November 13, 2015
On
Monday, Nov. 16, and Tuesday, Nov. 17, the U.S. Department of Education’s
Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), will host a national
convening of minority-serving community colleges in Washington, D.C. The
purpose of the event is to improve student success at participating
institutions by
- providing an interactive forum for institutions
from across the country to exchange promising practices on student
success;
- offering an opportunity to meet representatives
of several federal agencies and learn about federal programs for
minority-serving institutions;
- providing an opportunity to hear from and talk
with researchers and funders;
- offering a chance to interact with representatives
of the U.S. Department of Education and learn about standards of evidence,
how to reduce cohort default rates and more; and
-
providing an opportunity to join an ongoing
community of practice.
OCTAE
is excited to announce that 250 participants, representing 128 institutions and
organizations, are registered to attend. We regret that our conference space
did not allow for additional registrants and apologize if you were not able to
register before registration reached capacity. Please know that we will
distribute communications that summarize the convening in our December issues
of OCTAE Connection. Stay tuned! Back to Top
The National Association of State
Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) is pleased to
announce its third annual Excellence in Action award application opportunity. The
award will recognize and honor superior Career Technical Education (CTE)
programs of study from around the nation. The programs selected as awardees
will exemplify excellence in the implementation of the National Career
Clusters, and have a meaningful impact on student achievement and success. All
winners will be honored at an awards ceremony in spring 2016 in Washington,
D.C.
This award is an opportunity to recognize
excellent programs of study nationally through the media, at conferences, on
webinars, and in blog posts, newsletters and articles throughout the year. In
2015 alone, award winners have been highlighted at the White
House’s Celebrating Innovations in Career and Technical Education’s event, at the Association for
Career and Technical Education’s CareerTech VISION conference, and in a
variety of local and national publications. Winning programs will be selected
by a panel of state CTE directors and past award recipients.
Learn more
about and apply for the award here. Back to Top
U.S.
departments of Education, Transportation, and Labor jointly released in August the
report Strengthening Skills Training and
Career Pathways Across the Transportation Industry. It examines six
transportation subsectors as they will manifest themselves up to 2022: trucking
transportation, highway construction and maintenance, transit and ground
passenger transportation, rail transportation, air transportation, and maritime
transportation. Projections from the data available and anticipated
developments suggest the following workforce trends:
- The transportation industry faces major
demographic challenges in filling its workforce needs from a combination
of factors, including job growth and separations (retirements, transfers
to other occupations, and other turnovers).
- The transportation industry will need to hire
about 4.6 million workers from 2012 to 2022.
- Projected annual job openings, according to
preliminary estimates, are 68 percent larger than the number of trainees
who are completing related education programs annually.
- The skills in greatest demand are in the
semi-skilled and skilled sectors of operations and maintenance. “For every
future job opening in central services or construction in the
transportation industry, there will be an estimated two jobs in maintenance
and 21 in operations,” according to the current projections.
- Transportation jobs pay comparatively well. Thirteen
out of the top 20 highest-demand jobs in the transportation sector pay
above the median wage, sometimes by a substantial amount. Many of these
jobs also include good benefits.
-
A high school diploma and demonstration of
proficiency in mathematics and language are adequate to gain access to
many entry-level jobs in the transportation industry. The higher-level
skills necessary for advancement in some positions, however, are
frequently gained through postsecondary education, for example some
combination of career and technical education, apprenticeships and
on-the-job training.
Strengthening
career pathways is seen as an integral element in developing the 4.6 million
new hires projected for the 10-year timespan covered by this study. The six key
elements of career pathways are: (1) build cross-agency partnerships and
clarify roles, (2) identify the sector or industry (in this case
transportation) and engage employers, (3) design education and training
programs, (4) identify funding needs and sources, (5) align policies and
programs, and (6) measure system change and performance (see page 10 of the
study).
With
this model of career pathways in place for the transportation industry, the Strengthening Skills report advocates for the following elements to
support the model:
- “Career and technical education programs of
study, beginning in high school and continuing into postsecondary
education or an apprenticeship [that] can provide the foundational and
early occupational skills training needed in skilled occupations.
- Pre-apprenticeship programs for disadvantaged
youth and adults [that] can prepare low-skilled and underrepresented
populations for entry into these skilled positions.
- Career pathways systems that are aligned with
Registered Apprenticeship programs [so as to] expand the number of people
who can access these high-demand jobs.
- Significant training at the workplace [that]
helps people move from novice to skilled practitioner in their craft.”
The
full report, a fact sheet, and other reports (under the Additional Information link)
are available at http://cte.ed.gov/initiatives/advancing-cte-in-state-and-local-career-pathways-system. Back to Top
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