To have a meaningful, fulfilling career in the 21st century workplace, students need technical and academic skills as well as the ability to think and work collaboratively with others. Career education must begin in middle school or earlier to allow students time to develop the aptitudes, skills and attitudes necessary to develop an awareness of their chosen career. Middle school is an important transition stage between elementary and high school and provides the perfect opportunity for life or career planning through the development of skills, knowledge, attitudes and awareness of careers. This article discusses the positive steps undertaken by the Virginia Department of Education to reinforce career planning through its implementation of the Academic and Career Plan (ACP). The ACP is a personalized learning plan that aligns academic and career goals with the student's course of study. Slated to begin in the 2011-2012 academic year, all schools are required to develop a personal ACP for each seventh-grade student with completion by the fall of the student's eighth-grade year.