Career Pathways Initiatives

Career pathways are not new; rather, they are the latest evolution of career education. A career pathway is distinguished by a sequence of articulated academic and career courses that begin in high school and conclude in an industry‐recognized certificate or licensure, an associate degree, or a baccalaureate degree or beyond (Offenstein, Moore, & Shulock, 2009). Career pathways are most often developed, implemented, and maintained through partnerships among secondary and postsecondary education, and employer partners.

Georgia is one of at least 33 states that require districts to provide Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs for high school students (Education Commission of the States, 2008), and when announcing a new requirement that in the fall of 2012 all Georgia 9th graders will select a career path and follow a related curriculum, state officials described their decision as “following a national trend” (Badertscher, 2011). Georgia students participating in a CTE program will receive certificates detailing their career-related courses in addition to their high school diploma, and school districts will have the flexibility to select from 17 pathway clusters that best meet their area’s needs. One model in use is the Georgia Central Educational Center’s model, the major tenets of which are (1) conducting a needs assessment, (2) developing partnerships with local businesses and at least one technical college, and (3) working toward seamlessness integration (e.g., offering dual enrollment opportunities for students) (Detgen & Alfeld, 2011).

In a report on the growing interest in providing career pathways, Offentstein, Moore, and Shulock (2009) posit that predictions of workforce shortages are fueling the CTE trend. Even though some claim the best-paying jobs of the future all will require postsecondary education, for many students, a two-year degree or occupational certification in a high-demand 21st century technology may be more rewarding both personally and financially (Goodwin, 2012).

More than just a second life for vo-tech

In the last few decades, vocational education has been transformed from training students for relatively low‐skilled occupations to educating students for higher skilled careers with greater opportunities for advancement. New terminology—career education replaces vocational technical education—reflects these changes. Newer CTE models emphasize the linkages between secondary and postsecondary education and increase the importance of community colleges as a bridge from secondary education to work and more advanced study in college.

Interest in CTE surged anew when Congress passed the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 2006, which broadened the language and purposes of earlier laws. The new law emphasized the need for America to be competitive in a global marketplace and to (1) focus on the academic achievement of career and technical education students, (2) strengthen the connections between secondary and postsecondary education, and (3) improve state and local accountability (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). When releasing the administration’s proposal for 2013, however, Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan called for a major makeover of the 2006 law, saying it still isn’t doing enough to prepare students to enter the labor market (Klein, 2012). Accordingly, the Obama Administration included $1 billion for CTE in its FY 2013 budget, while calling for states to set up a competition to distribute funds rather than continue to follow a distribution formula (Klein, 2012).

States embrace their new roles

In Investing in America’s Future (U.S. Department of Education, 2012), the president calls for states to identify in-demand occupations in high-growth industries, disseminate this information to local CTE administrators, and also share the information with students and parents. Most states have begun aligning programs with the Careers Pathways Initiative (Whitaker, 2008), and some states, such as California, are developing articulation agreements for applied associate degrees awarded at community colleges that students can “apply” towards a Bachelor of Applied Science degree (RP Group, 2009). Another approach by states is “upside down degrees,” in which students take their technical work at the community college and then complete a general education curriculum at a four‐year university.

Other approaches include:

• Eleven states (Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Wisconsin) participated in the design phase of the Accelerating Opportunity initiative, which focuses on jobs, the economy, and improving opportunities for adults. They began a redesign of the pathways between Adult Basic Education and postsecondary education and training in March 2011, and the three-year implementation phase began in December 2011. Five states are implementing the initiative in at least eight colleges, with the goal of improving outcomes for at least 3,600 students per state (Pleasants, 2011).
• The Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship Program, the largest apprenticeship program for high school students in the nation, serves about 2,000 students at a time and is offered in nearly half of the state’s school districts. Juniors and seniors who participate in the two-year program complete up to 900 hours of work-based learned and related courses, and many also earn college credits. Over 85 percent of graduates are employed after leaving high school, and 98 percent of participating employers say they would recommend the program to others (Symonds, Schwartz, & Ferguson, 2011).
• The National Academy Foundation (NAF) network of about 500 career academies serves more than 50,000 students in 41 states. A career academy is a personalized small learning community within a high school, in which a subset of students and teachers participate in a two-, three-, or four-year span. Teachers from different subjects work as a team to manage the program, which focuses on a local need in an industry that is healthy and can provide a cadre of partners interested in supporting the program. NAF academies focus on finance, hospitality and tourism, information technology, and engineering, and with their corporate partners, provide internships that last from 6–10 weeks. The program’s graduation rates are 23 percent higher than the overall graduation rate in the schools where they operate (Symonds, Schwartz, & Ferguson, 2011).

Reported benefits

Backers of CTE site several benefits from developing career pathways, including reduced high school drop‐out rates, increased aspirations among students, increased college‐going, improved transitions to workforce and postsecondary education, reduced remediation, and persistence in postsecondary education. The research literature does suggest that students who take CTE courses have better employment outcomes, feel more certain about their career direction, and can experience improved postsecondary outcomes if academic coursework is not sacrificed (Offenstein, Moore, & Shulock, 2009). In addition, high school CTE programs boast a completion rate of close to 90 percent—far higher than the 75 percent rate of U.S. high schools in general (Rich, 2011) or the 60 percent graduation rate of colleges (Schneider, 2010).

References:

Badertscher, N. (2011, December 12). Georgia to require students to pick career path. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved from http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-to-require-students-1257641.html

Detgen, A. & Alfeld, C. (2011). Replication of a career academy model: The Georgia central educational center and four replication sites. Issues & Answers. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED515067.pdf

Education Commission of the States. (2008). StateNotes: Career/technical education. Retrieved from http://mb2.ecs.org/reports/Report.aspx?id=1870

Goodwin, B. (2012). Don’t overlook middle-skill jobs. Educational Leadership 69(7), 86–87.

Klein, A. (2012, April). Overhaul proposed for career, tech. ed. program. Education Week 31(29), 25.

Offenstein, J., Moore, C., & Shulock, N. (2009). Pathways to success: Lessons from the literature on career technical education. Sacramento, CA: California State University Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy.

Pleasants, R. (2011). Building integrated pathways to sustainable careers: An introduction to the accelerated opportunity initiative. Jobs for the Future. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED523103.pdf

RP Group. (2009, November). CTE Transfer research project: Themes from a literature review of career & technical education transfer. [Literature review brief]. Retrieved from http://www.rpgroup.org/sites/default/files/CTETransferLitReviewBrief.pdf

Rich, M. (2011, July 10). Tough calculus as technical schools face deep cuts. New York Times, p. A1.

Schneider, M. (2010). Finishing the first lap: The cost of first-year student attrition in America's four-year colleges and universities. Washington, DC: American Institutes of Research.

Symonds, W. C., Schwartz, R. B., & Ferguson, R. (2011). Pathways to prosperity: Meeting the challenge of preparing young Americans for the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: Pathways to Prosperity Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

U.S. Department of Education. (2007). Introduction. Carl D. Perkins career and technical education act of 2006. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/sectech/leg/perkins/index.html#intro

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education. (2012). Investing in America’s future: A blueprint for transforming career and technical education. Washington DC: Author.

Whitaker, J. (2008). Career pathways: What they are and why we need them. Retrieved from https://www.acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/Publications_and_Online_Media/files/files-techniques-2008/Career-Pathways-What-They-Are-and-Why-We-Need-Them.pdf