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Career Clusters: Tool for Seamless Educational Transition Overview What are Career Clusters? Why Career Clusters? What are the Benefits? What Resources are Available? How Do You Get Started? Career Clusters: Definition
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Overview • What are Career Clusters? • Why Career Clusters? • What are the Benefits? • What Resources are Available? • How Do You Get Started?
Career Clusters: Definition • Career Clusters represent a grouping of occupations and broad industries based on commonalities. • Instructional + Guidance Model
Career Clusters: Tool • A TOOL for seamless educational system that: • Blends rigorous academic/technical preparation • Provides career planning • Offers options for students to experience all aspects of an industry • Facilitates/assists students with transitions
What Career Clusters DO • Provide a framework that current programs slot into • Provide a framework for seamless education • Provide MORE career options for learners • Provide a framework for addressing the entire world of work • Provide a picture of how knowledge and skills transfer vertically and horizontally
What Career Clusters DON’T Do • Do not take away current programs • Do not take away occupational areas • Do not track learners into a single job
Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources Architecture & Construction Arts, Audio/Video Technology & Communications Business, Management & Administration Education & Training Finance Government & Public Administration Health Science Hospitality & Tourism Human Services Information Technology Law, Public Safety & Security Manufacturing Marketing, Sales & Service Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Transportation, Distribution & Logistics Career Clusters: Titles
Career Clusters: Model • Organizes the occupations, within each cluster, into pathways that group the cluster occupations based on commonalities
Career Clusters: Why? • Career-focused strategy supporting: • Educational reform • Workforce preparation • Economic development
Career Clusters: Educational Reform • Help develop employability, academic and technical skills • Build a repertoire of skills within the broad context of a career • Enhance career guidance and transitions • Add relevance to the curriculum • Provide smoother transitions between educational levels • Provide for re-tooling, changing careers
Career Clusters: Workforce Preparation • Driven by local business/industry and economic development • Prepare the emerging workforce • Cross-train/re-tool the workforce • Build a flexible, “Gold Collar” workforce
Transition to 21st Century Workplaces Source: Adapted from Schray and Sheets (2002)
Career Clusters: Benefits • Learners more likely to enroll in rigorous and relevant coursework • Enhanced guidance services through the cluster models’ identification of many careers and their pathways • Aligned linkages from postsecondary education to feeder programs • Learners better equipped for successful career transitions
Resources • www.okcareertech.org/iis • www.okcareertech.org/guidance • www.careerclusters.org • Preferred Product/Technical Assistance Providers • Brochures • Career Cluster Resources CD • Posters • Pathway Models • Plans of Study (see Plan of Study handout) • Interest Inventories/Surveys • Assessments: Workplace Readiness, Cluster Specific • Annual Career Clusters Institute • www.careervoyages.com
Tips for Getting Started • Use resources to: • Enhance existing programs. • Strengthen/align programs, courses, and skill sets. • Serve as a career theme for career academies, small learning communities, schools within schools, charter schools, home schooling and magnet schools.