as a learning construct
- How Train-the-Trainer models turn innovation into workforce infrastructure
- How work-based learning, paired with exposure and readiness context, improves alignment between classrooms and being on the job
Participants will engage with real implementation data, hear from practitioners and partners across Nevada, and explore how separating learning, readiness, and credentials leads to more intentional, and more equitable, career outcomes.
Why this moment matters
ICM began by helping individuals “read the world of work.” Today, it is helping Nevada build a workforce system that values understanding as much as access, evidence as much as innovation, and people as much as tools.
The ACT Workforce Summit is an opportunity to see that evolution in action, and to join a broader conversation about how workforce systems nationwide can move from pilots to proof.
