Career Pathways

From LiteracyTentWiki

Metaphors

We have several metaphors in workforce development for entry into and advancement in training, education, apprenticeship, work, and careers:

1. Career ladder, most now agree no longer captures the complexity,

2. Career paths or pathways is a more common metaphor,

3. Career roadmap is another I have recently heard.

• One idea for a career roadmap is to have a traffic circle ( aka rotary or roundabout) at the center of the graphic, called Work. Leading into and/or out of this work rotary would be Basic Skills Prep; Job Readinesss Skills and Support; Job Skills Training; Apprenticeship; College Prep; and Higher Education (including one-year certificate, AA/AS/AAS, BA/BS, MA, Ph.D) roads. The work rotary would have islands in the middle such as: First Job; Subsidized or Volunteer Work Experience; Internship; and Career Advancement. Along some roadways would be tollgates such as: High School Diploma/GED, College Admission, College Placement Test, Job Training Certificate(s), and College Degree(s),
  

and

4. Career lattice suggests that there is more than one path in any given career or careers. [Halona Y. Agouda , FirstTeacher@gmail.com ].

• This is the "lattice" metaphor: a structure of wood or metal strips fastened together forming diamond-shaped spaces between, used as a support for climbing plants The idea is that there are lots of different ways plants climb up a lattice (up, sideways, down, up again, sideways, up again, etc.)? [ David J. Rosen, djrosen@theworld.com ]
• Yes, but more specifically the lattice refers to the possibility of exposure to more than one career path -- it can refer to a set of careers within a sector. Many of the skills people learn in one career carry over to the next. As jobs and the skills needed to perform change with time, it's important for adult learners to know that they are not preparing for one job, but careers that will require they change with the times. The lattice metaphor gets to the interconnectedness of skills and careers within the sector. [Halona Y. Agouda, FirstTeacher@gmail.com]

Do you have other metaphors to suggest?

Visual Clarifier

I am interested, as a volunteer, to develop a visual clarifier for workforce development. It would be a one-page digital, printable image that would show some of the milestone choices an adult learner (someone with or without a high school diploma, perhaps a GED holder) has in the world of work and education/training/apprenticeship for work. A visual clarifier uses illustrations and a minimum of text to make a complex concept or set of information simple. It may be accompanied by pages with more detailed information or may stand on its own. They are often not easy to make because it requires boiling down and clearly representing complexity.

Here's the closest visual clarifier image I could find of what I have in mind. Ignore the specific content in this image. The visual clarfier content we will make will be based on "What the visual clarifier should include" (below).

What the visual clarifier should include

1. The visual clarifier should have roads or paths. It should include these short- and long-term destinations :

• Basic Education
  • adult basic and secondary level face-to-face or online courses or tutorials
  • beginning (literacy level), low-intermediate, high-intermediate, pre-academic and/or advanced ESOL/ESL face-to-face or online courses or tutorials
  • life skills
  • Citizenship preparation face-to-face or online classes for immigrants who want to take the Citizenship test
  • Career Readiness Credential preparation
• Job Readiness Skills and Support
  • job search skills (job searching, coaching, mentoring, resume writing, completing a job application, etc.)
  • job clubs
  • job shadowing
• Technical/job Skills Training
• Apprenticeship
• College Preparation
  • academic skills and knowledge such as college level reading, writing math and science
  • soft skills such as time management, teamwork, problem solving
  • financial aid preparation
  • introduction to the culture of higher education
  • work-related continuing education courses, some of which may lead to certificates
• Higher Education, perhaps broken down in to levels such as:
  • one year certificate
  • two-year degree
  • four-year degree and
  • graduate degrees.

2. It should also have hurdles or gates for:

• High school diploma/GED
• Certificates of completion of training or apprenticeship levels
• College admission
• College placement and
• College degrees.

3. It should have roadside rest areas with pre-employment classes that are held in a variety of settings and offer work readiness skills, basic skills boosts and job search. They are where people get information and confidence about their skills and their goals and then choose a route to a job, technical training or GED attainment. [Suggested by Rachel Nicolosi]

4. It should be designed so that roads or paths lead from education, apprenticeship and job training to work, but also so that there are roads or paths from work to education, apprenticeship and job skills training.

5. It should move in an upward direction (perhaps from lower left to upper right) with increasingly more education and training and work experience and also better jobs with more responsibility and better pay and benefits.

6. It should look friendly.

Anything else that should be added?

• I would like to see an image that demonstrates how work and education/training usually happen simultaneously for most of our adult learners -- whether the learning happens on the job, in a community based learning program, or school/college. Most "fog lifters" for traditional students imply that school comes first, then the job, then, in some cases, back to grad school, then back to work. [ Halona Y. Agouda, FirstTeacher@gmail.com ]

• Your idea here!

Much of the content on this page, and the page itself, was developed by:
David J. Rosen
DJRosen@theworld.com or djrosen123@gmail.com

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