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Posts Tagged ‘global competition’

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2018 Job Projections Show Need for Postsecondary Education

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Without a dramatic change in how our nation prepares individuals for the workforce and to obtain necessary postsecondary education, the nation will fall dramatically short in cultivating a workforce to fulfill demand, according to a recent report by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018 projects that by 2018, 63 percent of all jobs will require a degree in higher education, leaving only 37 percent of jobs to individuals who did not finish high school or did not go on to college.

This report — authored by Anthony P. Carnevale, Nichole Smith and Jeff Strohl — underscores why we must ensure that students are equipped to enter into this competitive workforce in which postsecondary education and training will be requirements for a middle class job. CTE can provide support in this area by offering students the opportunity to obtain training and skills and a postsecondary degree.  These credentials will allow individuals to gain a competitive edge that will make them more desirable in the current and future job market.

Other highlights from the report include:

By admin in Public Policy
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New York Times: CTE Can Provide Clearer Pathway to Jobs

Friday, May 21st, 2010

“College and career ready” has been the buzz phrase floating in education and policy circles, but only recently has the term been linked to what many outside of the CTE community refer to as “alternative” colleges – community colleges and technical schools. A recent New York Times article reveals the shift in perspective as education and economic stakeholders recognize the growing value of two-year and industry-focused programs and institutions.

In “Plan B: Skip College”, Jacques Steinberg describes the current economic crisis as the catalyst for the nation to rethink the best way to prepare people to succeed in the workforce. Through a CTE lens, Steinberg’s article does fault by equating education and economic experts call for industry-focused credentials or two-year degrees with a “no college at all” pathway. However, the article does suggest a strong case for postsecondary education outside of four-year institutions.

Steinberg notes that no more than half of students who began a four-year bachelor’s degree program in the fall of 2006 will graduate within six years. The potential loss of time and money is evident. Further, not only is four-year postsecondary education prohibitively expensive for many people, it is also not a requirement for some of the fastest growing jobs in our economy:

“Among the top 10 growing job categories, two require college degrees: accounting (a bachelor’s) and postsecondary teachers (a doctorate). But this growth is expected to be dwarfed by the need for registered nurses, home health aides, customer service representatives and store clerks. None of those jobs require a bachelor’s degree.”

This article highlights the opportunities now available for CTE to capture the nation’s attention. More people are looking for postsecondary alternatives, recognizing that four-year colleges cannot be the only answer for our nation’s students. Students must be college and career ready, and we, the CTE community, must find ways to show the effectiveness of our programs at contributing to economic return by keeping more students in school and on track and by providing them with the skills necessary to enter the workplace.

See the complete article here.

By admin in News
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NAGB Moves Forward in College and Work Preparedness Research

Friday, May 14th, 2010

The group that oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the Nation’s Report Card, launched a commission that its members say could help provide information that would assists education stakeholders and policymakers with developing education and workforce training policies, according to a May 12 Education Daily article.

The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) created the NAEP High School Achievement Commission to study results of its program of research on prepared­ness. The study is part of NAGB’s overall project to align NAEP data with college admissions criteria and employers’ workforce competency standards.

NAGB — a 26-member panel made up of educators, lawmakers, testing and curriculum experts, business leaders, others – moves forward with this project as other major initiatives to measure college and career readiness also rise in the education policy world.  Indeed, the issue of measuring college and career readiness is of particular interest in the CTE community.

Education Daily cited the Commission Chairman Ronnie Musgrove, a former Mississippi governor, who said “The U.S. has no common measure to inform the public about the degree to which we are producing students who are ready for college and the workforce,” said Musgrove, a former Missis­sippi governor.

“At a time when our nation confronts both high unemployment rates and a shortage of skilled workers and profession­als, no issue is more important than preparing high school graduates to meet the demands of the global economy.”

Musgrove said the commission aims to re­lease its findings on NAGB’s program of research on preparedness in the fall.

By admin in News
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Legislative Update: America COMPETES Act, Education Jobs Bill

Friday, May 7th, 2010

House Committee Approves America COMPETES Act

Last week the House Committee on Science and Technology marked up H.R. 5116, America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, and approved it by a vote of 29 to 8. Originally authorized in 2007, the reauthorized bill seeks to strengthen science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in order to maintain the United States’ global economic leadership. The bill would coordinate STEM programs across federal agencies and encourage more participation by females and underrepresented groups. The bill would also focus on the challenges faced by rural school districts, which often have less access to high speed Internet and lab resources.

The bill now goes to the full House for approval. Chairman Bart Gordon’s (TN) goal is to get the legislation through the House before the Memorial Day recess. Yesterday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation also held a hearing to consider the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act.

