Pace quickens for work-based learning
April 30, 2013 - Education and business leaders in North Carolina are working together to solve a key challenge shared across the nation: ensuring that all high school graduates have the opportunity for meaningful careers that pay a living wage, without limiting options for students.
But North Carolina is beginning to overcome one of the biggest obstacles in creating a seamless system between school and career. Educators and business representatives are sitting down to hammer out practical solutions.
Last week, leaders of two regional workforce development organizations in the state met with the planning group for a career-development initiative known as Pathways to Prosperity to talk strategy and focus.
David Hollars, executive director of the Centralina Workforce Development Board, said there's a need for common goals and a desire to work across various interests. Steve Hill, executive director of STEM East, said career-development efforts must begin as early as middle school to help students begin to think in terms of careers.
The overarching goal of the Pathways effort is to demonstrate in key regional labor markets that many more young people can complete high school, attain a postsecondary credential with currency in the labor market, and get launched in a career while leaving open the prospect of further education.
Education Week reports that momentum is building at both the state and national levels for greater emphasis on career-focused education. The April 24 article, "New High School Pathways Emerging," cites the 9-state Pathways to Prosperity initiative, which includes North Carolina, as a leading example of the new focus on increasing the number of good options for students, along with more active involvement of businesses.
"Drawing in part on the practices of other countries," the story explains, "states want such pathways to make high school more relevant; inform students of the options that await after they remove their caps and gowns; and, most importantly, engage youths in challenging courses that don't close the door to higher education."
The story notes that President Barack Obama has included $300 million in his proposed budget for grants aimed at forging stronger connections between high school and careers. He cited the example of German apprenticeships in his State of the Union address earlier this year.
While career education is hardly new, the story cites three key differences and potential challenges to developing a new "pathways" approach that ensures options remain open to students, before and after graduation:
- Economic needs: Proponents of a career-focused approach say workforce needs must be part of the equation, to consider careers likely to be in demand.
- Flexibility: Regardless of whatever pathways students choose, they should complete courses needed for postsecondary education.
- Work-based learning opportunity: Perhaps the biggest challenge, the story notes, is providing students with meaningful work-based learning experiences.
