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Posts Tagged ‘Career Clusters®’

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Most Manufacturing Executives Report a Shortage of Qualified Workers, Survey Shows

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

A recent national survey from the Manufacturing Institute, an organization focused on improving and expanding manufacturing in the United States, delves deeper into the “skills gap” issue and examines how industry leaders are responding to this challenge.

Of the thousand manufacturing executives who completed the Manufacturing Institute’s survey, nearly 70 percent reported that they have a moderate or severe shortage of available, highly-qualified workers. Over half expect the shortage to worsen within the next five years. Further, over 60 percent of executives stated that shortages and skill deficiencies are having a profound impact on their companies’ ability to expand and improve.

Manufacturing Institute President Emily DeRocco stated that students and their parents have a limited understanding of the jobs that are available in manufacturing today, partly due to the stigma around the low-skilled manufacturing jobs of the last century. However, today’s manufacturing jobs require more complex skills, like high-level technology and computer skills, and are situated in much better work environments.

Many executives reported that available jobs are in areas of “skilled production,” such as machinists, operators, distributors, and technicians. DeRocco suggests that companies partner with educational institutions, such as CTE schools and centers, to further align education and training to meet the needs of business and industry.

Through the Manufacturing Career Cluster, Career Technical Education (CTE) programs provide a response to manufacturers’ demands by educating students through career pathways that lead to industry-recognized credentials. Still, more students are needed to overcome this skills gap by training in advanced manufacturing programs of study (POS) and acquiring the skills needed to pursue positions in manufacturing.

The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte provide an analysis of the survey results in Boiling Point? The Skills Gap in U.S. Manufacturing.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

 

By admin in News, Publications, Research
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Fall Meeting: Improving Program Quality: Standards

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

The importance of standards to influence the expectations of quality learning continues to expand across the nation. States continue to identify strategies for implementation and integration of the common core state standards using national and state resources, as reported at the recent fall meeting in Baltimore.

Dr. Karen L. Alexander, Family and Consumer Sciences Education, Texas Tech University provided a very insightful view of Achieve Texas: Promoting a Local College and Career Ready Culture initiative. The vertical alignment project resulted in standards that are now available under the P-16 initiative section at Texas Higher Education Commission website. The resulting crosswalks ensure that CTE courses integrate academic standards and career preparation skills and waited standards and skills can be applied to real-world. A copy of her PowerPoint is available at www.careertech.org.

Kate Blosveren-Kreamer, who is the Associate Director, Strategic Communications and Outreach, at Achieve, Inc., provided a compelling and thoughtful update on the processes associated with state implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In addition, she provided an update on the creation of educational exemplars that integrate the CCSS of math and English language arts with the CTE Knowledge and Skill Statements. The pilot project began in Illinois and build from the process rubric that identified alignment and the intensity of that alignment for tasks targeted in the Pre-Design Construction Pathway. Opportunities for additional states to participate in this work is available.

Mark Williams, Illinois State CTE Director, provided a deeper of the protocol and process utilized to create the math and CTE exemplars. Expanding the use of the protocol to engage additional program areas has led to an expansion of resources developed within the state. The importance of ensuring that all students are college and career ready continues to be an important goal to achieve.

Dr. Dean R. Folkers, Deputy Executive Director, National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc), provided an overview of the revision process of the Career Cluster(TM) Knowledge and Skills revision and the emergence of the Common Career Technical Core to support a state led development of common career technical standards among states. The unique opportunity to support a common expectation, among states, allows for an equity of opportunity among student learning experiences, and supports a clearer alignment to the Common Core State Standards in the emerging Next-Generation Science Standards.

The presentations and supporting resources are available at www.careertech.org

 

Dean Folkers, Deputy Executive Director

By admin in Career Clusters®, Resources, Uncategorized
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Fall Meeting: Using Data to Drive Decisions

Monday, October 31st, 2011

At the NASDCTEc fall meeting last week, Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders from across the nation addressed many issues, including how data should be used to drive decision making in CTE. A panel of experts addressed relevant topics to CTE, such as diversifying the uses of CAR data, the return on investment of CTE, and how Career Clusters are addressing labor market demands.

Data Diversification in CTE

Matt Hastings from the Nebraska Department of Education described the role of subpopulations in the Perkins accountability data framework and the challenges with solely relying on subpopulation analyses.

Perkins accountability focuses on small groups of students so policymakers can see the return on investment (ROI) of Perkins dollars through CTE accountability measures. The system becomes a challenge, however, because CTE accountability takes on multiple roles; the success or failure of CTE programs is judged based on these accountability measures, while policymakers rely on these measures for ROI information to drive program and policy decisions.

