Career Pathways: Vehicle for Integration?
By Eleanor Blowe and Barbara Smith – Supervisors, Career and Technical Education
Career Pathways were developed as a response to the new workplace dynamic and to help to provide a broader, more rigorous academic and technical preparation for students leading to a clear pathway into postsecondary education and the modern workplace. The goal of career pathways is to help students see the purpose in their education and help them to make some long range decisions, choose careers, and prepare for education beyond high school. Identifying a career pathway can help in selecting school courses, activities, and part-time employment as well as work-based learning opportunities.
Harnessing applied teaching strategies of career and technical education (CTE) and infusing them into academic courses could help to transform secondary schools into centers of learning where students are engaged, challenged and motivated. Career pathways provides the framework for students to learn math in an Introduction to Engineering course, chemistry and physics in welding, algebra and trigonometry in a Basic Technical Drawing course, biology and statistics in health sciences, art in graphic design, and reading and writing infused in all content areas. Technology and integrated 21st century thinking skills can also be embedded in all content areas.
Are career pathways helping us to finally see that integration of core content and CTE is the way to help our students see the purpose in education? How can we continue to collaborate across content areas to integrate academics and CTE courses to strengthen the relevance of career pathways for our students?
May 28th, 2009 at 7:50 am
This is definitely a challenge for education. The tradition of secondary education has been to partition subjects from each other. Science teachers teach science, math teachers teach math, and English teachers teach English. Collaboration between the disciplines will require that we break down some of these walls.
Perhaps it means that students be given opportunities to design interdisciplinary courses for themselves, finding teachers to advise and supervise their work, but allowing the student to be very self-directed. I could see the potential for a student to design an advanced biology course, for example, with a strong emphasis on research and writing skills, perhaps culminating in a published article.
However, this kind of course could be difficult to fit into the rigid structures of SOL accountability and eSis course codes. It would be a shame to only count as elective credit courses that allow students to experience “real world” biology and English work. To be successful at collaboration, we need to build more flexibility into our educational system.
On another note, we need to provide more career preparation for students who have no plans to go on to post-secondary education. These students chafe under an educational system that only seems to value the college-bound student. How do we reach this population of learners and prepare them for 21st century careers?
May 28th, 2009 at 8:14 am
What is the purpose of High School? Is it to prepare students for more advanced course work at a college or university? Is it to prepare students to continue on to a technical prep school, whether it be a hair design institute or an apprentice program for welding etc? Does anyone in the upper levels of state and local administrations have a clear plan or is it let’s try something new for the sake of saying we did?
I realize this is cynical, but what is the end goal? We have students who are wonderful, bright and motivated. We also have students who are not so wonderful, not particularly bright and who have little if any motivation for school. Are we really going back to tracking students. “You don’t want to be here so here are classes to help you work in the shipyard for 30+ years. You do not need anything but the basic academic load so you can learn to fix cars.” Come on. Next we will separate them into different schools. Only academic students at ___________ or only technical students at _______.
21st century learning is about more than a career path. It is about being able to adapt to a changing environment, a changing economy, or a changing job market. EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO READ, WRITE, AND THINK CRITICALLY. The skills needed for jobs change. If you do not believe me, then just look at education.
May 28th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Career Pathways does strengthen skill development of students specifically in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to ensure success at the postsecondary level and long-term, high-wage, high-skill, or high-demand career opportunities for students. Thus, promoting the expanded participation of students in the exploration of and preparation for nontraditional careers to allow all students to satisfy their personal interests and make the best use of their particular knowledge, skills, and abilities.
However, Career Pathways may become viable option in opening doors to postsecondary or vocational education for traditionally underserved students. This includes students who are “bored” with high school. They may become engaged in their education through opportunities to participate in dual enrollment or by attending school on a college campus, whereas others may flourish by engaging in practical learning that yields college credit, such as career-related internships and externships. Furthermore, distance learning can broaden the range of courses available to students.
May 28th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Below you will find a list of “Visual Arts Careers.” Keeping in mind the 21st century thinking skills which incorporate technology and creativity, we should remember that the ARTS have many career pathways.Those “visual learners,” are quite often the students who fail to achieve otherwise in school.Promoting visual art career pathways would benefit students and lower the dropout rate.
Advertising artist
Animator
Appraiser
Architectural model builder
Architectural renderer
Art administrator
Art conservator
Art director
Art teacher
Art therapist
Audiovisual artist/designer
Automobile designer
Billboard artist
Book designer
Calligrapher
Cartographer
Cartoonist
Costume and mask designer
Craftsperson
Curator
Display designer
Drafter
Environmental designer
Exhibit designer
Filmmaker
film production manager
film director
cinematographer
cameraperson
film editor
visual effects engineer
sound engineer
film graphics/producer
Furniture designer Gallery owner
Glassblower
Graphic designer
Greeting card artist
Illustrator
medical
scientific
industrial
fashion
book
magazine
Industrial designer
Interior designer
Inventor/consultant
Jewelry designer
Landscape architect
Layout artist
Leather goods designer
Lithographer
Metal worker
Motion picture animator
Mural artist
Package designer
Painter
portraits
color consultant
Photographer
advertising
publishing
architectural
portrait
scientific
corporate
industrial Photojournalist
Pottery designer
glaze technologist
Product designer/illustrator
Product planner
Set designer
Sculptor
portrait sculptor
moldmaker
glass carver and etcher
architectural sculptor
Sign painter
Silkscreen artist
Stained glass artist
Textile designer
Toy designer
Typographer
Urban designer
Visualizer
Wallpaper designer
Weaver
Window designer
Woodworker