This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June. Today’s guest blogger is Marge Rubin, College & Career Pathways Project Coordinator of the Wisconsin Career Pathways Website Project at Fox Valley Technical College, Appleton, WI.

With over 420 school districts in Wisconsin, each governed by a separate school board, how does a state get everyone involved in moving forward with developing Programs of Study?  By building a dynamic, data-driven Web site at www.WICareerPathways.org!  The site integrates development of secondary-to-postsecondary Programs of Study with students’ Plans of Study within Wisconsin’s Career Clusters’® framework.  Supported by the Wisconsin Technical College System through Perkins funding, a large inclusive cross-functional project team kicked off this initiative in 2008 and came up with a multi-phased plan.  Fox Valley Technical College took the lead on behalf of all 16 technical colleges to design and develop the Web site.

Our first step included arranging occupations and postsecondary programs by clusters and pathways.  Each cluster has its own webpage containing a brief description and links to the pathways within the cluster. Each pathway is presented on a separate webpage.  We created a web-based interactive tool that moves developers through a step-by-step process to create a visual depiction of a Program of Study.  Users can also access Wisconsin’s program-of study implementation guide and search and view a repository of published programs of study.

During the second phase, a site to help middle and high school students explore colleges and careers was developed.  By setting up an account at www.WICareerPathways/Students, students are driven to the Student Interest Survey for Career Clusters®.  After completing the survey, students land in a secure portal called MiLocker where a customized summary named MiClusters lists the 16 Career Clusters® in rank order based on survey results.  From the MiClusters listing, students can explore the 16 Career Clusters® and drill down into career pathways.  From the career pathways webpages, students can explore

• Majors/programs of Wisconsin’s higher education sectors
• An ample amount of specific career information
• Programs of study from their high schools

With one easy click, students can turn a Program of Study created by their high school into their personal Plan of Study, which they can edit to reflect their personal path and save in MiLocker.  School counselors can guide students as they use the student site, assist in creating an online Plan of Study, and share the student site during student/parent conferences.

During the third phase, we turned our attention to the needs of middle and high school counselors.  Counselors can log in to a secure portal to access school-wide and individual student Web site activity.  The best-ever feature is that counselors can view what students have in their MiLocker profile, including Plans of Study.

The advantage of a web-based resource is that it allows for ongoing development.  What’s next?  We are expanding the site to include features for business and industry to connect with students.  Stay tuned!

Marge Rubin’s breakout session, All on Board the Engine Driving Wisconsin’s Career Pathways Initiative!, will be held Wednesday, June 12 from 8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Rubin’s co-presenters are Jennifer Wagner, K-12 Relations Manager, Moraine Park Technical College, Fond du Lac, WI, and Jay Stulo, Director-Learning Innovations & Technology, Appleton, WI.

More about the Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the National Career Clusters® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers, and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June. Today’s guest blogger is Gregg Christensen, Entrepreneurship and Career Education Specialist, Nebraska Department of Education, Lincoln, NE.

Building Strategic Alliances with Business/Industry, Workforce Development, and Economic Development

Nebraska Career Education
SYSTEM

Business-Industry Linkages…

Partnering with Workforce Development and Economic Development

Stakeholder Involvement…

Do all these sound like familiar themes related to Career Technical Education?  It’s easy to give lip service to them, but difficult to make a reality in effective and efficient ways.

Bringing together key partners to achieve buy-in, support and advocacy for important career technical education initiatives and projects has never been more crucial. The bottom line for many business and industry professionals is that they feel called upon for money, equipment, and advice, but not really “heard.”

Workforce Development and Economic Development agencies have different missions, different measures of success, and different “alphabet soups” of programs and initiatives.  Bridging that divide is difficult but doable.

Engagement of key stakeholders has to be more than a surface “bring ’em in, talk at ’em and let ’em go” exercise to meet a state or federal requirement.  Identifying who needs to be at the table, why they would want to be there, and what they (and you) will gain from working together is crucial, but an often overlooked step.

This session will share best practices for building strategic alliances with diverse group and review examples of strategic alliances built by the Nebraska Career Education (NCE) team and explore the tangible outcomes of these NCE system-driven collaborations including:

• Nebraska Standards for Career Ready Practice
• Career Readiness Modules
• Professional Development Modules
• H3 Website
• Preparation for Tomorrow Food and Nutritional Sciences project

Gregg’s breakout session, Building Strategic Alliances with Business/Industry, Workforce Development, and Economic Development is Monday, June 10 from 3:35 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the National Career Clusters® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers, and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June. Today’s guest blogger is Terry Carlile, Director, TLC Workforce Solutions.