Return on Investment in CTE

Pradeep Kotamraju of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) described the overarching concern around CTE for policymakers and stakeholders as: is federal, state, and local investment in CTE paying off?

This presentation overviewed approaches and factors to consider when calculating ROI, and steps necessary to calculate ROI in CTE.

Career Clusters: Forecasting High School through College Jobs – 2008-2018

Nicole Smith from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce shared highlights from the Center’s latest report, which forecasts job opportunities by Career Cluster. Among other key findings, Smith shared that:

This report will be released on November 14, 2011.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

By admin in Uncategorized
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Call for Presenters NOW OPEN for The 2012 National Career Clustersâ„¢ Institute

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

The 2012 Career Clustersâ„¢ Institute Call for Presenters is now open!
The Institute is June 18-20, 2012 in Washington, DC at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

The Call for Presentations for the 2012 Career Clustersâ„¢ Institute is Now Open. You are cordially invited to submit a proposal. The purpose of the Institute is to provide a venue for sharing of effective practices, ideas, and research. Ultimately, the goal is to increase student success and ensure our nation’s economic growth and security. Therefore, Institute sessions should promote the use of Career Clustersâ„¢ to drive collaboration and innovation in state and local education and workforce systems.

The 2012 Institute theme is Setting a New Standard and the program will be organized into five primary strands. Share your experiences and successes to inform participants with specific how-to, replicable advice that goes beyond awareness of Career Clustersâ„¢ to specific implementation strategies.

Benefits for approved breakout sessions:
• Reduced registration at the conference for up to 3 presenters/breakout
• Opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from around the country
• Share practices and experiences to increase engagement and opportunity with others
• Professional development
• Highlight/showcase your topic, providing visibility at the national level

Strand Descriptions

Strand A: CTE is critical to ensuring that the United States leads in global competitiveness.
Sessions in this strand will share examples (state, local and regional) of leaders in education (secondary and postsecondary), workforce development, economic development and/or business work together to increase U.S. investment in CTE, updates on the creation of a common career technical core, built upon the National Career Clustersâ„¢ Knowledge and Skill Statements, and other policy focused best practices advancing efforts in secondary and postsecondary education systems.

Key areas of strand focus:
• State Policy Development and Implementation
• Federal Policy Implementation
• Marketing and Communication Strategies Approaches

Strand B: CTE actively partners with employers to design and provide high-quality, dynamic programs.
Sessions in this strand will share examples (state, local and regional) where leaders in education (secondary and postsecondary), workforce development, economic development and/or business work together for shared interests and goals using Career Clustersâ„¢ as the unifying model/approach.

Key areas of strand focus:
• Examples of Collaboration
• Workforce Development
• Economic Development
• Partnership Development
• Using data to inform program decisions
• Professional Development Strategies
• Industry trends

Strand C: CTE prepares students to succeed in further education and careers.
Sessions in this strand are targeted for leaders at the state, district and local levels in secondary and postsecondary settings. Sessions will provide practical advice, examples and resources to support College and Career Readiness and to expand/enrich current implementation of Career Clustersâ„¢. Session may include a focus on how Career Clustersâ„¢ align initiatives and improvement efforts, the impact of Career Clustersâ„¢ on curriculum, guidance and/or community engagement activities in the school.

Key areas of strand focus:
• School and Career Counseling Approaches
• Career Development and Exploration Resources
• Integrating Educational Subjects (e.g., Math and CTE, etc.)
• Common Core State Standard Integration
• Reducing Remediation and Improving Transition

Strand D: CTE is delivered through comprehensive programs of study aligned to the National Career Clustersâ„¢ framework.
Sessions in this strand will share examples of the impact Career Clusters’™ innovative teaching and learning strategies can have in shaping programs of study and career technical education efforts in secondary schools and postsecondary systems. Strategies also may include delivery and innovative implementation approaches around specific Career Cluster™ areas.

Key areas of strand focus:
• Career Clusters™ Implementation
• Teaching and Learning Innovations and Strategies
• Use of Standards, Knowledge and Skills, Competencies
• Programs of Study Development/Refinement
• CTE Delivery Systems and approaches (including Career Academies, Model Schools, and other approaches)

Strand E: CTE is a results-driven system that demonstrates a positive return on investment.
Sessions in this strand will share examples (state, local, and regional) that exhibit high quality, successful, scalable CTE practices, share models that demonstrate CTE’s positive fiscal, societal, and economic impact, and show how data (secondary and postsecondary) is successfully used (state, local and regional) to support CTE accountability measures.

