In collaboration with and support from Amazon Web Services, Futurenav will serve students seeking ways to advance their prospects in an AI-driven workforce, increasing their competitiveness
Media Contacts:
| ETS: | mediacontacts@ets.org |
|---|---|
| CECS: | Lola Alapo | lalapo@utk.edu |
| AWS: | aws-inquires@amazon.com |
PRINCETON, N.J. and KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - (September 15, 2026) — ETS and the College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies (CECS) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville announced today a pilot of Futurenav, ETS's career exploration and assessment platform. The pilot will launch through CECS as part of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance.
CECS joins the California State University system, Brandeis University, and American University as pilot institutions for Futurenav, marking one of the platform's broadest rounds of campus adoption since its launch last fall. Starting this month, Futurenav will be fully integrated into CECS’s introductory “Design Your Career. Design Your Degree” course and incorporated into select CECS academic programs, courses, and student services initiatives.
The pilot itself will center on a limited group of CECS students, while Futurenav will also be available to students across the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Students will also be able to upload their CliftonStrengths assessments into Futurenav, the first time the platform has incorporated a third-party assessment to support students' career readiness journeys.
“The College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies (CECS) was founded with a clear mission: to empower all learners with the skills and knowledge to thrive in careers of the future. Our collaboration with ETS and Futurenav heightens that mission by giving students a more personalized, evidence-based way to understand their strengths, explore emerging career pathways, and connect what they learn in the classroom to meaningful opportunities in the workforce. By combining Futurenav’s innovative technology with CECS’s industry partnerships, experiential learning, and future-focused curriculum, we can meet students where they are and help them forge a path from education to a rewarding career,” says Ozlem Kilic, Vice Provost at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and CECS Founding Dean.
Supporting Career Exploration at CECS
Futurenav is ETS's career GPS for every student – personalized, evidence-based, and connected to real jobs – with proof institutions can stand behind. The platform brings:
- Career pathways personalized to each student from day one
- Durable skills and career interest assessments, grounded in ETS’s measurement science
- Internship and job matching using AI models informed by millions of real-world job transitions
- Continuity across the career exploration, navigation, and placement journey in one place
- Institutional insights, including visibility into engagement, usage, and outcomes across student populations
By pairing individual student guidance with institution-level analytics, Futurenav is designed to help schools scale career services, while giving students a more personalized view of their options after graduation. Over the coming months, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and ETS will focus on evaluating the adoption of Futurenav at scale, measuring student engagement and outcomes, and determining the benefits of a long-term deployment strategy across University of Tennessee, Knoxville's student population.
"Futurenav creates an AI-enabled bridge for students from learning to earning," said Ken Eisner, Managing Director of Global Higher Education to Workforce and K-16 Skills at ETS. "Through this pilot, CECS can engage students earlier in their career exploration and ease the last-mile burden on career services teams supporting thousands of students. We're excited to partner with University of Tennessee, Knoxville and AWS to bring that vision to campus — it's a great proof point for what Futurenav can do at scale, and the kind of collaboration we want to build on as we bring more institutions into this work."
The CECS pilot builds upon a broader initiative between AWS and ETS aimed at expanding access to career success for students who face barriers to it. CECS is the first institution where ETS and AWS are bringing that initiative to life through Futurenav, and AWS is interested in extending it to additional schools as the partnership grows.
"AWS is committed to building partnerships that prepare students for the jobs and opportunities of tomorrow. Access to Futurenav for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville student body, reaching more than 34,000 students across every program, demonstrates that personalized, technology-driven career guidance can work at scale. This pilot is a model for what's possible when education, technology, and workforce solutions come together,” said Faisal Hanafi, Director of Education and State and Local Government at Amazon Web Services.
Looking Ahead
With Cal State, Brandeis, American University, and now CECS on board, ETS is building a growing network of pilot campuses for Futurenav, reaching students across a range of institution types and geographies. Each new pilot gives ETS a broader view of how the platform performs across different student populations, helping refine Futurenav ahead of a wider release. As more schools join, ETS expects that impact to extend well beyond this initial group of pilot institutions.
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About ETS
ETS is a global education and talent solutions organization enabling lifelong learners to be future ready. Our mission—advancing the science of measurement to power human progress—drives our focus on helping everyone, everywhere, demonstrate their skills and chart their path to future readiness for life. We deliver trusted assessments and skills solutions—including TOEFL, TOEIC, GRE, Praxis, and Futurenav—and groundbreaking initiatives powered by our Research Institute. With a global footprint in more than 200 countries and territories, we help over 50 million individuals each year measure their proficiency and unlock new opportunities. Learn more at www.ets.org.
About CECS
The College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies (CECS) is a first-of-its-kind college revolutionizing the future of higher education by serving as a hub for campus collaboration to develop cross-cutting, innovating curriculum and provide all learners at the University of Tennessee with access to emerging technologies.
Founded in July 2023, CECS is dedicated to equipping students with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in careers of the future while revolutionizing the landscape of higher education.
About Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is guided by customer obsession, pace of innovation, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. By democratizing technology for nearly two decades and making cloud computing and generative AI accessible to organizations of every size and industry, AWS has built one of the fastest-growing enterprise technology businesses in history. Millions of customers trust AWS to accelerate innovation, transform their businesses, and shape the future. With the most comprehensive AI capabilities and global infrastructure footprint, AWS empowers builders to turn big ideas into reality. Learn more at aws.amazon.com and follow @AWSNewsroom.