The bill has been endorsed by several business leaders including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers.

Education Jobs Fund

Senator Tom Harkin told Congressional Quarterly May 4 that a Senate floor vote on S. 3206, Keep Our Educators Working Act of 2010, may come in the next few weeks, but “there is not a committed time for a vote.”

The Education Commission of the States has put together a resource that provides a chart of the approximate amount of funding each state could receive under the education jobs fund and the approximate number of education jobs created or saved by the fund. Both of these charts break down the estimates by secondary and postsecondary distributions. 

By admin in Legislation
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Business and Industry Managers Dub Four Cs as Essential for Employability

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Traditionally, students were told that they needed to master the “three Rs” – reading, writing and arithmetic — to prepare for a successful future. Today, some education and business stakeholders say the nation needs to add what they are coining as the “four Cs,” which encompass more dynamic skills related to critical thinking, according to a recent survey.

The findings in the American Management Association (AMA) 2010 Critical Skills Survey address some of the same issues such as employability in a global economy – a significant area in which CTE programs aim to tackle. The survey, which was conducted in partnership with 21st Century Partnership Skills, includes responses of 2,115 managers and other executives in AMA member and customer companies about the importance of the four Cs to their organization. The business and industry input may provide more insight to the notion of career readiness – a high-profile topic in which education stakeholders across the nation are not quite aligned.

The AMA survey defined the four Cs as:

Critical thinking and problem solving – including the ability to make decisions, solve problems and take action as appropriate;

Effective communications – the ability to synthesize and transmit your ideas both in written and oral formants

Collaboration and team building – the ability to work effectively with others, including those from diverse groups with opposing points of view

Creativity and innovation – the ability to see what’s not there and make something happen

By admin in Research
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CTE State Directors Take Helms of Opportunity, Unveil New Vision for CTE

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

June SanfordThe world is changing at a rapid rate and as a result the nation’s education system has a new range of issues to face. A confluence of occurrences — national fiscal challenges, a flattening globe, and the winds of technology – has given rise to new economic challenges that have been impacting all sectors of our society, including education.

But with those challenges also comes opportunity, particularly for career technical education (CTE) – a system that addresses the nation’s needs to educate and train the economy to success. Recognizing the responsibility we have as leaders in the CTE community to combat these challenges, State Directors across the nation have taken the helms of rethinking how CTE serves individuals, the economy and society.

Recently, we have undertaken a major revamp of the guiding principles that have mapped our course for CTE in recent years. Acknowledging global influences, the evolution of the economy and the interconnectedness of all education stakeholders – from secondary to postsecondary, and educators to industry leaders – State Directors have a created a formal, unified plan for the way we will lead CTE into this new era.

New Vision Cover IconThat new plan is laid out in Reflect, Transform, Lead: A New Vision for Career Technical Education, which is a vision paper that is designed to serve as a guiding document to lead a new, progressive course for CTE. While spearheaded by State Directors, the vision paper is a product of teamwork that involved educators and administrators of all education levels, a mix of education associations, student groups and industry leaders. The principles reflect the effort to include and align the priorities of our valued stakeholders, who are all needed to successfully take CTE to the next level.

This vision paper highlights the major areas in which we recognize CTE must transform in order to best serve individuals. However, this is more than just a call to action. Our vision paper includes specific tasks that we have imposed on ourselves and ask of our peer stakeholders to implement. The tasks and vision are framed around the themes of five principles:

Already, CTE has played a leading role in equipping individuals for the jobs of today. While State Directors are looking to maintain our responsibility, we also accept the new, challenging task of preparing individuals for the jobs of tomorrow. A door has opened for CTE to showcase the value it holds for individuals and the nation as a whole. We have chosen not to squander this opportunity and the plan in our vision paper demonstrates just that.

June Sanford, President

By admin in Public Policy, Uncategorized
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Senate ESEA Hearing: The Importance of World-Class K-12 Education for our Economic Success

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Yesterday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held the first in a series of hearings focused on reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), titled “The Importance of World-Class K-12 Education for our Economic Success.”  Committee chairman, Senator Tom Harkin, in his introductory remarks emphasized that the United States has fallen in many educational categories relative to the rest of the world.  For example, college completion rates of U.S. students have fallen to 12th in the world, and this country has fallen from 3rd to 15th in the number of scientists and engineers produced – an area vital to our increasingly technological world. Ranking member, Senator Michael Enzi, stated that our economy depends on skilled workers and that some training and education beyond high school is needed to earn a family sustaining wage. We are threatened with a deficit of skilled workers, which impedes our ability to lead the world in global competitiveness.

