CSM Course for Education, Workforce and Economic Development, Summer Youth Programs

USET’s Office of Environmental Resource Management (OERM), in conjunction with partner SeeMore Impact Labs, is providing free access to a new type of online course called CSM, which combines both academic and employability training. All participants will also have a personal coach.  Participants from all educational backgrounds – high school students, young adults lacking a high school diploma, and those with high school diplomas or college degrees – can take part. CSM Course graduates will earn college math credit, a certificate of employability skills, and more.

OERM is accepting inquiries from programs at member Tribal Nations that would be interested in providing the CSM course this summer or fall for 10 to 100 or more participants. If you are interested, please contact julie@smilabs.org to schedule a meeting where you can learn more about the program and ask questions.

The program will be free this summer and fall, with many possible applications including:

  • Summer youth programs
  • Adult education, including GED/HSE training and college transition
  • Workforce development, including pre-apprenticeship training, preparation for CTE postsecondary programs, employee upskilling programs
  • Economic development, which can include community-wide programs that span secondary, adult, workforce development and employee upskilling programs

In addition, participants who complete CSM will be eligible to continue into an advanced technical math course that will prepare them for careers in both the water and wastewater industry, contributing to both safety and environmental needs within Tribal communities.

The CSM Course and Certificate

The self-paced, online CSM Course uses next-generation personalized learning technology to teach what its developers, SeeMore Impact Labs, call High Performance competencies: math and literacy; problem solving; the ability to learn independently; attention to detail and persistence; the intention to “knock it out of the ballpark”; and most importantly, deep, earned self-confidence. CSM takes most people 15-70 hours to complete, and can function on low-bandwidth internet on mobile devices, tablets or laptops.

The CSM Certificate earns college credit at colleges with almost 1 million people (including popular online colleges like Southern New Hampshire University and Western Governor’s University), and at most of these colleges, earns math credit that often satisfies the general education math requirements for an associate or bachelor’s degree. In addition, the course is aligned with the Common Employability Skills framework, which defines the transferable competencies needed across all industry sectors and positions.

In a national evaluation by Stanford Research Institute compared with gold-standard programs from McGraw-Hill and Pearson, CSM had the largest math and literacy gains and the highest student engagement. Interestingly, the same course is taken by disengaged, disconnected “opportunity” youth, as well as by corporate managers with advanced degrees: while different people need different skills, CSM’s High Performance competencies are of universal value. 

More information on CSM can be found at www.smilabs.org. To schedule a meeting to learn more about this opportunity, including the application process, please contact Julie Morrison at julie@smilabs.org.


This is a joint program between SeeMore Impact Labs and USET OERM, funded through grants to USET from both the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture.