Funding Career Pathways and Career Pathway Bridges: A Federal Policy Toolkit for States
May 18, 2010 | Allegra Baider, Vickie Choitz, Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, Marcie W.M. Foster, Linda Harris, Elizabeth Lower-Basch, Neil Ridley, Julie Strawn
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The nation's current education and training systems inadequately serve lower-income and lower-skilled adults and out-of-school youth. These systems also fail to produce enough workers with the skills to fill available jobs. Education and training programs such as English language and basic skills education are fragmented from postsecondary education, making it difficult for low-skilled adults and out-of-school youth to progress to postsecondary education and training to fill the demand for these skilled jobs.
To combat this disconnect and ease the transition into postsecondary education, many states are adopting a career pathways approach to providing education and training to low-skilled adults and out-of-school youth. Career pathways are linked education and training services that "enable students, often while they are working, to advance over time to successively higher levels of education and employment in a given industry or occupational sector."* Career pathways is not a separate program but a framework that weaves existing adult education, training, and college programs into a pathway that streamlines the path to postsecondary education and credentials.
Using the Toolkit
CLASP developed the Funding Career Pathways and Career Pathway Bridges Toolkit to help interagency state teams identify and use federal resources to support these models. The toolkit has four sections which are intended to be used in conjunction with each other to assist state teams in building their career pathways or career pathways bridge initiative. These four sections include:
- Introduction
- Using the Toolkit
- Funding Options Worksheet (Microsoft Excel/PDF)
- Federal Program Summaries
This toolkit is designed to help interagency state teams identify and facilitate "braiding" of federal resources to design and develop career pathways and bridges into them for adults and out-of-school youth. The toolkit also will help state teams identify state policy barriers to using federal resources for career pathways and bridges and, ideally, address them. Using the Funding Options Worksheet, teams should identify a specific target population and list the key tasks for building career pathways under the appropriate headings. Sample tasks are provided in the Funding Options Worksheet, but teams may want to customize their tasks based on specific opportunities or limitations in their state.
Federal Program Summaries
Use the federal program summaries below to identify resources that might support your state's career pathways initiative. Each summary includes basic information, such as type of program, eligibility requirements, type of services/support provided and an analysis of how the program can support career pathways, including a list of specific opportunities and limitations for state usage of federal funds.
Workforce Investment Act Title I: Adult and Dislocated Worker
Workforce Investment Act Title I: Youth
Trade Adjustment Assistance
Registered Apprenceship and Pre-Apprenticeship
Employment Service (Wagner-Peyser Act)
Workforce Investment Act Title II: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act
Pell Grant
Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training
*Oregon Career Pathways Initiative definition.