Posts Tagged ‘CTE Fall Meeting’

Advance CTE Fall Meeting Fellowship Panel Illuminates Impact of Structures to Cultivate Diverse Leadership Pipelines

Thursday, October 26th, 2023

During Advance CTE’s 2023 Fall Meeting, four members of the second cohort of the 15-month Postsecondary State Career Technical Education Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation participated in a panel discussion to share their experiences and knowledge gained from the Fellowship, as well how state Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders can remove barriers for diverse aspiring postsecondary leaders.

Jomarie Coloriano – Inclusive Excellence, Director | Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Wisconsin

 

Dr. Crystal Gardner – Program Director | Workforce Instruction, Workforce Research and Development | Houston Community College, Texas

 

Dr. Angela Lawhorne – Director of Career Education Programs & Workforce Partnerships | Virginia Community College System, Virginia

 

Caleb Perriton – Program Director | Trades and Technical Studies | Laramie County Community College, Wyoming

 

Fellows shared their reasons for applying to the Fellowship, which ranged from seeking out leadership opportunities to advance at their current institution to being forwarded the application by a colleague or a supervisor who believed and supported their leadership aspirations. A common theme shared by each was the desire to address a specific concern related to policy and processes within postsecondary Career Technical Education (CTE). The application for the Fellowship included a question on future goals and a challenge related to equity and a population of learners applicants wanted to research and develop an intervention for while completing the Fellowship. The Fellows pointed to the intentionality of explicitly requiring applicants to reflect on and consider CTE leadership opportunities and the inclusion of an equity-based real-world project made the decision to apply an easy choice. 

Fellows were also asked to share the key event or events that reinforced their decision to apply to the Fellowship, in other words – when they knew they made the right decision. Dr. Gardner shared that in CTE she rarely has an opportunity to work with or collaborate with other leaders of color across the nation and view the entire landscape of leadership possibilities in postsecondary CTE. The Fellowship offered an opportunity to build a network consisting of her peers, guest speakers invited to the Fellowship workshop and most importantly her coach whom she felt she was perfectly matched with based on their commonalities and interests. She recognized the level of thought the Advance CTE staff dedicated to finding the right mentor for each of the Fellows. Caleb discussed being paired with a postsecondary administrator with an automotive background and how the monthly coaching meetings inspired him to begin seeking the director position he currently holds at his institution. 

Each of the Fellows discussed the impact of their real-world project and the effect of completing the project has had on their current work and aspirations to continue climbing the postsecondary CTE leadership ladder. Dr Lawhorne’s project focused on improving access to justice-involved learners in Virginia and the state’s current efforts to expand, through the community college system, access to high-quality CTE programming. In the process of completing her project, an award of $70,000 was granted to support the project which allowed for the inclusion of other correctional facilities in the intervention strategy being implemented at a few select sites in the state. 

As part of Jomarie Coloriano’s project research on providing information on and access to wrap-around services for economically disadvantaged learners in her region of the Wisconsin Technical College System, she conducted a focus group which led to the identification of learner needs. This work led to an advancement to director as she continues to complete her doctoral program and the continuation of her research on increasing the postsecondary outcomes of economically disadvantaged learners. Jomarie shared during the panel discussion, “my mentor has really pushed me as a college student, first generation professional, now a doctoral student and pioneer for my family.”

This panel allowed CTE leaders to see the impact and influence of leadership development programs. Caleb shared with the state leaders that “there’s work that needs to be done in your state, and this Fellowship was the catalyst to complete a project that was needed in my community.” State and local CTE leaders can use Advance CTE’s new Building a Diverse CTE Leadership Pipeline Toolkit, to assess and build leadership development structures in their own institutions. The resource includes an overview of lessons learned from the Fellowship as well as a guidebook and accompanying workbook to assess and build leadership development structures. 

Dr. Kevin Johnson, Senior Advisor 

By Layla Alagic in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2023 Fall Meeting Keynote and Awards Dinner Celebrates CTE Leaders of Today and Tomorrow

Tuesday, October 24th, 2023

This year, we welcomed over 200 attendees for the Advance CTE Fall Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland to make meaningful connections and ignite innovation to Elevate Career Technical Education’s (CTE) Impact. Our general sessions featured leaders from across the CTE community who are going above and beyond to ensure each learner can achieve CTE without limits.  

