Read the entire article here.
In a recent post from Liberty Street Economics, Jaison R. Abel and Richard Deitz show that ". . . a good number of college graduates earn wages that are not materially different from those of the typical worker with just a high school diploma. This suggests that, at least from an economic perspective, college may not pay off for a significant number of people. . . . . This means that the wages for a sizable share of college graduates below the 25th percentile are actually less than the wages earned by a typical worker with a high school diploma. "
Read the entire article here. Twenty Alaska organizations, including some secondary and postsecondary programs, have been awarded grants under the Alaska Native Education program through the U.S. Department of Education. Congratuations to the grantees!
1. Bristol Bay Native Association 2. Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. 3. University of Alaska Southeast 4. University of Alaska Fairbanks 5. Bering Strait School District 6. Annette Island School District 7. Kuspuk School District 8. Nenana City School District 9. Goldbelt Heritage Foundation 10. Northwest Arctic Borough School District 11. Chugach School District 12. Sealaska Heritage Institute 13. Southeast Island School District 14. Arctic Slope Community Foundation, Inc. 15. Saint Mary’s City School District 16. Alaska Humanities Forum 17. Lower Kuskokwim School District 18. Alaska Native Heritage Center 19. Yuut Elitanaurviat Inc. 20. Sealaska Heritage Foundation For a complete list and a brief description of each project, see the US Dep't of Education website at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/alaskanative/2014awards.html The Alaska Career & Technical Education (CTE) plan seeks to “develop a CTE system for Alaskan learners that is inclusive, comprehensive and accessible” (Alaska CTE Plan, 2010). Educators, business and community partners are working together to implement this vision and create a CTE system in Alaska. Having common CTE definitions can assist in the conversations and work involved with the implementation.
Multiple stakeholders have contributed to the recommended CTE definitions for Alaska and now we are requesting additional feedback from secondary, postsecondary, business and industry stakeholders. Please consider spending 10 minutes to complete the CTE Common Definitions Survey. The data collected from this survey will be referenced in determining common CTE definitions for the State of Alaska or to determine if different definitions are needed. This survey is anonymous and although direct quotes may be used, they will not be attributed to a specific individual. After analyzing the survey responses, we will post the CTE Definitions document on the CTE Plan website (www.alaskacteplan.com). We would appreciate having your survey responses by September 19.. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Marcia Olson at (907) 269-3018 or [email protected]. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to CTE in Alaska! CTE Action Team By Jeff Green and John Irwin in Bloomberg News, August 25, 2014
Two years out of high school, Evan Fischbach is earning $40,000 a year. His secret: shop class. Fischbach, 19, has known he wanted to work on cars ever since he took an automotive class in his junior year of high school in Saline, Michigan. His college-educated parents wondered if he was aiming too low. Then when Fischbach was still a junior, a local auto dealer desperate for mechanics hired him as an apprentice in the service bay. Now he’s earning about three times as much as the average 19-year-old high school grad and slightly more than the national median, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Friends weren’t interested in auto shop when I suggested it and now I think they wished they had tried it,” said Fischbach, who works at the LaFontaine Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership. “I’m not rich, but I’m not hurting, either.” Registration for fall semester is open August 8th through September 10th.
AKLN offers several CTE-related courses, as well as some courses that could qualify students for an Alaska Performance Scholarship. See the complete course list and details on registration here: http://www.aklearn.net/aklnacademics/fall.html From Bloomberg Businessweek
By Karen Cates July 29, 2014 In a recent article, I suggested that we should stop feeding high school students the myth that college is right for everyone. Higher education has a role for many young people, but as an instructor in college classrooms for almost 25 years, I have met plenty of young people who weren’t well-suited to it. For some, college represents great stress, failing grades, and an inability to succeed in the classroom despite extra help. This has nothing to do with being smart. It has everything to do with the lack of alternatives for young people who deserve a better definition of success post-high school. Parents, leaders, educators, and employers should work to discover children’s strengths and provide options to develop t_hem. Many readers agreed with my last article, but I received a lot of e-mails concerned that our lawmakers and educators might adopt as a solution Europe’s early “tracking” programs, which divert children (without choice) to college or a trade profession. One of the hallmarks of American culture is the idea that we are free to choose our own paths. Read the entire article. H.R. 803, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which amends and reauthorizes the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 22, 2014. According to the US Department of Labor, "WIOA is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy. Congress passed the Act by a wide bipartisan majority; it is the first legislative reform in 15 years of the public workforce system.
