Pathways to Endless Possibilities

It should be clear by now that a high school education is not enough to prepare students for success in today's workforce, let alone tomorrow's. Many students will go on to four-year colleges, many more will receive other types of post-secondary credentials. For far too many, without guidance, may not make it past high school, and their career options are bleak. So what's the solution? How do we prepare all students for life after high school?

A new report from Harvard Graduate School of Education, entitled "Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century" outlines several successful models for career and college readiness, both stateside and internationally. What each initiative has in common is the practice of work-based learning. Learning on the job and from professionals allows students to try on different careers and industries to decide what they do and do not like.

Early exposure to the working world is key, and I know for many people it conjures up images of turning students into corporate robots. I've heard it throughout my career in connecting education and businesses, and I've seen it in the comments on my previous posts here. The truth is quite the contrary. By providing clear pathways to major occupations and industries, students have the guidance to make informed decisions and feel confident in knowing what steps they should take to position them for a successful career.

Seventeen-year-olds chose which colleges and programs to apply to or what kind of technical college they will attend. How does career education limit their ability to make these decisions? Do we apply this logic to any other kind of education? Does letting students learn Spanish mean we are crushing their ability to realize their potential in Mandarin? The research (on work-based learning or foreign language study) definitely doesn't bear out these conclusions.

At my organization, the National Academy Foundation, one-third of students end up in the industry they studied at their career academy, meanwhile 85 percent of NAF graduates are in a professional career in any industry. These young people have had the benefit of understanding how what they are learning in high school connects to the world beyond; they've honed teamwork, problem-solving and communications skills and then tested them in their internships; and they've formed relationships with business professionals who want to support them on their chosen path.

We need to help young people uncover their individual motivations and career desires and define the steps toward attaining them. I agree with President Obama that we need to make schools places of high expectations, but without changes in how we support students' fulfillment of those expectations, that is all they might be. Our touchstone value, "the American dream," the ability of all people to carve out the life they most desire, is what we reject when we deny the next generation the right to explore.

We must expand the possibilities of students who might otherwise not know how to get from point A to point B. The idea is simple. Give students the opportunity to learn hard and soft skills in a real world setting and they can take these tools with them wherever their career takes them. Not all students will know what they want to do in high school, but if we give them the opportunity to explore early, they will have a better chance of being on a pathway to prosperity.

 

Follow JD Hoye on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NAFCareerAcads

Comments

[Alant]

09:00 PM on 02/06/2011

Do the people who write these things—anything that includes such phrases as "to prepare students for success in today's workforce"—ever look at the unemployment situation? Serious question. The structural changes in our economy, over decades, has simply not built the job slots that such apparently well-meaning people are thinking about. It seems to be a kind of magical thinking. NAF seems to focus on finance, hospitality, tourism, IT, and engineering. But, for instance, IT? Are people still hiring for such categories, I mean in the United States? Is there a foundation dedicated to training students in labor organization and political activism in support of education?

[Under Fed yet Fed Up]

10:57 PM on 02/05/2011

All too often a college degree is looked upon as a ticket to success. But many, if not most, of the Bachelor degrees in Psychology, Sociology, History, Sports Medecine (and many other interesting fields of study) have only limited value in career placement. Our society does a poor job of helping teens see what values a degree in any given field may have. A BS degree in Engineering offers a better chance at a well paying job (or any job at all) than a BA in History.

But our society is hell bent on letting our kids make their own decisions and we stand by idly as they accrue massive college debt on a degree that may have no real financial value. Even with help in understanding the possible outcomes of their chosen educational path, the youth may still decide on a major with poor career opportunities. But at least we would have helped them see the consequences of their decision.

[bcbailey64]

11:07 AM on 02/07/2011

So do you have a BS in Engineering? I disagree with your casting of aspersions on the value of a liberal arts degree. Having worked with many Engineers I can attest to their weakness in communication skills compared to liberal arts grads...and that's just for starters! ;)

[Tara Hunkoff]

01:10 AM on 02/05/2011

A good high school education prepares one for anything. That's the beauty of it. Please note that preparation is different from execution.

Throughout American history people have entered apprenticeships, gone to trade schools, joined the military services, attended junior colleges and beyond. They would never have done well without the fundamental reading, writing and math skills they acquired in high school. They were prepared to go further.

Nowadays even so-called top tier public colleges are awash in remedial English and Basic Math courses. Most graduates of these beer- and athletics-besotted joints wouldn't last two rounds on Jeopardy.

We see a never-ending stream of their pathetically crafted cover letters and resumes every week, and they're supposed to be the smart ones. No foundation. Nada. Zip.

[sinocensio]

09:59 AM on 02/03/2011

The problem is getting society interested in education, there is a large segment of our population that does not see education as a way of improving their lot. Students are faced with a society and their own culture, that expects instant gratification, consumption, acting rich through material things, which they expect to be handed, but not earned through hard work, discipline, dedication, determination and internal rewards. We have a society that shuns reading, parents don't do it, then the students will not, parents that are distrusting or have a hatred for teachers and the education system. We all know that it is important to get an education but to do it is hard with that much inertia working against the movement to get one. I see so many of my relatives, students, parents that do not have academic skills and the education world, assuming that they have basic skills, such as studying, or know the academic language that they need to attempt on a test or assessment. Now, we teach to the test, so fast, teachers are told to keep pace with pacing charts, that basically have the teachers, teach; I taught it, I hope you got it. No deep coverage, no practice, no real life application of the skill, or time to read and write, much less teaching a well rounded education program, that does not assume. Society needs to bring in the disfranchised, mostly minorities, some seeing education as a "white thing" and do not want to conform