The CAE Critical Thinking Skills Program
Help students build and demonstrate the workforce skills that employers value most—critical thinking, problem solving, and communication.
Workforce Readiness in the Age of AI
AI and automation are reshaping the way we learn, work, and communicate. Technical expertise evolves rapidly, but the ability to think critically, analyze information, and communicate effectively prepares students to succeed in jobs that don’t yet exist and to contribute meaningfully as engaged citizens.
CAE’s Critical Thinking Skills Program is a flexible solution that helps institutions teach and measure these human-centered skills—ensuring students are adaptable, career-ready, and equipped for lifelong success.
How the Critical Thinking Skills Program Works
The Critical Thinking Skills Program’s components provide a proven approach to building and measuring workforce skills. These can be implemented as a comprehensive solution or tailored to fit your institution’s goals.
Professional Development
Support educators to incorporate critical thinking skills into their course content and teach higher-order skills with confidence. CAE also provides training and guidance support to faculty who want to develop their own practice performance tasks.
Critical Thinking Skills Framework
Help students understand and learn the seven steps of effective critical thinking and develop a critical thinking vocabulary.
Critical Thinking Performance Tasks
Provide students with opportunities to deliberately practice applying reasoning, analysis, and communication in real-world scenarios aligned with course content—making coursework more relevant and future-focused.
Performance-Based Assessments
Measure and monitor student growth in critical thinking, problem solving, and communication. Our assessments provide actionable data for institutions and personalized reports students can share with employers to demonstrate workforce readiness.
Teach, Measure, and Practice Higher-Order Schools From Middle School Through College
The Critical Thinking Skills Program is available for grades 6–12 and higher education.
Grades 6–12
Prepare students to graduate with confidence and ready for any pathway—college, careers, or military service.
Higher Education
Equip graduates to stand out in the job market and ready to contribute with the skills employers value most.
Proven Results, Real Impact
Over the past 20 years, CAE has helped more than 850,000 students strengthen their workforce readiness. Research shows that students who perform better on CAE’s assessments achieve higher GPAs, enjoy stronger post-graduation outcomes, and are rated more highly by employers.
Partner With CAE to Build Workforce Readiness
CAE’s Critical Thinking Skills Program gives every student the opportunity to build, practice, and demonstrate the workforce skills that last a lifetime.