Keynote: The Work Ahead – CTE and the Future of Work 

Our keynote speaker was Chike Aguh, an education and workforce development innovator who is a former Chief Innovation Officer at the U.S. Department of Labor and currently a Senior Advisor for the Project on Workforce Harvard. Chike set the tone for Fall Meeting early by sharing how his parents, first-generation immigrants to the U.S., had CTE-connected careers, which paved the way for his own success which included serving the President of the United States. Chike knows that more remarkable stories like this are made possible because of the work that CTE leaders do. His presentation explored the question:

What world are we preparing our learners for, and how does Career Technical Education prepare them for it?

Chike’s message was clear – the world of work is changing dramatically and CTE needs to meet the challenge. Some changes have already happened, such as automation and remote work from industries ranging from loan administration to transportation. Other changes are yet to come, and they continue to profoundly change and in some cases put at risk jobs that Americans rely on. 

The way CTE responds to these challenges, according to Chike, is by equipping learners with both “timeless” skills and “just in time” skills. These skills don’t just make learners prepared for the workforce, they make them economically indispensable. 

One resonating message from Chike is that “‘Career Technical Education’ is too small a term for what CTE leaders are doing and what they need to do”. He applauded CTE leaders and educators for the work that they do every day, yet stressed the hard work that lies ahead for CTE in empowering the workforce of the future. 

Star of Education Awards 

Fall Meeting also served as an opportunity to celebrate state CTE leaders who are making significant contributions to elevating CTE’s impact in their state. 

The State CTE Leadership Rising Star Award, awarded to Amy Miller, recognizes new CTE leaders who are actively engaged with and dedicated to advancing a vision for CTE that is committed to quality, equity and access within their state. Miller began her role as Assistant Director of CTE at the South Dakota Department of Education in 2020 following a career as a family and consumer science teacher, CTE director and high school principal.

The State CTE Distinguished Leadership Award, awarded to Dr. Sarah Heath, recognizes current and former state CTE leaders who have a distinguished and tenured history of service and have demonstrated the highest level of commitment to advancing a vision for high-quality and equitable CTE at the state and national levels. Dr. Heath, who served as President of the Advance CTE Board of Directors from 2020-2022, has held the title of Associate Vice Chancellor for CTE and State CTE Director in Colorado since 2015 following positions as a computer science and business educator, state program director and local system administrator.

In their acceptance remarks, both leaders emphasized the importance of their state and local partners’ shared commitment to innovation and the needs of learners as central to their success. Dr. Heath in particular elevated the unique community of the “CTE family” that connects leaders across the country. 

Preparations are already underway for the Advance CTE 2024 Spring Meeting in Arlington, Virginia from April 29-May 1, 2024! Visit the event page to mark your calendar and learn more.

Layla Alagic, Digital Communications Associate
Stacy Whitehouse, Associate Director, Communications

By Layla Alagic in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: , , , , ,

Advance CTE 2023 Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Diamond Sponsor, Lincoln Electric – Bridge the Gap Between Education and Industry for the Future Workforce

Thursday, October 12th, 2023

The need for skilled trade workers continues to be in critical demand and industries across the globe are scrambling to find ways to quickly and effectively fill these jobs. The welding industry is no stranger to these challenges. According to the American Welding Society, 360,000 welders are projected to be needed by 2027 with 90,000 needed annually (aws.org). 

How do we continue progress in this country without the skilled tradespeople to do the job? It is ever more imperative that industry leaders and business owners need to work collaboratively with education institutions to ensure the training learners receive is in step with what the industry needs.  While there are many paths to filling these jobs, from providing on-the-job training, upskilling current workers or adding automation to the production line, communication between Education facilities and industry must be ongoing to respond to constantly changing needs.

But where to start? How do we bring industry leaders and educators together to work collaboratively to develop a comprehensive training program and get the right skilled workers out into the workforce?  

Since 1917, Lincoln Electric has been instrumental in the development of welding education and training. Over the years our team has grown with the same mission to advance education, training and awareness of the need for skilled welders. With our strong industry partner relationships and a team of education curriculum and training professionals, we developed the Lincoln Electric Education Partner Schools (LEEPS) welding program with the emphasis to build the bridge between industry and educators as well as create meaningful curriculum that will support the continuously changing workforce needs.  

When state Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders include the LEEPS certification program on their industry-recognized credentials list (IRC) for secondary, post-secondary and/or workforce development lists, it allows the schools in that state to receive funding for every learner who earns an IRC certification. In Ohio, 20 organizations have LEEPS certifications on their IRC list. One school, Utica Shale Academy has certified 234 students in 2022 alone, which has helped offset expenses for the year.

