1. Workforce Development Council January 15, 2008
Career Clusters
Workforce Development Council
January 15, 2008

2. What Are Clusters?

3. Career Clusters are… Groups of occupations and industries
Shared business function
Requiring similar core knowledge and skills
Represent all occupations from entry through management levels, including technical and professional careers.

4. 16 National Career Clusters
Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
Architecture and Construction
Arts, A/V Technology and Communications
Business, Management and Administration
Education and Training
Finance
Government and Public Administration
Health Science
Handout

5. …and more Clusters Hospitality & Tourism Human Services
Information Technology
Law, Public Safety & Security
Manufacturing
Marketing, Sales & Service
Science, Technology, Engineering & Math
Transportation, Distribution & Logistics

6. Career Clusters: Goals
Prepare students for success in Careers (academic skills, technical skills, employability skills)
Support Economic Development and workforce training
Encourage Career Development (exploration/entry/change)
Improve transitions
Improve Academic Achievement (meet state requirements)

7. Career Clusters Framework
(Refer to Pathway Model handout for slides 18-22)
The model is the best one page, at-a-glance visual of what a “Career Cluster” looks like. The model organizes the occupations within each Career Cluster into Pathways. Let’s look at an example.
Pathways – groupings of professions that require similar talents, knowledge and skills
Occupational specialties – examples of careers in that pathway – may not be exclusive to one career cluster.

8. Cluster Model
At the top of the model, there is a short description of the cluster.
The first level (at the bottom of the model) shows the Knowledge and Skills that are common across the entire cluster. These Foundational Knowledge and Skills are categorized into 10 topic areas that you see on the model.
Next level is Pathways. There are 3 Pathways in this Career Cluster. (The number of Pathways in different clusters range from two to seven.) Specific Knowledge and Skills have been identified for each Pathway in this cluster.
Third level – representative occupations of that Cluster Pathway This gives learners a picture of how many options are available to them within a cluster.

9. Pathways
Groupings of professions that require similar talents, knowledge and skills.

10. Occupational Specialties
Specific occupations organized by pathway within the Career Cluster
May not be exclusive to one Career Cluster

11. Organization of Knowledge and Skill Statements
Grouped in 10 Topic Areas:
Academics
Communications
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
Information Technology
Systems
Safety, Health and Environment
Leadership and Teamwork
Ethics and Legal Responsibility
Employability and Career Development
Technical Skills
Discuss :
These pertinent to all careers
Differences for example in Safety, Health, Environ - talk about differences between business cluster and manufacturing cluster and health cluster
Mention basic safety, health curr that has been developed
All jobs have IT stuff but there is also an entire cluster – examples of IT differences in Finance cluster versus Health cluster

12. Questions about the Career Cluster Structure?

13. Idaho’s Cluster Model 6 Super Clusters 16 National Clusters Pathways
Occupations

14. Agriculture & Natural Resources
Super Cluster ►Cluster Match
Arts & Communications
Health Care
Agriculture & Natural Resources

15. Super Cluster ►Cluster Match
Business & Management

16. Super Cluster ►Cluster Match
Human Resources

17. Engineering & Industrial Systems
Super Cluster ►Cluster Match
Engineering & Industrial Systems

18. Career Clusters Implemented Through a Program of Study (POS)
Individual Graduation Plan
Recommended sequence of courses
organized around Career Cluster Pathway(s)
grades 9-14/16, for academic, elective, and professional-technical offerings

19. Program of Study Components (Continued)
Articulated courses between high school and college and/or recognized industry certifications
Learning opportunities through student organizations and community opportunities

20. Sample POS

21. POS Example… The College Connection

22. Benefits for Students and Parents
Relevance
academic achievement
Connections
school, college, workplace, life-long learning
Opportunities
multiple career pathways
College preparedness
less remediation/$
Relevance increases academic achievement
Kids more connected when see relevance to themselves
Studies show that kids don’t see relevance of school – may drop out – balk at increased requirements not prepared for college
Tie relevance-interest-achievement-college preparedness-less remediation
“Quit school? Quit School? You wanna end up like your father? A career lab rat?”

23. Benefits for Educators That Impact Industry
Connection between school and the 21st century workplace
Knowledge and skill statements for aligning curriculum
Common language with business
Note to self
Depending on what the time is…..stop here for group activity or continue on for wrap-up……

24. Benefits for Business and Workforce Development
Linked with labor market data
Skills gap identification
Knowledge and skills needed in the workplace
Common language with education
Curriculum input to education/ training providers

25. Career Clusters How can they be used by business?
….Promote economic development
….Identify knowledge and skills needed in the workplace
….Communicate training needs to education providers
An economic development tool – used in conjunction with existing occupation (O*Net – SOC) and education classification systems (CIP)
show availability of trained workers in clusters to businesses thinking about locating to area.
Identify programs that need to be expanded to meet projected labor shortages
Framework to identify knowledge and skills
A business can use the information to articulate K&S for own workplace; use to determine gaps in own workforce; determine training needs as a result of those gaps; and finally
Communicate training needs to education providers – common language for business and education

26. Contacts & Resources
State Division of Professional Technical Education
Ann Stephens, Associate Administrator
Sally Harris, Curriculum Coordinator
Kristi Enger, Career Guidance Coordinator
States Career Clusters Initiative