National Context for Career Pathways
and the Alliance for Quality
Career Pathways
Vickie Choitz, CLASP
Minnesota Governor's Workforce Development Council
Quarterly Meeting
February 7, 2013
CLASP: Policy Solutions that Work for
Low-Income People
• CLASP develops and advocates for policies that improve the lives of
low-income people.
• Our Center for Postsecondary and Economic Success, launched in
2010, advocates for policies, investments, and political will that help
increase the number of income adults and out-of-school youth who
earn postsecondary credentials.
• CLASP managed the Shifting Gears initiative and provided technical
assistance to the six partner states. Shifting Gears supported statelevel inter-agency teams to build pathways to postsecondary
credentials for low-skilled adults in the Midwest.
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Career Pathways:
A Brief Historical Perspective
• Rooted in longstanding approaches (apprenticeships, career ladders)
and expanded over time to include low-skilled adults and out-ofschool youth.
• Backed by early signs of success through welfare-to-work
evaluations of programs that combined basic skills instruction with
occupational training.
• Increased awareness though major reports on career pathways in
community colleges and sectors by the Workforce Strategy Center,
Aspen Institute.
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Recent Federal Support for Career Pathways
• Grants
o Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HHS, 2010)
o Workforce Innovation Fund and TAACCCT (round II) grants (DOL, summer/fall 2012)
o Advancing Career and Technical Education in State and Local Career Pathway
Systems initiative (ED, fall 2012)
• Guidance and TA
o Federal Career Pathways Institute (DOL, ED, and HHS, 2010-2011)
o Joint letter of commitment to promote use of career pathways (DOL, ED, and HHS,
April 2012)
• Evaluation
o ISIS evaluation of career pathway programs (HHS, launched in late 2007; 10 year
initiative)
• Looking forward
o Spring 2013: WIF “Pay for Success” model
o Rounds III and IV of TAACCCT (if survive budget negotiations)
o Will we see another $8b Community College to Career Fund in the President’s FY14
budget?
o Pathways Back to Work fund?
o All indications are that the federal government will continue to support and promote
career pathways
State and Other Support of Career Pathways
• ~11 have explored or adopted career pathways for
educationally underprepared adults and youth: AR, CA, KY, IL,
MA, OH, OR, PA, VA, WA and WI
• ~13 have explored or adopted career pathway bridges: IL,
IN, KY, KS, LA, MD, MN, NC, OH, OR, VA, WA, and WI
• Several states have explored or adopted career pathways for
high school-to-college
• Major national initiatives including:
o Ford Bridges to Opportunity
o NGA Pathways to Advancement
o Breaking Through
o Shifting Gears
o Accelerating Opportunity
er
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The Alliance for Quality Career Pathways
• The goal of AQCP is to identify a framework that defines highquality career pathway systems and programs, including:
 Quality criteria and indicators
 Shared set of performance metrics for measuring and
managing their success.
• 10 Alliance States: Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kentucky,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and
Wisconsin.
• National Advisory Group of ~15 national organizations.
• CLASP is the lead and facilitator.
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The Alliance for Quality Career Pathways (cont.)
• The final product of AQCP will be a customizable
framework and self-assessment tool that can be used to:
 Enhance quality of existing career pathway efforts;
 Fast track and improve new career pathway efforts;
and
 Inform evaluation(s) of career pathway efforts.
• A beta framework will be launched in Spring 2013; Final
work will be completed in 2014 after Alliance states have
tested the appropriateness and usefulness of the quality
criteria, indicators, and metrics.
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Two parts of the Alliance framework
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Conceptual Model
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Local/Regional Career Pathway System
Definition: A partnership among local and/or regional agencies, organizations, institutions, and employers/industry
that has adopted an integrative and transformative career pathway approach. The system is comprised of key
structural elements that make up the career pathways, and the partnership adopts a set of guiding principles.
Structural
Elements/
Career
Pathways
Well-articulated sequence of education and training offerings
Multiple entry points
Multiple exit points
Supportive services and navigation assistance
Guiding
Principles
Adopt and articulate a shared vision: partners adopt a shared vision of the career pathway system as
well as a governance structure that clearly delineates each partner’s roles and responsibilities;
Demonstrate leadership and commitment to institutionalizing career pathways: partners
demonstrate collaborative leadership and commitment to building, sustaining, and scaling up career
pathways so that this approach becomes the way they do business on a regular basis;
Ensure career pathways are demand-driven, focus on sectors/occupations, and deeply engage
employers: the career pathway system is responsive to specific and dynamic regional labor market
contexts and significantly engages multiple employers within a sector or occupational areas in an
interactive and on-going working relationship(sector strategies);
Align policies, measures, and funding: partners align related policies and performance/accountability
measures and funding – including through use of braided funding;
Use and promote data and continuous improvement strategies: partners are data-driven and focus
on continuously improving efforts by measuring participants’ interim and ultimate outcomes as well
as process measures; and
Support professional development: Partners support robust and ongoing professional development
for career pathways practitioners and administrators.
