As a new school year begins, there’s no better time to strengthen the connections between students, schools, colleges, employers, and communities. This month, we’re sharing exciting Compass updates designed to help students navigate their futures, new opportunities for employers to engage through regional partnerships and work-based learning, expanded career exploration resources, and the latest employers and Career Profiles joining Compass.
Keep reading to see what’s new!
Students welcomed back to Compass with new design and homepage
The student Compass experience is better than ever. The latest release includes a completely redesigned student homepage and a refreshed user interface. The homepage features more guidance and prompts, a new Smart Moves section with career-related advice, easy-to-review new career opportunities and organizations, and more.
The overall site experience includes a softened color palette, clearer calls-to-action, more context and direction, and new display cards for employers, colleges, careers, and work-based learning. A new Your Path page walks students through the steps of career exploration and planning – and how Compass supports them the entire way. This page will be further developed with customization for each student so they can track their progress throughout Compass.
Partnership with The Chamber – Grand Forks/East Grand Forks to drive future workforce
Golden Path and The Chamber – Grand Forks/East Grand Forks are partnering to support regional employers with future workforce development while also driving hands-on career experiences for high school and college students. The effort builds on the impactful work already underway through the Career Impact Academy and other programming. The collaboration will foster additional connections between students and employers through our platform, Compass, by supporting career exploration and planning, internship opportunities, and more.
The Chamber and Golden Path collaboration will provide increased outreach to employers, guidance and resources to strengthen workforce strategies, preferred pricing on Golden Path employer memberships, and more.
“One of The Chamber’s most important responsibilities is connecting our members with the talent that will drive our region’s future,” says Barry Wilfahrt, President and CEO of The Chamber – Grand Forks/East Grand Forks. “By helping Chamber members understand what Compass is and offering preferred pricing on Golden Path advanced memberships, we’re making it easier than ever to inspire young people, build relationships, and strengthen our local workforce pipeline.”
Golden Path already offers similar chamber partnerships with Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo and Detroit Lakes to strengthen employer, student, and school connections.
Employers – now is the time to connect with schools and students
There’s widespread energy around student career connections – locally and across the state and country – and we encourage employers to take advantage by getting their companies involved. By connecting with schools and students now, they’re building valuable pathways for securing future talent. They’re also helping students explore and prepare for their futures.
“We’re seeing incredible momentum right now in breaking down the barriers between education and industry,” says Wayde Sick, State Director at North Dakota Career and Technical Education (NDCTE). “At both the state and federal levels, the focus is on work-based learning and driving real-world interactions between students, schools, and employers. As an employer, there is no better time to get connected with schools and students.”
By creating an account in Compass, you can share your company, careers, work-based learning experiences, and events with high school and college students, all in one location.
Compass highlighted at NDCTE Professional Development Conference highlighted Compass in eight sessions
We wrapped up another North Dakota Career & Technical Education Professional Development Conference, spending three days with educators, career counselors and advisors, work-based learning coordinators, and administrators on everything related to career exploration, WBL, and connecting schools with industry.
We participated in or led eight different breakout sessions and educator meetings. Golden Path also hosted a booth in the exhibitor hall. During our presentations, we focused on three topics:
- Making sure all educators are aware of new opportunities for them and their students, and how they can nudge students to learn more by just forwarding emails from Compass
- Reviewing new Compass features and the new user interface
- Getting feedback from schools on our new employer insights function, intended to give employers more insight into what’s happening with their profiles, how many students are viewing them, what classes they should be connecting with, and more
It’s always great to reconnect with educators as the summer wraps up, and we couldn’t be more excited about starting the 2026-2027 school year with new employers, new features within Compass, and new partnerships in place.
Additional career exploration opportunities available for ND students
North Dakota students have increased access to career exploration opportunities. Compass employer profiles are now directly integrated into the RUReady.ND.gov platform. This enables North Dakota students to explore these real, regional employers and careers alongside RUReady’s existing data about careers.
CareerViewXR, providing immersive career exploration experiences, is also now available to every K-12 student in North Dakota through RUReady.ND.gov, including newly added access for elementary schools. CareerViewXR, developed by Be More Colorful, brings real workplaces directly into classrooms, helping students build career awareness early and connect learning to future opportunities.
North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction Levi Bachmeier recognizes the importance of supporting every student in understanding the vast opportunities that exist within North Dakota.
“One of our greatest responsibilities is helping students see what’s possible for their future,” Bachmeier said. “Tools like CareerViewXR remove barriers to exploration and ensure every student, regardless of location, can access meaningful career experiences. These early connections help students build purpose in their learning and make more informed decisions about their pathways.”
Additional Compass updates made for postsecondary schools
The latest steps in rolling out Compass to all 11 North Dakota University System institutions and the five state tribal colleges include optimizing Compass for how postsecondary schools manage work-based learning, job shadows, evaluations, and more. We are setting up each school’s programs and amenities, engaging users, and developing materials to help launch Compass to students. Our new employer insights page will also be available in a college version so institutions can see what programs students are interested in and how they can connect with students who have the skills and interests that align with their offered programs.
We’re excited to be one of the few platforms that can help employers connect with schools and students from middle school to high school and into college. Golden Path will continue to build out the solution with NDUS, with the hope of expanding our work to other states in the region.
Check out the new employers and Career Profiles in Compass
New employers join the Compass community every month, with some of the latest including:
- Northdale Oil in Grand Forks
- Cankdeska Cikana Community College in Fort Totten
- Community Living Services in Fargo
- Metropolitan Mechanical Contractors in Minneapolis
- Simply You Wellness in Bismarck
- Park Construction Company in Minneapolis
New and upcoming Career Profiles include:
- Data Center Electrician with the North Dakota’s Building Trades Union
- Fuel System Operator and Graphic Designer at Lund Oil
- Laborer, Foreman, and Superintendent at Kava Construction
Learn more about Golden Path employer memberships – which include Career Profiles.
Let us know about your events
If you have an event that you want us to include in our newsletter, please send us a note at info@goldenpath.net. If you are an employer and want to publish your event to schools and students, remember that you can do that through Compass. If you’re an educator wanting to invite employers to a school event (like a career fair or expo), you can do that in Compass too, choosing the employers you invite by industry, name, career cluster, or distance from you.
Upcoming events
- Aug. 26: UND Campus & Community Expo/Part-Time Jobs Fair, Grand Forks
- Sept. 3: NDSU Part-Time Jobs Fair, Fargo
- Sept. 8: NDSU Social Work Career Fair, Fargo
- Sept. 9: NDSU Meet the Firms: Careers in Accounting and Finance, Fargo
- Sept. 10: NDSU College of Health and Human Sciences Career Fair, Fargo
- Sept. 16-18: North Dakota League of Cities Annual Conference, Grand Forks
- Sept. 22: Greater North Dakota Chamber 2026 Policy Summit, Bismarck
- Sept. 23-25: North Dakota Society for Human Resource Management (ND SHRM) State Conference, Grand Forks
- Oct. 8-9: North Dakota School Board Association Annual Convention, Bismarck
- Oct. 21: GFMEDC’s BioScience Summit, Fargo
- Oct. 28: 2026 Northern Valley Career Expo, Grand Forks
- Nov. 12-13: Minnesota State Career and Technical Education Summit, Minneapolis
Connect with us
Contact us for more information or more opportunities with Golden Path Solutions.