Across the country, career pathways programs are a popular bipartisan tool for addressing state workforce shortages and ensuring students graduate high school with workforce-ready skills. Delaware Pathways is one such example, formally established by executive order in 2016 by then-Delaware Gov. Jack Markell. The program consists of state-approved…

Youth apprenticeship has emerged as a potential strategy to recruit and train a new generation of early childhood educators. Many in the field hope it will help address teacher shortages, promote the recruitment and retention of diverse candidates, and provide the training and experience needed both to enter the profession and grow into…

Effective collaboration among schools and agencies is critical to the success of pre-employment transition services (pre-ETS). We examined the views of 596 middle and high school educators regarding pre-ETS and the employment prospects of their students with disabilities. Educators overwhelmingly affirmed that youth with disabilities needed better…

Many have called for greater alignment between education systems and the workforce, more equitable access to career-oriented experiences, and new policy approaches that will enable all individuals to successfully enter and thrive in the evolving labor market. Overall, education leaders at all levels must commit to new policy solutions that offer…

This article describes how public, nonprofit, and private partners in Detroit are working to improve and expand adult foundational skills development opportunities and connect them to workforce training as the city begins to make an economic comeback. It outlines the adult foundational skills challenge in Detroit, chronicles the work of a strategy…

Recently, the State of California committed nearly one billion dollars to the development of career and technical education (CTE) pathways that lead to locally relevant, high-growth, high-demand careers. This investment represents a pivot from relatively disjointed approaches to CTE in high schools and community colleges, and reflects an…

Ready, Connected, Supported: A Framework for Youth Workforce Development and the YES Project, a working paper from the Center for Promise--the research arm of America's Promise Alliance--provides an overview of the "Ready, Connected, Supported" framework--the backbone of America's Promise Alliance's YES Project, a national campaign to…

The guided pathways approach to community and technical college redesign has significant impacts for adult basic education (ABE). The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and Ability to Benefit provide federal support that complements the work being done in Guided Pathways. Washington state's approach to implementing guided pathways…

Adult education's mission is a critical one. It seeks to provide the large and diverse population of adults who lack basic skills, a high school credential, or English language skills with the competencies they need to be productive workers, family members, and citizens. Federally funded adult education serves learners in three types of programs:…

Discussions of workforce development emphasize stackable training, and assume linear advancement and alignment, through college and career paths. Stackable credentials have become a best practice for community colleges across the United States as they struggle to advance the college completion agenda and ensure that students graduate with the…

Contextual factors have received increased attention in understanding the challenges and difficulties in translating career education and career guidance services from Western societies to non-Western societies, many of which are undertaking a shift from a socialist and collectivistic system to a more individualistic one. In this article, using…

Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 directs the federal government to conduct a national assessment of adult education, including activities to understand the extent to which adult education strategies positively affect learners. A systematic review of the research on the effectiveness of particular strategies in adult…

Numerous countries suffer from a shortage of technicians and skilled workers, particularly in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), due to a mismatch between the skills and interests of the students graduating from or leaving the current education system and the needs of the labor market. Often, parents and students…

The Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) continues to build and expand opportunities for adult education students to transition into college and the workforce. Through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the ICCB will better align services with the core partners to assist students in accessing career pathway instructional and…

In order to best prepare the U.S. workforce, schools need to focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. However, given the current educational climate of reduced school funding, high teacher turnover, and increasing student diversity, the public school system simply cannot do this alone. This is where businesses…