In partnership with the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3), the LEEPS welding certification program provides curriculum and learning management resources for learners and welders to earn standard-based certifications.  These certifications are portable and stackable, which means welders can build their own skill base for specific job requirements by combining the skills and certifications they need for immediate employment. The LEEPS program creates standardization with the Train-the-Trainer program. All instructors receive the same training, tests, grading rubrics, and curriculum materials to earn certification in a welding class or process. Instructors then take that training back to their school and are now able to certify their learners. This in turn ensures that the training is consistent across the country and provides reliable, standardized certifications to employers they recognize when looking for prospective job applicants. The importance of standardized certifications also allows job applicants the flexibility to move across a specific industry or into a new one for employment across the country.  

The LEEPS program offers a way to integrate certifications into an existing education institute with ease. It combines traditional in-the-booth training along with virtual welding training meant to introduce and reinforce skills needed in the booth. As the industry changes, the needs of curriculum and certification change as well. The program adapts to the needs of the industry annually and works to provide the latest curriculum and certification to meet the needs of the industry.   

We are in a race against time to fill critical jobs in the skilled trades. As industry looks for innovative ways to fill jobs, education facilities have to expand their commitment to support them.  Integrating programs like LEEPS with CTE at the local and state levels, expanding course offerings in automation and integrating virtual and other technologies into their program will not only help accelerate the training to get workers in the field but also ensure the training they receive meets industry standards and needs.  

For more information about our education programs, please visit the Education Section of our website https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en/education.

Victoria Valore, Marketing Manager, Education, Solutions, and Applications, Lincoln Electric

By Layla Alagic in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: , , , , , ,

Advance CTE 2023 Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Diamond Sponsor, Certiport – Earn College Credits with Industry Certifications

Wednesday, October 11th, 2023

When learners earn an industry certification, they’re not just earning a credential for their resume. They’re also potentially saving money on higher education. It’s no secret that pursuing higher education in the United States comes at a high cost to learners. According to EducationData.org, the average federal student loan debt is $36,510 per borrower, and students with private student loans have debt averaging $54,921 per borrower. Any chance learners can get to earn college credit while in high school is a great move. That’s where ACE CREDIT comes in.

Career Technical Education (CTE) programs across the country are embedding industry-recognized credentials in their programs of study as a measure of program quality and to ensure that learning is validated, recognized, and portable. Certiport offers exams for a number of commonly state-approved certifications. In addition to providing state and local leaders with valuable information about program quality, our exams provide the added learner benefit of conferring ACE credit.

What is ACE CREDIT?

Founded in 1918, the American Council on Education (ACE) is the major coordinating body for all the nation’s higher education institutions, representing more than 1,600 college and university presidents and more than 200 related associations nationwide. It provides leadership on key higher education issues and influences public policy through advocacy.

ACE CREDIT connects workplace learning with colleges and universities by helping adults gain access to academic credit at colleges and universities for formal courses and examinations taken in the workplace or other settings outside traditional higher education. For more than 40 years, colleges and universities have trusted ACE CREDIT to provide reliable course equivalency information to facilitate their decisions to award academic credit. And now, learners who pass select Certiport exams can earn this valuable credit as well.

Which Certiport Exams Qualify for ACE CREDIT?

The American Council on Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE Learning Evaluations®) has evaluated and recommended college credit for multiple Certiport programs, including:

  1. Autodesk Certified User
  2. Adobe Certified Professional
  3. Communication Skills for Business
  4. Entrepreneurship and Small Business
  5. IC3 Digital Literacy
  6. Intuit
  7. IT Specialist
  8. Microsoft Certified Fundamentals
  9. Microsoft Office Specialist

You can find the full list here.

How Do Learners Obtain ACE College Credit?

Certiport’s partnership with ACE’s Transcript Service makes obtaining college credit simple.

First, learners should verify with their university/college admissions office that they grant credit for the specific certification.

Second, learners should send their transcript to their college or university via Credly’s Acclaim platform. Information on transcript services is available in the ACE Student Resource Center.

Interested in having your certified learners earn college credit? You can learn more here.

