Career Clusters Set to Transform Curricula

An important development in workforce education nationwide will soon have implications for community college educators in all disciplines. Below is an article by Danita McAnally, Associate Dean of Assessment and Development Amarillo College. The article will also appear in the forthcoming issue of the Messenger.

“To stop globalization would be the exact wrong thing to do; we have to embrace what’s happening. It’s in place and will remain in place. We need to help unemployed workers, make them better trained and skilled so they can get better jobs.”
—Mark Zandi
Chief Economist
Moody’s Economy

America’s concern about its workforce has begun the next transformation of community colleges.

Several factors are driving this concern: Many American jobs have moved overseas; the manufacturing age shifted to the information age; technology advances changed workforce demands; and a new generation of workers viewed education and the workplace differently than did previous generations.

All of these factors influenced the Department of Labor and the Department of Education to collaborate on a project which resulted in a new vision for education —career clusters.

The 16 career clusters restructured jobs into broad categories with common skills which allow an educated employee or potential employee to shift within the industry as technology and workforce changes dictate. In addition to the common skills, programs of study identify jobs within each career cluster into broad career pathways.

The transformation of instruction into a new organizational structure will be completed during the next few years. It is important for us all to understand these changes, regardless of our disciplines or responsibilities on campus.

Community colleges accepting Perkins funds under the Perkins Act of 2006 must restructure instruction into the career cluster programs of study. Such restructuring must be based around their service area’s and the state’s high demand, high skill, or high wage positions. Therefore, each funded community college must listen and respond to business and industry representatives from the region and align the curricula with the industry’s preferences and the statewide career cluster teams’ programs of study.

Career clusters were introduced more than a decade ago and most states embraced statewide career cluster pathways about five years ago. A large number of states accepted grants from the Office of Vocational Education and created the national Web site for career clusters.

The Texas statewide career clusters initiative began about five years ago for secondary schools with the assistance of universities. The state Web site is Achieve Texas, at www.achievetexas.org. However, Texas community colleges only became involved in 2008.

Since community colleges are in the center of the Texas career cluster pipelines, they were required to begin the alignment with secondary schools. A Perkins Leadership grant was awarded to North Lake College with project direction assigned to Shannon Weaver and Tish Waters. It has an aggressive deadline of completing a statewide program of study for all 16 career clusters by August 3lst.

As of April 1st, more than half of the career cluster teams have begun this task. A few more career cluster teams will be accepting appointments in the upcoming weeks.

Interested faculty may apply to serve on these teams by contacting the project directors.

While past Perkins funding only permitted the funds to serve technical programs, the new Perkins funds will fund all career and technical education (CTE) programs that fit the requirement of high demand, high skill, or high wage—including those degree programs that feed into baccalaureate degrees. Additionally, all CTE programs are required to include academic rigor.

The career clusters pipelines also include multiple entrances and exits to accommodate adult populations and special populations. Thus, faculty and staff from various disciplines will become involved in the transition to career cluster programs of study.

Community colleges will once again be shaped by external demands.

Below are the some relevant Web sites and the contact information for those involved at the state level:

National—www.careerclusters.org

Achieve Texas—www.achievetexas.org

Texas Career Clusters—www.txcareerclusters.org

Texas Career Clusters Project Contacts

Shannon Weaver—Project Director, Texas Career Clusters Project and Director of Fiscal Affairs and Compliance, North Lake College, Dallas County Community College District, sweaver@dcccd.edu, (972) 273-3367.

Tish Waters—Coordinator, Texas Career Clusters Project and Grants Management Technical Education, North Lake College, DCCCD, twaters@dcccd.edu, (972) 273-3255.

Don Perry—Facilitator, Texas Career Clusters Project, Associate Vice Chancellor, Educational Affairs DCCCD District Office, don.perry@dcccd.edu, (214) 860-2450.

Lee Sloan—Facilitator of Texas Career Clusters Project, Dean of Business/Professional/Technical Education, Del Mar College, lsloan@delmar.edu, (361) 698-1703.