Key areas of strand focus:
• Accountability and Evaluation
• Technical Skill Assessments
• Research based Approaches and Studies
• Return on Investment Approaches

Complete the Call for Presentation information form online today!
More information about the Institute

Questions? Call our office at 301-588-9630.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

By admin in Uncategorized
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Meet Fran Beauman, NASDCTEc Board Associate Member Representative

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

In order for our members to know the individuals who serve them at the national level, NASDCTEc is sharing a blog series called “Meet Your Board Members;” today we are featuring Dr. Fran Beauman, Associate Member Representative.

Dr. Beauman has been an active member of NASDCTE for over 25 years and has served on a variety of the Association’s committees. Over the past 40 years, she has been involved in multiple facets of Career Technical Education (CTE). She started as a Family and Consumer Science teacher in 1970. After teaching high school for 9 years she left to work at the in the CTE Department at the Illinois State Board of Education. During the 25 years she was at the agency, she served as manager for a variety of units these included program improvements and evaluation, research and development and program technical assistance. As State Director of CTE for Illinois she worked with postsecondary and secondary educators, business partners and others in connecting education to workforce preparation. Since retiring as State Director in 2002, she has been involved in a variety of interesting and challenging initiatives. Some of these include serving as project director for the statewide implementation of the Health Science Career Cluster™ and Transportation, Distribution and Logistics (TDL) Career Cluster™ in Illinois; coordinating the Illinois Mathematics, Science and Transportation, Distribution and Logistics Career Cluster™ Initiative; and directing a TDL curriculum development project which is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Dr. Beauman received her bachelor’s, masters and doctoral degrees at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
When asked for her goals as a Board Member, Beauman said “One of my goals is to promote the Career Clusters™ Initiative and continue to work with schools and industry to further Career Cluster™ support. Another goal is to provide support to states as they incorporate the common core standards into their CTE programs and assure that students are ready for both college and careers.”

NASDCTEc appreciates Fran Beauman’s service to the Board. She can be reached at [email protected].

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

By admin in Advance CTE Announcements, Career Clusters®
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CTE and the Arts: More in Common Than You Think

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) recently brought together CTE groups and Arts Education groups to help us better understand the similarities that exist between these two worlds. While one primary connection is the career opportunities for students in the Arts, Audio/Video Technology & Communications Cluster, I learned of the more nuanced ways in which these two areas of education overlap, as well as the shared political obstacles. Brad Hull, NASBE’s Deputy Executive Director, did a terrific blog post linking the arts and Career Clusters, but he also laid out the ways in which CTE and the arts converge in other ways:

I was also struck by the seemingly identical stories that both CTE and Arts Education share at the federal policy level. First, both CTE and Arts Education programs were slated for elimination each year by the Bush Administration, but funding was always preserved by Congress. Second, advocates for both CTE and Arts Education want to see a greater connection to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Better inclusion of both of these areas of education would lead to more well rounded education for all students. Our priorities also align in terms of dropout prevention strategies and linking to statewide longitudinal data systems.

For even more connections between CTE and the arts, see this blog post by Narric Rome, Senior Director of Federal Affairs and Arts Education at Americans for the Arts.

Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager

By admin in Public Policy
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Georgia Implements Career Clusters for all Secondary Schools, AP Article Says

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Georgia is overhauling its high school curriculum and looking to Career Clusters â„¢ as a tool to prepare all students for college and career, according to a recent Associated Press article.

Implementing Career Clusters ™ is part of an effort by State Schools chief John Barge, who said the state was forcing some students to drop out of school because they couldn’t identify relevancy of what they learned in school with what they wanted to do when they began their careers, the article said.

The new plans will make Georgia among the first states in the nation to require students to enroll in a Career Clusters ™ program in order to graduate from high school, said Dean Folkers, deputy executive director at the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium. The consortium has helped states like Florida, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Colorado implement career training programs in the past few years, he said.

“Many states use career clusters, but Georgia is taking it another step,” Folkers said. “It’s not about redoing career technical education for those kids. It’s about embracing it for all and realizing we all are ultimately preparing for a career and college is a vehicle to get there.”

 

By admin in News
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Building 21st Century Skills through Sustainability Education

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Guest Blog Post By Victoria Waters, CEO and Founder of Green Education Foundation (GEF), [email protected].