How are you preparing students in the competitive job market? Whose pipeline are we filing? Gaining the effective partnerships of local employers for workforce exposure and training remains the key attribute of successful career programs. Learn how youth’s career interest assessment and the local high demand career outlook was meshed together to provide a training platform.

How to partner with workforce, educators and businesses for win-win-win scenarios will be the highlight of this subject. I’ve worked in the trenches of at-risk youth workforce programs and will share the reality of “how to”. It’ll be a fast, fun, informative and practical 1 hour and 25 minute excursion.

Resource:   www.tlcworkforcesolutions.com

Terry Carlile’s breakout session, Exposing and Engaging Students in Careers, will be held Wednesday, June 12 from 8:30 a.m. – 9:55 a.m.

 Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the National Career Clusters® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers, and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June. Today’s guest blogger is Logan Newman, Ophthalmic Fabrication Teacher at East High School in the Rochester City School District, New York.

Having been teachers in the Rochester City School District in New York for 12 years there are specific things we have noticed about our economically troubled area. Below are some important facts:

Fact: According to New York State data, 45.5% of students who start 9^th grade graduate high school after 4 years (2008 data)

Fact: According to NYS education department data only 5% of students are college or career ready

Fact: Students who participate in a Career Technical Experience (CTE) program are 3 times more likely to graduate from High School than a student with no CTE classes.

Fact: The Monroe County workforce data states that 39% of the current workforce and 26% of new hires have basic skill deficiencies

Fact: As many as 60 percent of the children described as “problem learners” have vision problems (American Optometric Association)

Fact: Students from economically disadvantaged families (we have the highest poverty rate of all school districts in NYS) who need glasses have opportunities to get free ones, but it requires they miss time from school, resulting in greater loss of education.

Fact: A teacher at our building (me) had experience and an associate’s degree in opticianary, but no materials to make glasses and no class was offered or developed to teach it

Taking these facts together gave us some insights into what we could do to make a difference within our school and community. Our community needs skilled workers to work in the ophthalmic fabrication industry and our students need both skills for available jobs and glasses to be able to see and improve their education classes. Unfortunately, funds to purchase the tools for these programs aren’t in most education budgets. Fortunately, a grant was offered to us that did allow us to develop our plan.

Using the money from the grant we purchased materials for an ophthalmic fabrication lab (photo of lab at right). We taught a small group of students the skills of opticians and developed a full year class curriculum.

During this full year course students have learned about the shape of the eye, why people need glasses, how to correct vision with glasses, and how to make glasses. They have learned about face shape and frame selection, as well as lens selection and needs for patients.

Students in the program are working with students within the building who need eyeglass repair and fitting. Within the next several months they will begin manufacturing glasses for students who need vision correction help.

Erie Community College in Williamsville, NY has one of two Ophthalmic Dispensing degree programs in New York State. Seven of the 20 graduating seniors who have taken the high school course applied, and were accepted, into the ECC program. Because of the partnership we have formed with ECC they will be forgiven a second semester fabrication class, helping the students save time and money.

Students have also had the opportunity to talk with employees of Rochester Optical, as well as touring their production facility and dispensing shop. Students stated the time was useful because they got to see the skills they were using in class in use as a job. (Photo of group tour at right)

Our next step is to enroll juniors into a second year of the program and have them work with optometrists and student-patients. This second year will focus on making glasses for students who need them, learning how to deal with patients, and preparing for job opportunities. (In photo below, students are practicing taking pupillary measurements)

I’m hoping that, as you read this, you thought to yourself: “Wow! This is a great idea and I can see something like this in my area!” Your assignment between the time you read this and the time we meet is to look for local industry in your area and see what you might be able to link to your school to help your students.

Logan Neman’s breakout session, A Vision for the 21st: Industry and High School Collaboration in Optics, will be held Wednesday, June 12 from 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. Newman’s co-presenter is Paul Conrow, Teacher of Precision Optical Fabrication. 

