Career Pathways

By Terry GardnerWayne State CollegeP-12 Administration

Career Pathways

• What are they?

• How do they work?

• Who benefits from them?

Definition of Career Pathways

The career Pathway Concept, whether applied to coordinated secondary-postsecondaryprograms or to “second chance” programs for adults, calls for a high level of involvement on the part of employers and community organizations and a commitment to collaboration between secondary and postsecondary educators.

My Style Definition

Structured sets of courses that build upon each other to develop academic and technical skills to move to the next phase of education.

Why do they work?

The career pathway systems benefit all by offering:Context- How academic concepts are used outside the classroomPurpose- motivating students to stay in schoolFocus and flexibility- guiding students toward personal and professional goals while providing the flexibility to change focus areas at any time

Rigor and Relevance- Integrating academic subjects with workplace contextLevel Playing Field- Supporting diverse student learning stylesGuidance for career selection and a foundation career pursuit- of direction and sequence of courses that supports identified interests and goals

Continued:

Opportunities for interdisciplinary problem-solving and critical thinking- “knowledge workers” who understand systems and can solve problems in teams.

A foundation for lifelong learning, and lifelong earning- building for a future that allows students to fulfill their potential on the job, at home, and within communities

Main Focus areas:

Business

Schools using career pathways

Counselors

Students

Business

Business sees that career pathways are becoming one of the most important parts of the educational world.

Industrial world recognizes that students that are part of a pathway program graduate with more skills and education.

Business continued:

Businesses find that students are more highly skilled and well-educated individuals to support industry growth. Businesses help build the pathways which makes for an easy transition into the workforce.Nontraditional students are taking more pathways to nontraditional jobs. Women welders and men nurses. Career pathways make this into an easy transition into their careers.

Business continued:

Women in nontraditional jobs on average earn 20% more than women in traditional jobs.

Presenting pathways in a way that shows how you can align with career interests, giving students multiple opportunities to explore, overcoming stereotypes of appropriate jobs for their gender.

Businesses continued:

Educating and preparing students for the future will take planning and data collecting in order to correct what many think is a growing issue of falling behind in global economy and job market.

Schools using a form of Career Pathways

Arizona

Arizona- Programs include a complete list of current competencies, which are organized on four levels that begin in middle schools:1) Technological foundations (middle schools)2) Courses in 5 occupational clusters (lead to a

pathway 9-10)3) Specific instruction (grades 11-12)4) Tech prep-community colleges, entry jobs

Indiana

Indiana wants to align all courses in the pathways to technical certificates, dual credit, or career credentials to earn a high wage.

Indiana started with end goals and working backwords.

South Carolina

SC- enacted the Education Development Act (EEDA) South Carolina designed this pathway to improve school student achievement, graduation rates, and preparedness for college and high- skilled jobs

Nevada

1. Students are motivated to see the relevance of their studies

2. Pathways to achieve the students goals

3. Employer involvement is relevant to learning

4. Community members are involved

5. INVOLVED parents6. Educators understand community needs7. Learning experiences in the community lead 8. The school to career program (STC) impacts dropout rates

Project Lead the Way (PLTW)

PLTW- purpose is to develop technologically literate high school graduates, to generate interest in engineering- related fields.

There is a designed course sequence with all of these programs.

Counselors

Counselors

Counselors should know their students and what their interest are in the educational and job interest that their students want to pursue. The career pathway framework provides common objective to prepare students.

Counselors continued:

It is an important part that students know about possible tutoring programs, workshops, hands on learning in certain areas were sessions with business professionals are available to help answer questions. Without structured guidance activities, students may drift through high school without learning about all career opportunities available.

Counselors continued:

Career counseling resulted in higher levels of success and higher levels of overall life satisfaction. Counseling and guidance programs include the components of individual student planning, guidance curriculum, responsive services, and system support. PLC’s (Professional Learning Councils) have been created to help in this transition.

Students

Students

1.Need to have a good structured road map to understand their possibilities. 2.Overview of career choices3. Types of nontraditional opportunities

Without any of the previous steps we are developing a stagnant society of learners.

Students continued:

Middle school- general exploration, life skills, study skills High school- more specific of an area to move into post secondary and career ready programs.

Career Pathways

Terry GardnerThank you