Witnesses included:

In his written statement, Mr. Van Roekel stated that we live in a rapidly changing world, and “our public school system must adapt to the needs of the new global economy. Every student will need to graduate from high school, pursue postsecondary educational options, and focus on a lifetime of learning because many of tomorrow’s jobs have not even been conceived of today.”

Mr. Castellani provided the Business Roundtable’s ESEA recommendations in his written testimony.  Included in these recommendations was to engage students by “demonstrating that standards based curriculum has real world applications in acquisition of knowledge and increased opportunities for career exploration and exposure.”

While none of these witnesses mentioned CTE, certainly their recommendations and concerns could be met in part by the the work being done in CTE.

By admin in Legislation
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House Hearing on Common Core Standards

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Earlier this week, the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing, “Improving Our Competitiveness: Common Core Education Standards”, to look at the work being done by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to develop common math and English standards.

Witnesses included:

Chairman George Miller (CA-7) began the hearing by lauding the common standards as critical in preparing students for college and careers in the global economy.  Rep. Glenn Thompson (PA-5) also expressed support for voluntary common standards, but cautioned that the Administration’s requirement in the Race to the Top grant that States adopt common standards amounts to mandating adoption because States that do not adopt them will lose out on much needed education funding.

Some of the topics addressed were whether there would be common , or state-by-state, assessments; the opportunity to use online performance based assessments; whether the standards will help students who do not plan to attend a 4 year college, but may go to a community college, get technical training, or go straight to work after high school; and the role of the common standards in preparing a high skilled workforce.

You can access the full text of witness testimony and an archived webcast of the hearing at the committee’s website.

By admin in Public Policy
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Quality Career and Job Focused Programs Could be Critical in Global Competitiveness

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, a high-profile, international research and policy group, recently released a report stating that “good vocational training is an important part of a strong economy.”

The report, Learning for Jobs, offers a set of policy recommendations to help countries implement strategies that are responsive to the labor market and would boost economic growth. OECD’s endorsement of quality career and job training could heighten conversations being had over the United State’s minimal investment in CTE when compared to competing countries such as China and India.

“Potentially, VET plays a key role in determining competitiveness,” the report said.

OECD refers to the career-focused educational system as Vocational Education and Training (VET), but acknowledges the different terms used across nations, including the United State’s term of CTE. Many traits that characterize OECD’s concept of “good” VET are similar to that of the U.S.: industry partnerships, occupational mobility, programs based on labor market.

Among the report’s recommendations:
•Offer a mix of vocational education reflecting student preferences and employers’ needs.
Also, provide transferable skills to support occupational mobility. Beyond secondary level, share costs among government, employers and students based on benefits obtained.
•In vocational institutions, promote partnerships with industry, encourage part-time work, and promote flexible pathways of recruitment. In the workplace, provide appropriate pedagogical preparation to those responsible for trainees and apprentices. Nationally, adopt a standardized assessment framework.
•Offer sufficient incentives for both employers and students to participate in workplace training. Ensure that training is of good quality, with effective quality assurance and contractual frameworks for apprentices.

By admin in Public Policy, Research
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ACT scores increase, but college and career readiness needs improvement

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Students’ performance in the ACT’s 2009 college-ready assessment made a slight increase from previous years across all subject areas. However, education stakeholders say the modest upticks have yet to meet the growing need of the nation to prepare students for postsecondary education and their careers.

“The recent increase in college preparedness on the ACT is good news. But our students need to do dramatically better to guarantee their future economic success,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an ACT-published statement.

The percentage of graduates ready to earn at least a “C” or higher in first-year college courses in all four ACT subject areas —English, math, reading and science—increased from 22 percent in 2008 to 23 percent in 2009. Student’s potential to earn that “C” is ACT’s measure of college readiness. The recent test outcomes were higher than in 2005 and 2006 and are the same as in 2007, when the pool of test-takers was likely less diverse in terms of academic preparation, according to ACT.

Further, ACT considers those same students career ready. By measure of ACT, students who are ready to earn at least a “C” or higher in first-year college are also prepared for success in their first year of most workforce training programs of fields in which they may earn a wage sufficient to support a family and have potential for career advancement.

ACT has issued the following recommendations on steps that states and school districts can take to better prepare students for college and career:
• Adopt fewer—but essential—college and career readiness standards as their new high school graduation standards.
• Adopt a rigorous core curriculum for all high school graduates, whether they are bound for college or work.
• Define “how good is good enough” for college and career readiness.
• Strengthen the rigor of their courses.
• Begin monitoring academic achievement early to make sure younger students are on target to be ready for
college and career.
• Establish longitudinal P-16 (preschool through college) data systems.

By admin in Research
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