The overall SAE philosophy is to transition students to the world of college and work by encouraging and supporting them as they explore potential career paths through work-based learning. During the Foundational SAE, students begin by selecting a potential career path that interests them. Using the knowledge and skills they acquire in class, they take an in-depth look at their future career and determine how to better prepare themselves to achieve their goals. Teachers assist students by helping them understand the depth of research they need to do to really understand all aspects encompassed by a career choice. The guidelines and rubric for the Foundational SAE allow students to move their research about their career from fundamental skills and information to analyzing their goals, plan of action, financial planning, and even workplace environment and safety.

The transition from Foundational SAE to Immersion SAE develops through the research the student conducts in their Foundational SAE and the evaluation of steps they plan to take to pursue their future career. The goal is to encourage the student to build on his or her Foundational SAE and include relevant experiences such as a job shadows, mock interviews, and work experience. Teachers may assist students by offering contacts with local businesses and setting up job shadow experiences or mock interviews, as well as promoting work experience programs such as Youth Apprenticeship. Students who takes their Foundational SAE to this level will transition to an Immersion SAE project based on their work experience program. In some instances, students may already have an immersion SAE but have not gone through the process of looking at it from a career perspective. In this situation, the student may begin their Foundational SAE based on their Immersion SAE project. The student will still work through their career research to develop their work experience program to correlate with their Immersion SAE. The timeline for this transition will depend on the grade of the student when he or she begins the Foundational SAE, as well as the motivation to transition from Foundational SAE to Immersion SAE project.

SAE for All provides the tools and resources needed to have a successful SAE experience—from Foundational to Immersion to a future career.