Hannah Davis, Certiport, a Pearson VUE business

By Layla Alagic in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: , , , , ,

2022 Advance Fall Meeting Recap – Forward Together: Supporting Every Learner

Friday, October 28th, 2022

Advance CTE’s 2022 Fall Meeting, held last week, included five breakout sessions that equipped state leaders to support every learner in CTE by tailoring support to meet unique and intersecting learner population needs. 

Keep reading for key takeaways and resources from each session shared by state CTE leaders and our Advance CTE-ECMC Fellows! 

Serving Middle Grades Learners through Career Supports

Career advising and development supports geared towards middle grades learners to improve access and achieve high-quality and equitable secondary CTE programs prove to be an early opportunity to develop an occupational identity and better build social capital. Ohio discussed the policy structures the state  has put into place to support learners in CTE programs before they enter high school, including funding mechanisms and alignment of middle grades programs of study. Michigan Advance CTE-ECMC Fellow Tony Warren shared how states and regions can broaden a middle schoolers mindset by focusing on the challenge they want to solve and helping develop a pathway to achieve a goal centered on their intrinsic motivations. Fellow Donald Walker provided local examples of carrying out state policy and practice at the Detroit School of the Arts showcased how one school is putting state policy into practice and action. 

Supporting CTE Learners in Rural Communities

Representatives from Montana and California shed light on the challenges and opportunities faced by CTE students who reside in rural areas of the United States. With a majority of Montana (46 out of 56 counties) being part of the frontier, the state has implemented the Hub & Spoke model for several programs. One such example is healthcare, which enabled a main campus to establish a healthcare program, complemented by satellite campuses through partnerships with local secondary and post-secondary institutions that offer limited services distributed across the other counties. 

Fellow Jean Claude Mbomeda shared California’s approach for reviewing disaggregated data to identify gaps in CTE programs in rural communities colleges in California, which was discussed as a necessary first step to unearth opportunities and develop supports for learners.  

Ensuring the Basic Needs of Postsecondary and Adult Learners are Met

An education consultant and a state leader from Wisconsin provided an overview of programs that support learners basic needs, while elevating that many programs still create barriers for learners to complete credentials. Immediate next steps that were shared included making integrated benefits applications for federal assistance programs available online and inviting benefits coordinators to provide services on campus. Wisconsin highlighted their steps to create  affinity groups with faculty and staff, with Dr. Colleen McCabe stating “To understand the effects of poverty, you have to explore learners’ multiple identities.”

Maximizing the CTE Experience for Learners with Disabilities

Maryland and Nebraska equipped attendees with state-level strategies to leverage Perkins state plans, the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA) and interagency partnerships to provide sustainable support to learners with disabilities. With one in four Americans identifying as having a disability, discussions centered on viewing disability as a spectrum, both visible and hidden, and centering learners as people rather than just a population. Maryland shared practices for empowering local leaders to identify and act on opportunity gaps for learners with disabilities through and the CLNA. Nebraska emphasized the importance of developing consistent cross-agency routines, and highlighted their recent achievement of a tri-agency conference across, CTE, vocational rehabilitation and special education.

Equitably Serving CTE Learners in Correctional Education

With more than 30,000 youth being incarcerated in the United States each year in the juvenile justice system, Texas joined by Advance CTE-ECMC Fellows Richard Crosby and Janelle Washington discussed the differences in secondary and postsecondary CTE programs, as well as some of the intricacies of carceral justice-connected program designs. Texas highlighted barriers for this learner populations, including unfair placement testing that occurs days after sentencing and the availability of CTE programs that will not incentivize recidivism. The panelists shared that establishing meaningful and collaborative partnerships with correctional agencies and state CTE departments are paramount to creating better and more equitable programming opportunities for carceral students.

Here are additional resources to support every learner in CTE: 

Nithya Govindasamy, Senior Advisor 

By Stacy Whitehouse in Resources
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Advance CTE Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Diamond Sponsor, Certiport – Unique Skillbuilding Opportunities through Adobe and Microsoft Office Learner Competitions

Thursday, October 13th, 2022

Student Competitions. What better way to motivate your students than with a little friendly competition?

Each year, Certiport hosts two learner competitions: the Adobe Certified Professional Championship and the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Championship. These competitions bring technology certifications to life for your learners, provide them with a positive platform to showcase their skills, and give them a unique opportunity to earn valuable rewards and recognition.

Keep reading to get answers to your questions about these competitions!

What is the MOS Championship?