According to a 2008 United Nations Study, there may be as many as 6.3 million new solar power jobs by 2030, and as many as 3.5 million jobs centered on improving the energy efficiency of buildings. Are our students ready to compete for those and other new economy jobs? The demand for “green collar” workers is coming, and in many cases is already here. Today, unfortunately, we are being outflanked; Brazil and China lead the world in renewable employment globally, according to a 2010 study by Clean Edge, a clean-tech research firm. The imperative is recognized at the highest levels; in September 2010, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated, “As the President says: ‘This is not just going to boost our economy in the short term; this is going to lay a platform for the future.’ Education and sustainability are the keys to our economic future—and our ecological future.”

The opportunity to empower and prepare the 14 million students enrolled in CTE programs is profound. According to a 2009 study by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, more than half the expected newly available clean-energy jobs will be accessible to workers with high school degrees or less. The study states that an investment of $150 billion a year in clean energy — roughly one percent of national GDP — would result in 1.7 million new jobs, with roughly 870,000 of them accessible to workers with high school degrees or less.

In CTE programs nationwide, momentum is building; the NASDCTEc is working to infuse sustainability into each of the 16 National CTE Career Clusters. For example, in the context of the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources cluster, educators will consider with their students the impact of an input selection on profitability, environmental impact, and the health and wellness of workers. Green Education Foundation (GEF)’s innovative School as a Teaching Tool lesson set for K-8 and Green Building Course for high school students are being leveraged by a number of CTE programs to incorporate sustainability concepts into the Architectural and Construction cluster. The Green Building Course and the School as a Teaching Tool use the school as a learning laboratory to conduct extensive building energy and water audits, and the high school course requires students to present recommendations for building improvements to school administrators, including energy rebate information and retrofit opportunities.

One critical unaddressed component that is key to delivering on the promise of sustainability education is teacher enablement. Today, educators often do not have the experience or training to confidently teach sustainability in the context of their subject matter. GEF is launching a Green Teacher Program for K-12 faculty with the goal of providing the knowledge, skills, and curricular resources essential for teachers to integrate sustainability education into their current disciplines.

GEF and NASDCTEc understand that empowering K-12 students and their teachers with sustainability education is vital to a paradigm shift, to change our collective thinking and our future. What do you think? How can we better prepare our young minds for a sustainable future? We welcome your thoughts and the opportunity to continue the dialogue at [email protected] .

Dean Folkers, Deputy Executive Director

By admin in News, Resources
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29th Annual Entrepreneurship Education FORUM

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

Plan now to attend the leading Entrepreneurship Education networking conference in the USA. The National FORUM is to be held November 4-7, 2011 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The conference will be held at the Hilton Netherland Plaza, a beautiful and historic hotel in the heart of downtown Cincinnati. This is a time for learning how to start, operate, and enhance entrepreneurial preparation programs for students from elementary, middle, high schools and colleges as well as community based educators. Educators from through-out the life-long learning spectrum attend to learn and share ideas. One of the highlights is the entrepreneurs who will share their living case studies so that educators can learn how to direct those with whom they work toward successful entrepreneurial ventures.

Scholarships are available for teachers which include conference registration, and two nights stay in the conference hotel. All that is left for the educator to fund is the travel expense and perhaps a substitute teacher for a day. The deadline for scholarship applications is September 23, 2011.

Great featured speakers, teacher directed learning sessions, as well as interactive round table sessions allow for enjoyable learning and networking. Check out the information regarding the National FORUM at www.entre-ed.org and click on FORUM on the left rail. Get prepared now to attend the National Forum this November!

Dean Folkers, Deputy Executive Director

By admin in Meetings and Events, Resources
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Report Finds STEM Jobs Still on the Rise

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

The nation’s unemployment rate remains high and jobs are scarce, yet workers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields remain in high demand.

A report from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that STEM jobs have grown three times as fast as non-STEM jobs over the last decade. Last year, the almost 8 million Americans who worked in STEM fields represented only about 6 percent of the entire labor force. Yet, the country relies on these workers to drive America’s competitiveness and innovation.

U.S. Dept. of Commerce: Recent and Projected Growth in STEM and Non-STEM Employment

The low supply of available STEM workers translates into higher wages and less joblessness than non-STEM employees. Even STEM degree holders working in non-STEM fields benefit similarly. The future for STEM jobs continues to looks bright, as the Department of Commerce projects STEM jobs will continue to grow at a much faster rate than non-STEM jobs.

STEM jobs include professional and technical support occupations in computer science and mathematics, engineering, and life and physical sciences. Career Technical Education (CTE) students in the STEM Career Cluster are prepared for further education or careers in these high-wage, high-demand fields through rigorous academic and technical training.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst, [email protected]

By admin in News, Publications
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