WIOA supersedes the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 and amends the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, the Wagner-Peyser Act, and the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. In general, the Act takes effect on July 1, 2015, the first full program year after enactment, unless otherwise noted. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will issue further guidance on the timeframes for implementation of these changes and proposed regulations reflecting the changes in WIOA soon after enactment." Key provisions include:
Read the entire bill here. Visit the USDOL's WIOA website. Visit the USED's WIOA website. The Alaska Department of Education & Early Development has created six posters highlighting technical careers and the CTE APS - a great way to advertise this opportunity to our students! These posters may be printed, posted on websites, used in publications, etc. by Alaska schools and CTE training programs. Download the printer-ready posters in PDF format below.
![]() The Pathways to Prosperity Network is now two years old, with eight state members—California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Tennes_see—doing significant work in creating career pathways in grades 9-14. Two more states, Arizona and Delaware, joined the Network in June 2014. This report is a letter to the field about what’s been accomplished to date. As is often the case in such initiatives, the results thus far are due to a combination of good luck, good timing, deep knowledge of implementation, and a simple but urgent message and strategy. The unique stories of the developments in each state are included in this report as well as observation and description of key aspects of this work across the states in the Network as a group. Download or read the report here. By Howard Pankratz
The Denver Post (posted Juy 6, 2014) Poor alignment of American businesses with the schools that train their workers is creating a "skills gap" that may make it hard to fill as many as 650,000 technical- and science-based jobs by 2018. The country needs a shift in how industry and educational institutions relate to each other, economists and business executives say. "We do not take an approach — either at the national level or state level — that creates an ease of communications between employers and educational institutions that are going to impart skills and background to potential employees," said Joe Fuller, a Harvard Business School researcher. "This is why we have 12 million to 13 million unemployed people and 650,000 job openings in manufacturing right now." Recent college graduates typically have only about half the skills they need in the workplace, according to John Miller, chief operating officer for Denver-based consulting firm Hands-On Learning. Read the entire article. By Claudia Rowe
Seattle Times staff reporter A supercharged tech curriculum has helped transform Toppenish High School, among the state’s poorest schools, from a dropout factory into a case study for success. Staring into a bin filled with cow eyeballs, high-school principal Trevor Greene felt the twitch of an idea. He’d been touring the slaughterhouse across the road from Toppenish High with students from an agriculture class when it occurred to him that science teachers at his high-poverty school might be able to use the leftover body parts — hearts, pancreases, joints — for their new biomedical courses. Read the entire article here - http://seattletimes.com/html/education/2023848965_edlabtoppenishxml.html?syndication=rss June 4, 2014
A Dear Colleague Letter on Career Counseling [PDF, 361KB] was jointly released by the U.S. Departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services to provide education, workforce development, social services, and private-sector leaders with information about ways that high schools and human services agencies can work with the American Job Center network to ensure that students and their parents have relevant and timely information with which to make informed career decisions. In support of the Administration's goal of leading the world in college completion by 2020, the three Departments are committed to giving students information about college and career options, and opportunities that can help them make informed choices for their futures. ![]() “The Alaska Oil and Gas Workforce Development Plan recognizes the needs of the industry today and in the coming years,” said Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Dianne Blumer. “The plan also anticipates the new workforce demand created by increased investment and a portfolio of new projects.” To read or download the full plan - http://www.labor.alaska.gov/OilandGasPlan/ To spur innovation in higher education aimed at helping more students access and complete a college degree or credential, the U.S. Department of Education announced today the availability of $75 million in the First in the World (FITW) program. Click here for the Federal Register notice. The grants will fund the development and testing of innovative approaches and strategies at colleges and universities that improve college attainment and make higher education more affordable for students and families.