The Microsoft Office Specialist Championship presented by Certiport, Inc. is a competition that tests students’ skills on Microsoft Office Word, Excel® and PowerPoint®. Top students are invited to represent their respective states at the US National Championship. At the US National Championship, each student competes for National Champion in his or her category.

What is the Adobe Certified Professional Championship?

The Adobe Certified Professional Championship presented by Certiport is a competition that tests students’ design skills using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Top students are invited to represent their respective states at the US National Championship where they will create a designated design project for Certiport’s chosen nonprofit client.

How do my learners enter the Championships?

Entry into the MOS and Adobe Championship differs. To enter the MOS Championship, students can participate in the Championship by taking a qualifying Microsoft Office Specialist certification exam and entering their score into the MOS World Championship. There are two qualification periods: the Fall and Spring. At the conclusion of each qualification period, competitors with the top scores will be invited to compete at the MOS US National Championship.

The Adobe Championship requires two steps to qualify. First, a designer must pass one or more of the following exams by the end of the qualifying period:

Second, a designer must also enter an original design project with accompanying source files (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and/or InDesign) to the submission form on the competition website. Similar to the MOS Championship, there are two qualification periods: the Fall and Spring. At the conclusion of each qualification period, competitors with the top design projects will be invited to compete at the Adobe Certified Professional US National Championship.

What versions of the software are used at the Championship?

The 2023 MOS Championship will include the following six tracks:

At the Adobe Championship, students will be working in the most recently released version of Adobe Creative Cloud. At the event, they’ll be able to work in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and/or Adobe InDesign.

What are the qualifications to compete?

Anyone may participate in the qualification round of testing, but to participate in the US National and World Championship events, candidates must be students that are enrolled in an approved, degree-seeking academic institution recognized by the state in which it operates. Students must also be between the ages of 13 and 22 (as of June 15 of the competition year).

What kind of exam do competitors take at the competition? Is it the same as the certification exam?

For the MOS Championship, competitors will be taking a completely new exam. Like the certification exam, this will be project based. However, since the competition tests the most advanced students from around the country, candidates are encouraged to study and prepare for topics outside the certification exam. A great way to prepare is to take the Microsoft Office Specialist Expert exams.

For the Adobe Championship, students will not be taking an exam at all. Designers create a project for a non-profit client. This means that competitors will use the skills from the certification exam and apply them in a real-world design scenario.

Looking to promote the competition?

Certiport wants educators to have the materials they need to promote the MOS World Championship in their classroom or school. Visit our Media page to request promotional items, view videos and download your own poster, fliers, press releases and other materials to support your institutions in participating in the MOS World Championship. 

Still have questions? 

Visit https://certiport.pearsonvue.com/Educator-resources/Competitions.aspx 

Certiport wants educators to have the materials they need to promote the MOS World Championship in their classroom, school, or country. Visit our Media page to request promotional items, view videos, and download your own posters, fliers, press releases, and other materials to get your students excited about the MOS World Championship.

Theresa Curtiss, Certiport 

 

By Stacy Whitehouse in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: , , ,

Advance CTE Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Gold Sponsor, Lincoln Electric – Industry Certifications: Joining Industry and Education Together

Wednesday, October 12th, 2022

There is a welding skills gap, and that could actually mean a couple different things: It could mean there simply are not enough skilled welders to fill the welding careers available, or it could mean there is a disconnect between the skills employers are looking for and the skills applicants actually have. Either way, this gap existing is a real problem in the welding industry today—for both employers and job-seeking welders. 

If the problem is that trained welders do not have the specific skills employers are looking for, then the solution is to examine welding education and find a way to bridge the gap. Educational institutions communicate with the welding industry to understand which skills their students actually need for today’s jobs. Because the industry is constantly changing, the needed skills are constantly changing—which means that this communication between education and industry must be ongoing.

Because Lincoln Electric is heavily involved in both industry and welding education, communication is constantly maintained between the two to improve curriculum and training as the industry evolves. From this, the Lincoln Electric Education Partner Schools (LEEPS) welding program was created.

The LEEPS welding certification program is a partnership with the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3), which provides curriculum and learning management resources for students and welders to earn standards-based certifications. These certifications are portable and stackable, which means welders can build their own skill base for specific job requirements by combining the skills and certifications they need for immediate employability.