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Local Career Pathway Programs
Definition: Career pathway programs are the “building blocks” of local/regional systems. They are
discrete segments of career pathways that:
– Blend a set of interventions in a specific industry sector or occupation that area; and
– Are aligned in a longer-term pathway leading to marketable, stackable, and “creditable”
credential(s).
An extensive program can be a full career pathway; whereas shorter programs can be linked to
form a full career pathway system. Career pathway programs include the following core
interventions:
•
•
•
•
Learner-centered approaches to instruction and occupational training including
contextualization, dual enrollment, acceleration, and PLA.
Appropriate and meaningful assessment of participant skills and needs (including accessibility
needs for participants with disabilities).
Supportive services, including academic supports (e.g., tutoring and advising); non-academic
supports (e.g., child care, transportation, and financial assistance); career exploration; and
navigation assistance through the career pathways program and, ideally, into retained
employment.
Quality work experiences, including job placement assistance, and, ideally, quality sectoroccupation-specific pre-employment work experiences such as internships and
apprenticeships.
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State Career Pathway Systems
Definition: A partnership of state-level agencies, organizations, and employers/industry that
provides leadership and a supportive policy environment for local/regional career pathway
systems and programs and promotes quality, scale, and sustainability of career pathways. The
system and its partners follow the following guiding principles:
Guiding
Principles
Adopt and articulate a shared vision: partners adopt a shared vision of the career pathway
system as well as a governance structure that clearly delineates each partner’s roles and
responsibilities;
Demonstrate leadership and commitment to institutionalizing career pathways: partners and
key stakeholders (i.e., governors, legislators) demonstrate collaborative leadership and
commitment to building, sustaining, and scaling up career pathways so that this approach
becomes the way they do business on a regular basis;
Ensure career pathways are demand-driven, focus on sectors/occupations, and deeply engage
employers: ensure that local/regional career pathways are responsive to specific and dynamic
regional labor market contexts and significantly engage multiple employers within a sector or
occupational areas in an interactive and on-going working relationship(sector strategies);
Align policies, measures, and funding: partners develop statewide policies that specific ally
support career pathways and align related policies and performance/accountability measures and
funding – both horizontally across agencies and vertically within each agency among state,
regional, and local levels of government;
Use and promote data and continuous improvement strategies: partners are data-driven and
focus on continuously improving efforts by measuring participants’ interim and ultimate
outcomes as well as process measures; and
Support professional development: Partners support robust and ongoing professional
development for career pathways practitioners and administrators – both at the local/regional
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level and for state-level staff.
Illustrative Examples of
Criteria and Quality Indicators
The final framework will include criteria and quality indicators of high-quality career pathways systems for each of the
core elements and overarching principles of career pathway systems. Examples of each (for illustrative purposes
only) are shown below.
•
Structural Element: Supportive services, including academic supports (e.g., tutoring and advising); non-academic
supports (e.g., child care, transportation, and financial assistance); career exploration; and navigation assistance
through the career pathways program and, ideally, into retained employment.
•
•
Criterion: Program staff and/or Instructors work with students to identify career goals.
Quality Indicator: Students have identified a career goal.
•
Criterion: Program staff and/or Instructors work with students to identify potential personal and financial barriers to
persistence and success.
Quality Indicator: Students have resolved potential barriers to persistence and success
•
•
•
•
•
Criterion: Programs have adopted a clear referral method and procedures for referring students to supportive
services.
Quality Indicator: Program staff is knowledgeable about existing referral policies and use them to ensure students
are referred to appropriate supportive services.
Criterion: There is a systemic and transparent method by which students are referred to and can access
supportive services within an institution or through partners, such as community-based organizations.
Quality Indicator: Students have used necessary supportive services to ensure persistence in the program.
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Thank you!
Contact Us:
Vickie Choitz, Project Director
vchoitz@clasp.org
Visit our Website:
www.clasp.org/careerpathways
Sign up to receive a bi-annual newsletter regarding the progress on the
Alliance and other relevant career pathways news.
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