Download New York State Graduates: What does it mean to be College and Career Ready?

As the Blueprint notes, “Strong collaborations between secondary and postsecondary education institutions, employers, industry, and other partners are essential to creating high-quality CTE programs, and they result in numerous benefits. Academic, career, and technical content can be made more relevant, rigorous, and better aligned with the skills demanded by the labor market. Students can obtain college credit for course work completed in high school, apprenticeships, or industry-based training. Students also can obtain a clearer understanding of the requirements for entry into college programs, positioning them for seamless transitions into postsecondary education. Strong collaborations also enable resources, such as equipment and facility space, to be purchased and used more efficiently.”

The blueprint encourages collaboration in two important ways: (1) it permits only consortia of local education agencies and postsecondary institutions and their partners to apply to states for Perkins funding, and (2) it requires states to meet a matching requirement using private-sector resources in order to receive Perkins funding.

An eligible consortium could be based on geography, an occupational or industrial sector, or other considerations. At a minimum, an eligible consortium must include local education agencies with at least one of them serving a high concentration of students from low-income families, and postsecondary institutions that offer two-year degrees. Other partners in a consortium could be research universities that play a critical role in economic development as well as Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and other minority-serving institutions.

In current practice, employers, industry, and labor partners—who have the best understanding of immediate, near-term, and future labor market needs—do not have adequate opportunities to participate in designing and implementing CTE programs. The blueprint addresses this issue by establishing a matching requirement that states must meet to receive Perkins funds. That requirement could be met with cash or in-kind resources, such as equipment, training facilities, entrepreneurial start-up capital, or technical assessments, to encourage collaboration between stakeholders within a consortium.

Read OVAE Connection

"We are proud to preseent the SKillsUSA/Lowes's Community Rebuilding Grant to the students here today."  Mr. Potter said during a brief ceremony.

"Thers was one of just two schools that were awarded grants from more than 100 applications nationwide.  These students show commitment to their school and their community."

Download the article Times-Journal article, April 25, 2012 below in "Supporting Files." or click here.

NYS SkillsUSA

Alignment was a featured subject in a recent national press call that Secretary Duncan, OVAE Assistant Secretary Dann-Messier, and Stan Litow, IBM’s vice president for corporate citizenship and corporate affairs and president of the IBM International Foundation, hosted for reporters. Litow began his remarks by applauding the blueprint because it will “better prepare America’s youth for college and careers.” Litow noted, however, that a crisis is upon us, saying, “We often talk of a jobs crisis, but when you look at the data we really have a skills crisis and we really need action.” Litow also pointed out that the demand for skilled workers already exists. “Fourteen million jobs will be created in the next ten years for students with strong associate degrees [sic]. If more students get these skills, businesses will benefit, the individual students will benefit, and the country will be more competitive.”
Litow described the efforts that IBM is making to address the skills crisis. Through its partnership with the New York City Department of Education and area colleges and universities it has launched the Pathways in Technology, Early College High School, or P-TECH. This new model incorporates grades nine through 14 into one school that culminates in students receiving high school diplomas, associate degrees in computer technology, and an agreement that they will have priority consideration for jobs at IBM. P-TECH prepares students with the academic and workplace skills that they will need to transition from training programs directly into high-paying careers in the IT industry or to pursue additional postsecondary education. Said Litow, “A major component of IBM’s commitment to P-TECH has been to align job skills to the school’s curriculum.” As IBM determines the skills that will be needed for tomorrow’s jobs, it will continue to align the P-TECH curriculum with those skills to ensure that students are preparing for existing or future careers and high-paying jobs. According to Litow, the P-TECH model is now being replicated in Chicago, where five new P-TECH schools are scheduled to open in September 2012. New York City also will be opening more P-TECH schools. As Litow avers, “You really need to move to scale.”

Blueprint for Transforming Career and Technical Education