The LEEPS program creates standardization with the train-the-trainer program. All instructors who teach and certify welding students through a partner school have been through the same training, taken the same tests, and used the same curriculum materials. That means employers can see these certifications and know anyone who earned them was taught the same content in the same way and has passed the same weld tests with the same grading rubric. This kind of consistency helps welders to have documented, proven competencies to show employers; and employers know they can expect this consistency from an institution with a standardized process.

Because this program offers a way to integrate certifications into an existing educational institution, it doesn’t limit students or employers to one area. With a traditional welding school, students all train at a single location and are likely to seek jobs in the same general area. With a program like LEEPS, the same quality welding education is available all over the country, so it’s more accessible to students and employers alike. This means employers can find job applicants in their area with the same qualifications as the job seekers in many states across the U.S. Employers can even set up their own internal training with LEEPS to put their welders on the fast track to certification in the specific areas that are needed in their workplace.

There’s a skills gap in the welding industry, but we can set up our welding education programs to help fix it. With standardized, configurable training, today’s welders can complete valuable certifications in a way that’s both convenient and relevant to the available jobs. By joining industry and education in communication, curriculum can be tailored to meet the needs of both welders and employers in today’s job market.

For more information about our education programs, please visit the Education Solutions section of our website.

Sarah Evans, Education Sales and Marketing Manager, Lincoln Electric 

By Stacy Whitehouse in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: , , , ,

Advance CTE Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Diamond Sponsor, SME – Manufacturing CTE’s Role in Job Creation

Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

In the next decade, job seekers in manufacturing will find plenty of openings. It’s projected that nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will need to be filled in the next 10 years.  The challenge, however, is that there aren’t enough qualified workers to fill the positions. An aging workforce, changing technologies, and misperceptions about the industry all contribute to the shortage. This has serious consequences for the manufacturing industry, which is overwhelmingly not prepared. In fact, nearly nine out of 10 manufacturers say that their company is having problems finding skilled workers in manufacturing. 

When it comes to filling this pipeline of manufacturing talent, state Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders play an essential role in developing the next generation. 

It is important for industry and education to partner together to bring industry-relevant knowledge and skills to the classroom.  Aside from learners, manufacturers are the most important customers of CTE programs, and programs should be aligned with the skills manufacturers need and want.  

It’s critical to embed manufacturers into the education process to ensure the curriculum and equipment aligns with their needs, asking questions such as: What is the market need? Which positions need to be filled? Which machines are you using? Which skills do you require? Which type of training programs do you use? Which certifications do you need?

Matching your state’s programs to local industry needs will ensure well-trained learners from your schools are in demand.  Moreover, it can also lead to other opportunities like on-site tours, mentoring, equipment donations, internships, jobs, and even funding. 

Organizations like the SME Education Foundation can be valuable partners in such a process.  The Foundation’s SME PRIME® program is predicated on partnering private industry with academia to build transformational hands-on manufacturing education experiences.  Informed by private industry, SME PRIME builds customized manufacturing and engineering programs in high schools across the country, providing equipment, curriculum, professional development, scholarships and STEM-focused extra-curricular activities to learners and teachers. 

Last year, the SME Education Foundation partnered with the Michigan Department of Education to introduce SME PRIME to 16 high schools across the state, engaging 150 manufacturers in the process.  Nationwide, SME PRIME® provides manufacturing and engineering education to more than 81 schools in 22 states, and 89 percent of graduates pursue manufacturing post-graduation. To learn more about SME PRIME®, click here.

The bottom line is that by working together, manufacturers and CTE leaders can move forward together and create limitless opportunities for a generation of learners. 

Rob Luce, Vice President SME Education FoundationSME

By Stacy Whitehouse in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Advance CTE Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Gold Sponsor, MBA Research and Curriculum Center – Ethics in Action to Move Forward Together and Create Limitless Opportunity

Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

MBA Research partners with state Career Technical Education (CTE) Directors to provide resources for schools that help build high-quality business programs preparing learners with the skills and knowledge needed for success in the workplace. 

By nature, educators are deeply attuned to the needs of their learners—and often even the needs of their families. But these days, many educators are navigating how to respond to the often-increased needs and greater numbers of crises within (and sometimes outside of) their classroom ecosystems. Where is the game plan for—as we are frequently reminded—these unprecedented times?

Recently, I heard a story on NPR’s StoryCorps. Tesia Williams tells the story of being a first-generation college student intent on making her family proud of her work at the Pentagon. When the Pentagon was struck on 9/11, she ran outside with her colleagues. She described how several of her colleagues then reentered the Pentagon to help rescue others, but she did not. Tesia described feeling frozen and in shock, with her feet rooted firmly to the ground. She said that for years she felt ashamed of her lack of action. 