East High School is an urban high school in Rochester, NY that is collaborating with local optics companies to help meet the high demand for optical technicians in the local economy. With state grant money, the school has created two lab spaces where students may learn ophthalmics (making prescription glasses) or precision optical fabrication (machining precision lenses for telescopes, cameras, etc.) using the machines and instruments found in industry. High school courses designed with input from local experts can simultaneously help students and the local economy succeed.

More about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the National Career Clusters Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers, and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June. Today’s guest blogger is Amber O’Casey, the Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security (LPSCS) and Government and Public Administration (GPA) Career Cluster Specialist at the University of North Texas.

LPSCS and GPA Resources from the Texas Education Agency and the University of North Texas

Would you like to save time and money? Are you looking for lesson ideas, project-based activities, or professional development? Are you an LPSCS or GPA educator? Then join us as we discuss the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Educational Excellence grant resources and instructional materials provided on the University of North Texas (UNT) Career and Technical Education (CTE) website.

Here are some of the materials that we will discuss:

• Professional development modules that are based on research and experience and focus on “best practices” in education
• Over 180 GPA and LPSCS secondary lesson plans that are standards- and project-based
• Elementary and Middle School GPA/LPSCS career awareness curricula
• Cluster-specific Implementation Guides
• Cluster-specific Scope and Sequence documents
• Tools for accommodating learning differences
• And more…

All of the session attendees will leave with an understanding of the GPA and LPSCS resources and hardcopies of a GPA lesson, an LPSCS lesson, and a quick guide to our lesson plan template.

Amber’s breakout session, “LPSCS and GPA Resources from the Texas Education Agency and the University of North Texas” is Tuesday, June 11, 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.

More about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June. Today’s guest blogger is Heather Singmaster, the Senior Program Associate of the Asia Society.

CTE is Global

The local is global. You hear it all the time. But what about the global dimensions of CTE? Some are obvious, like agriculture: someone recently said to me, if you don’t know the global dimensions of agriculture, you will never succeed in the field. In Mathis, TX, the high school CTE coordinator is installing cameras on the garden area and in the animal pens to share practices with students in other parts of the country and world to expose his students to international agriculture. 

In hospitality and tourism, if your students speak Chinese, they are practically guaranteed a job: the number of Chinese tourists visiting the United States is expected to double from the record-setting number of 1.1 million in 2011 and companies are scrambling to cater to them. [LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/business/global/american-brands-seek-favor-with-wealthy-chinese-tourists.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1367589978-qVrs/H/mutYbNDlh2nRR0w]

Then there are the less obvious clusters. Manufacturing? Well, talk to Schaefer Ventilation, a small Minnesota based firm. They are seeing success exporting to the Middle East and adding local jobs in the process. And another Minnesota company, Datacard, which prints ID cards, needs employees who speak a second language or know how to work with customers and salespeople in markets like China and Brazil. [LINK: http://www.startribune.com/business/147376655.html?refer=y]

Architecture? Law? Engineering? Students studying all of these areas at Phelps Architecture, Construction, and Engineering high school in Washington, DC are getting ahead of the curve by studying Chinese and traveling to China during the summer months. Lyric Carter, a pre-law student said of her trip to China, “This event was a life transforming experience; not only was I able to enhance my Chinese language skills, I was also able to learn first hand about a country for which my country has and will have an important relationship…I’ve been more open and willing to try new things and participate in activities that take me out of my ‘comfort zone.’ Most important, this trip has taught me more about myself as a person.” [Access link: http://www.dc-cgel.org/sites/default/files/u15/Carter-State-Board-Testimony-12-15-10.pdf]

And global doesn’t just mean working with people in other countries. What about the growing diversity here in the United States? Healthcare workers deal with this on a daily basis.  There is job growth in marketing to Hispanics/Latinos—the largest minority group in the U.S. and the fastest growing population according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Says Gonzalo Perez, owner of research firm Motivo Insights, understanding this growing market will require workers to “be comfortable with the complexity of today’s young Latinos. They have this contextual identity, and they’re not all the same….”

I could go on, but you get the picture – no matter what clusters are offered in your programs, teachers and students need a global focus – it is a key to the economic reality of an interconnected, global world. 

Heather’s breakout session is titled: Preparing a Globally Competent Workforce – Resources and Strategies; presentation date is Wednesday June 12. Her co-presenter is Jennifer Manise, the Executive Director of the Longview Foundation.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager