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2.0 ALIGNMENT

"Good programs are not going to evolve by simply redefining (redrafting) what we're already doing, maintaining horizontal and vertical barriers between isolated sectors of the educational process, and hoping that the American employers will be satisfied with what educators think is best for the students and the new labels that are applied to them. A new synergism must be developed at the local and state levels -- to make significant and appropriate changes in curriculum, cooperation, and coordination."

Dan Hull, A Win-Win Experience




Workforce Preparation Programs in California

Vocational and Adult Education

Department
Program
Community Colleges
Post-Secondary Vocational Education
Economic Development Program
Partnership for Excellence
(Vocational Component)
Education
Secondary Vocational Education
Adult Education
(Vocational Component)
Agriculture Vocational Education
Partnership Academics
Regional Occupational Programs & Centers
Workforce Investment Act Match - Vocational Ed.
Perkins Vocational Training And Education Act
Secretary of Education
School to Career

The Group discovered that the lament of numerous reports utilized by the Master Plan Commission of 1987 still rings true almost two decades later. It is best captured in a 1983 Assembly Office of Research report, Training Tomorrow's Workers, which says: "California's employment preparation programs and activities are isolated efforts that suffer from duplication and a lack of coordination". Still today, the state has a collection of programs in statewide job training with a fragile, if any, connection to the education system, which, itself, is a bevy of programs that simply evolved over time through accretion, not systemic planning.

Members reviewed and discussed the ECS P16 report, which states: "As long as governance, funding, and the policies affecting K-12 schools, two- and four-year colleges and universities remain unconnected to each other, there is little chance that the three sectors will cooperate to provide all students in grades 11-14 the education they need. New policies, funding formulas and possibly new structures that are designed with student education needs at the core are required." Even though myriad such studies and reports document how each segment of an education system is reliant on the others, testimony before the Group revealed the low degree to which the education segments work together to assist student transition to the workforce. In K-14, this manifests most prominently by the lack of articulation of programs. The Department of Education reported that schools with meaningful workforce preparation programs have standards-based and articulated curriculum across grades and segments.


Workforce Preparation Programs in California

Core Employment Services and Economic Development

Department
Program
Employment Development
Mainstream Job Service
Employment Training Panel
Training and Economic Development
Program
Industrial Relations
Community Colleges
Apprenticeship Training
Education
Apprenticeship Program

While federal regulations regarding funding have unintentionally inhibited systemic alignment and coordination efforts, such as articulation, but a lack of will among segments looms significantly in this matter. Dale Parnell, author of The Neglected Majority, reflects this kind of institutional stasis best, when he states: "...articulation, as an attitude, is exemplified by the willingness of educators in all sectors to work together to transcend the individual and institutional self-interest that impedes the maximum development of the student. "While exemplary practices of intersegmental cooperation do exist in pockets across the state, including the IMPAC projects, meetings of articulation officers, compacts and agreements between community colleges and UC and CSU, a recent agreement by the CCCs regarding credit for high school work, and other endeavors, the Group agreed that more systematic planning is necessary to include all levels of education and link them to other critical players.


Workforce Preparation Programs in California

Employment Services for Special Populations

Department
Program
Aging
Senior Community Service Employment
Community Services and Development
Community Services
Employment Development
Special Veterans Services
Trade Adjustment Act and North
American Free Trade Agreement
Training Programs
Workforce Investment Act
Wagner Peyser Grant Special Projects
Federal Welfare -to-Work Grant
Faith-Based Initiative
Social Services
Food Stamp Employment and Training
CalWORKS Employment Services
Refugee Assistance Services
Conservation Corps
Training and Work Program
Youth Authority
Job Placement Services
Corrections
Preventing Parolee Crime
(Job Training Component)
Rehabilitation
One-Stop Career Vocational Rehabilitation
Services
Transportation
Maintenance Program Youth Job Skills
Program
On-the-Job Supportive Services


Several educators proposed the creation of a statewide institute to examine, plan, and provide direction for aligning education segments, while business members unanimously preferred a regional approach because the labor market system generally expresses as regional phenomena, and they believed there would be an increased potential for enhancing much-needed communication between education segments, and the state job training system and linkage of both to the labor market through collaborative efforts. Educators objected, citing negative experiences with the federal Workforce Investment Act, which focused on regions in its implementation.

Members struggled between these options, and ultimately, because of almost unanimous agreement that, in the current approach to workforce preparation programs, information is not flowing and accountability is not functioning, the group cohered around the creation of a network of shared responsibility to alleviate the disjointed practices of the past. Educational providers would have responsibility for ensuring that the academic content at each level prepares all students for success at the next educational level, and business would focus on providing access to workplaces and engage with educators in mutual strategic planning to ensure student acquisition of the skill sets required of workers in the future. Educators and business will share responsibility for modifying professional development activities to ensure that educators have rich understandings of how knowledge is applied in work settings.

Workforce Preparation Programs in California

Continuing Education

Department
Program
California State University
Extension Programs
University of California
Extension Programs



Of strategic importance are entities, such as the STC partnerships, which have been highly instructive regarding the need for some form of intermediary staff, such as trade associations and other alliances committed to school-business partnerships in current efforts of this nature across the state. The business community contends there needs to be a more robust linkage between what "the markets are saying" and what is being offered, especially in postsecondary education. The network model offers a mechanism for more formally implementing this kind of ongoing dialogue between business/industry and education and strategically planning to eventually encompass all the workforce preparation and delivery systems in the state’s education system and link them to the labor market.

Recommendations:

2.1 The state should establish broad-based roles and responsibilities for a statewide system of career/workforce preparation programs in education, as follows:

Elementary schools shall be responsible for introducing career awareness to students.

Middle schools shall be responsible for initiating career exploration to students.

Secondary schools shall be responsible for providing school-to-career and employment preparation opportunities to students through programs offered at school and business sites.


Community colleges shall be responsible for providing expanded employment training programs in conjunction with specialized courses, career certificates, and the AA degree for adults. The training may be offered in high schools and ROCPs and/or articulated programs leading to four-year college degrees.

State-approved Private Postsecondary Institutions, Continuing Education, University Extension, Employer-provided training, and non education entities, such as WIA Board Community Partners, shall provide employment training programs leading to specific jobs and that are responsive to industry requirements for professional development and license renewal.

Public and private colleges and universities shall jointly be responsible for preparing associate, baccalaureate, and advanced degree graduates for productive roles as problem solvers, innovators, and leaders. All three public postsecondary systems should give prominent consideration to the state's changing economic needs and to emerging workforce opportunities for graduates, as factors in academic and strategic planning.

Rationale: The prior Master Plan for Higher Education had established roles and responsibilities for the public segments of education, and while this report envisions workforce preparation as inclusive of the entire system, members outlined roles and responsibilities at the broadest levels.

2.2 The alignment of career technical programs should be broad in scope.

Rationale: The fundamental goal for establishing this Master Plan is to create a more coherent system of education through the linking of K-12 programs and services to those offered at postsecondary levels. For this Working Group, the issue of alignment of workforce programs across the education segments and their linkage to the state's training programs is central to that goal. To more strategically address the gaps in career/work preparation for all students, as well as the future workforce needs of California, it is imperative that the state overcome the isolation of career technical programs within the segments of education and minimize the education system's distance from the state's job training programs. Members agreed that each system must first be more closely aligned within itself and then, each to the other. Ultimately, both should be more strategically linked to the labor market.

2.3 The structure of a career/workforce preparation system should reflect a tightly -coupled network model, characterized by relatively autonomous nodes of education/training providers, intermediary industry, trade, and professional organizations; strategic connections to the labor force; and a high level of communication among network members.

Rationale: A network model is desirable because the most important characteristic of successful networks is a shared vision, thus providing the state with a profound opportunity to transform the current system to one that is authentically student-centered and broad-based.

Through the strategic planning of a network approach, institutions would move incrementally toward more autonomy as performance and accountability measures are instituted and state regulations are diminished, accordingly. Strategic partnerships with business would be encouraged throughout the state and serve to inform curricula as well as training and professional development. Learning would occur in diverse ways and settings, and increased flexibility would allow assessing and accommodating changes in what learning is needed. There would be greater integration of institutional staff and business partners and learning between schools, colleges, universities, and work place settings.

Table of Contents
Summary Introduction 1. Integration 2. Alignment
3. Accountability 4. Resources 5. Private Conclusion
References Charge Members Notes