On the podcast, Tesia was sharing this personal story with her adopted daughter, Mikayla. Tesia explained that those events were what laid the foundation for her decision to adopt Mikayla and her younger sister. She said that when she got news that a good friend had passed away, leaving two girls orphaned, Tesia recognized that moment as her time to “step in”—to become unfrozen, to take action.

Educators don’t have time to freeze, or even slow down. They have to keep moving—and it’s our job to help them. It’s our moment to provide the tools educators need to make differences every day in the lives of their students. This, in turn, will help shape the next generation into well-rounded, productive citizens of the world.

One way that state CTE leaders can help educators respond in an ever-increasingly complicated world is to provide them with curriculum—a plan of action—that helps learners develop a framework for choosing between right and wrong, responsible and irresponsible, ethical and unethical. Developing an ethical framework, as well as ethical leadership skills, can help learners establish sound footing, refocus, and move forward in this increasingly complex world. These ethics-related skills cross all industry sectors and provide an opportunity for CTE to assume a leadership role in delivering ethics-based education. Over one million students world-wide have been exposed to these materials!

Take a look at MBA Research’s free ethics education materials at the middle school, high school, and community college levels. We have resources with ready-made, ready-to-teach lesson plans that allow teachers to spend less energy developing lessons and more energy guiding students to recognize their full potential and embrace a future of limitless opportunity.

Holly Atha, President/CEO, MBA Research & Curriculum Center

[email protected]

 

 

By Stacy Whitehouse in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: , , ,

Advance CTE Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Diamond Sponsor, YouScience – Moving forward together: The Southern Oregon Education Service District aligns CTE programs with local job demands

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

The Southern Oregon Education Service District (SOESD) is taking a proactive approach to better align CTE programs with learners’ abilities and local economic needs. 

The SOESD covers 13 school districts in three counties. It set out to determine if area Careeer Technical Education (CTE) programs were aligned with labor needs. It found strong alignment with some of the area’s most in-demand jobs, for example, between CTE offerings and the area’s demand for truck drivers (via transportation CTE courses) as well as for advanced manufacturing. But it found a deficit between CTE programs and the need for healthcare and construction workers.

It set out to tackle how to fill programs with the most-interested learners. Previously, some courses were full while others had enrollments as low as 30 percent. 

Maximizing recruitment for CTE programs

To maximize recruitment and show learners they could excel at and enjoy careers they may have never pictured themselves in, the SOESD moved away from traditional interest-based college and career readiness solutions to YouScience Discovery, an aptitude-based solution.

Learners take the Discovery assessment — starting in the eighth grade — to uncover their work-based aptitudes, interests, and matching career pathways. The assessment revealed that learners in Oregon have more aptitude than interest in high-demand area careers.

Learners in Oregon have more aptitude than interest in high-demand area careers. Data based on anonymized internal YouScience Discovery results for 2,420 learners in Oregon from the 2021 school year.

Educators access reporting to see learners’ aptitudes- and interests- based career pathways and recruit learners into best-fit high school CTE programs. 

A sample YouScience Discovery Clusters Match report that shows educators a learners’ top three career cluster matches by aptitudes and interests and that can be used to recruit learners to CTE programs.

“We meet individually with each learner, and we can say ‘here’s what you’re good at and here’s what you’re interested in,’” said Adam Randall, CTE coordinator for Henley High School. “So, when the counselors come in, they can say ‘here are all the entry-level freshman classes you should sign up for and in this order, based on your aptitudes and interests.’”

The result of using aptitudes to guide CTE enrollments resulted in some entry-level classes filling past capacity at Henley High School where Randall is based. Area enrollment overall has increased up to 160 percent. 

A repeatable approach to driving CTE enrollment

The SOESD’s approach of driving CTE enrollment with aptitude-based guidance can be replicated anywhere. Discovery is available for schools nationwide. And a national student ability report points to a wide gap between learners’ aptitudes and interests that school boards and educators can leverage to ensure learners are on their best-fit educational and career pathways. 

Learn more about the SOESD using YouScience Discovery, request a demo, or contact YouScience.

Kelly McNulty, Content Marketing Manager, YouScience

By Stacy Whitehouse in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: , , , ,

 

Series

Archives

1