On June 17th, The Forbes Funds was happy to facilitate the beginnings of a partnership between educational institutions across Greater Pittsburgh to develop a pipeline opportunity to create greater access to jobs in technology.
Presentations were given by special guests, Angela E. Mike, Executive Director of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Division, and Monika Pugh, Director of Student Support Services at Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Further presentations were provided by Dr. Anthony Hamlet of Pittsburg Public Schools, Dr. Alicia Harvey-Smith of Pittsburgh Technical College, and Dr. Quintin Bullock of Community College of Allegheny County. These presentations were also covered in The Forbes Funds’ most recent Call For Community Solutions event, ‘Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century: New Careers, Plannings, and Opportunities’.
Together, they spoke about different educational programs and initiatives that will open new career pathways for the students of Allegheny County and greater Southwest Pennsylvania.
The Future Of CTE With Angela Mike
Angela began her presentation by appealing to a new priority to make sure all students graduate High School with the necessary skills to navigate life. This calls for an end to a school-wide priority on standardized testing and defining the future-ready graduate.
The CTE division plans to add additional articulation agreements with the Pittsburgh Technical college and other similar Post-Secondary partners. In addition, new pathways are going to be investigated, particularly in the fields of Healthcare, Food Service, Information Technology, Internet Management, Entertainment Technology, and Personal Care Services.
This has shown significant results, as 94% of students have been found to continue in their CTE field after graduation.
Gauging Career Readiness with Monika Pugh
Monika offered a number of different ways the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) are moving forward in creating new career pathways for Pittsburgh students. She gave insight into PPS’ “Do What you Are” Assessment as well as a K-12 Comprehensive Guidance Plan.
These are both part of PPS’ Naviance program, the scope of which can be found here. Naviance is an easy-to-use tool that creates a personalized, unique career plan for each student and provides the opportunity for students to explore their career possibilities early. From there, practitioners can work together to choose appropriate academic coursework that aligns with career goals. Students can even access Naviance through a mobile app that is available on their smartphones or tablets.
0 Comments