What are Career Pathways and What Do They Have To Do with Adult Education? Maureen Wagner CAACE Conference March 26, 2015

Career pathways are… What are career pathways? a series of connected education and training strategies and support services that enable individuals to secure industry relevant certification and obtain employment within an occupation and to advance to higher levels of future education and employment in that area.

“The U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor have made a joint commitment to promote the use of career pathways approaches as a promising strategy to help adults acquire marketable skills and industry-recognized credentials through better alignment of education, training and employment, and human and social services among public agencies and with employers.” Joint commitment to career pathways

Credential and degree attainment is critical to U.S. economic growth Existing mismatch between employer skill needs and available workforce Millions of low-skilled adults need a bridge back to education and training that is meaningful/relevant and will lead to family-sustaining jobs And – then there is WIOA Why the focus on career pathways?

WIOA Passage Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) signed into law on July 22, 2014 WIOA is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy. Hope Cotner, CORD

WIOA Career Pathway Definition Includes, as appropriate, education offered concurrently with and in the same context as workforce preparation activities and training for a specific occupation or occupational cluster. Organizes education, training, and other services to meet the particular needs of an individual in a manner that accelerates the educational and career advancement of the individual to the extent practicable. Enables an individual to attain a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent, and at least 1 recognized postsecondary credential. Helps an individual enter or advance within a specific occupation or occupational cluster. 6 Hope Cotner, CORD

Dorothy followed the yellow brick road. What pathway did you follow?

Expanding the Pipeline from Literacy to Careers Pathways Workforce Careers

Secondary Education (Traditional Pipeline) Adult Education (Returning Students) Postsecondary Education (Certificates and AAS) Postsecondary Education (B.A./B.S. and beyond) Pathways Career

Career Pathways

Integrating ABE/ASE/ESL Content into a Career Pathways Model Minnesota FastTRAC Career Pathways Model

Carreras en Salud Pre-CNA Bridge

Carreras en Salud Pre-LPN Bridge

What do career pathways have to do with adult education?

Low-wage, entry-level jobs should not be dead ends— they should be stepping stones to more productive employment.

Employability Skills Framework U.S. Department of Education. (2012)

Overall Framework

What can be done in the adult education classroom? Use career pathways maps as a tool for incorporating career awareness and development in the classroom in order to build reading comprehension, vocabulary development and math skills. Engage students in research on local labor market trends. Take an incremental approach when creating lesson plans. Start with basic foundational competencies required for the workplace Then focus on career pathway specific topics Finally move to occupation specific topics

What else can be done in the adult education classroom? Correlate job skills to basic academic skills (contextualize instruction). Concentrate instruction on these correlated skills. Use industry sectors and specific occupations as the context for reading, writing and math instruction. Make use of workplace materials, problems and scenarios to provide a motivating context for career pathways instruction.

At the end of the day, it’s about… Students Hope Cotner, CORD

Sixteen career clusters Career Cluster Information -

Career Pathways Resources

Questions? Maureen Wagner