http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-75-million-first-world-competition Workforce Innovation Fund Solicitationhttp://www.doleta.gov/workforce_innovation/solicitation.cfm#r2
Round 2 The solicitation for Round 2 under the Fund will provide up to $53 million in grants authorized by Consolidated Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (P.L. 113-6) and the Consolidated Funding Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76) to states, local workforce areas, and entities eligible for Section 166 Indian and Native American Program grants. See News Release dated May 2014 These funds will support innovative approaches to the design and delivery of employment and training services that generate long-term improvements in the performance of the public workforce system, both in terms of outcomes for job seeker and employer customers and cost-effectiveness. Particularly the Fund seeks to:
By focusing on change at both the service delivery and the systems levels, and by requiring rigorous evaluation of each investment, ETA seeks to ensure that these investments form the basis for broader change and continuous improvement in the operation of the public workforce system. By adding new value for our customers, ETA seeks to contribute to the identification and documentation of evidence-based practice within the field of workforce development. The goal of the CareerSafe Professional Development Program (CPDP) is to enhance all educators’ knowledge of workplace and classroom safety. It achieves this not only by providing youth-focused, interactive training to students, but also by providing teachers with the resources and tools they need to facilitate effective integration of the training resources into the secondary and post secondary curricula. Completing the CPDP will also provide teachers with individual school sponsored professional development credits which can be applied to their annual State requirements. Please review your state approved hours.
The CPDP is designed for teachers, administrators and others within the educational community responsible for creating a safety mindset. Printable Course Description (pdf) Course Prerequisite: Must complete either the CareerSafe OSHA 10-Hour General Industry Training or the CareerSafe OSHA 10-Hour Construction Industry Training prior to purchasing the CareerSafe Professional Development Program. More at http://www.careersafeonline.com/index.php/professional-development-plan. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) has released a report on legislation related to CTE and workforce development, which highlights activities such as high school and postsecondary learning opportunities, industry credentials, internships and apprenticeships, and formalizing governing structures.The report may be downloaded from the ECS website.
From "The Management Blog", post by Harold L. Sirkin April 22, 2014
"The truth is, as I noted a year ago, “college isn’t for everyone—but work is, or should be.” And preparing the next generation for success in the workplace (on which count many of our public schools receive failing grades) should be just as important as, or even more important than, preparing students for college (on which count many of our public schools also receive failing grades)." Read entire post: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-22/well-all-be-better-off-if-we-can-just-agree-that-college-isnt-for-everyone#r=nav-r-blog STEM programs are everywhere, but their impacts have been difficult to assess, writes guest columnist Glenn Hampson, published in the Seattle Times, April 21, 2014.
"By the broadest definitions, a bewildering 20 percent of U.S. jobs (from plumbers to nuclear engineers) are classified as requiring a high level of knowledge in at least one STEM field. By the narrowest measure, this figure is around 5 percent." Read the entire article: http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2023428854_glennhampsonopedstem22xml.html A new publication from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) reviews the challenges that states and schools face in developing stackable credentials and strategies that can overcome these challenges.
Read more at http://www.acteonline.org/ctepolicywatch.post.aspx?id=6082&blogid=2289#.U1AX5lVdV8E. How would you like to receive a paycheck while being trained in a high-skill occupation that has a starting salary around $50,000? If that sounds appealing, you might want to consider participating in a Registered Apprenticeship program. Read more from the US Department of Labor Apprenticeship Bloghttp://social.dol.gov/blog/apprenticeship-101-earn-while-you-learn/
![]() Story from KCAW about the Design and Fabrication program started at Sitka High School in 2012, which is now being replicated by other secondary and postsecondary programs in the state. The original Sitka program and the current Bristol Bay Campus program are partially supported by funding from state CTE Plan grants. From the NASDCTEc Blog series.
Breaking our Baccalaureate Addiction Written by Kate Blosveren, Associate Executive Director Posted: 08 Apr 2014 12:18 PM PDT (excerpted below - read entire post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NASDCTEc_Blog/~3/upEDnPzou0Y/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email) It’s not that kids aren’t “college material,” but that the bachelor’s degree is increasingly immaterial As long as CTE is framed as the non-college option, rather than a pathway to a broader set of college options, we are perpetuating CTE as an inferior, rather than an equally viable (and more reliable), choice. . . . Finally, we need to flip the system so “career” comes before “college.” Students’ career aspirations should dictate their postsecondary pathways rather than the other way around. It’s not easy, it’s not clean – in fact, it’s a paradigm shift – but it’s what it’s going to take to get our economy back on track and all students their shot at the American dream. Kate Blosveren, Associate Executive Director ![]() Alaska ACTE will host its annual CTE Professional Development Conference October 20-22, 2014, at the Anchorage Downtown Marriott Hotel. For more details, consult the Alaska ACTE conference website. ![]() The Alaska Workforce Investment Board is accepting nominations from business/industry for its annual CTE awards. Nominations close on April 4. Press Release Link Contact Louise Dean for more information, [email protected]. |
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