Career Clusters 101

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Career Clusters 101

• What are they?
• Why do we care?
• How do they affect my Business and Marketing
  program?
• Where do I begin?

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Career Clusters 101

• Career clusters
• Career fields
• Programs of Study
• Big Sky Pathways
• What great Opportunities!

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OVERVIEW

• Career Clusterswhat are they?
• Why are we instituting them in Montana?
• Basic definitions of terms
• Big Sky Pathwayswhat must they contain?
• Where do we begin how do we start?
• Break-out FOCUS GROUPS by class size
• Reporting back

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What are Career Clusters?

• Groupings of occupations and industries.
• A framework that shows the entire world of work.
• Used as an organizing tool for curriculum design.
• Blend rigorous academic/technical preparation.

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What are Career Clusters?

• Provide career planning
• Offer options for students to experience all
  aspects of an industry.
• Assists students with transitions
• All clusters have a common foundation knowledge
  and skills base.

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Sixteen Career Clusters

• Agriculture, Food Natural Resources
• Finance
• Architecture Construction
• Education Training
• Arts, AV Tech Communications
• Government Public Administration
• Business, Management Administration
• Health Science
• Hospitality Tourism
• Manufacturing
• Human Services
• Marketing Sales Service
• Information Technology
• Sciences, Tech, Engineering Mathematics
• Law, Public Safety, Corrections Security
• Transportation, Distribution Logistics

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Where did they come from?

• Proposed by the US Department of Education
• Developed and then adopted by the National
  Association of State Directors of Career
  Technical Education.

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In Montana ..

• MT Career Clusters Steering Committee formed in
  2005 proposed we take the 16 clusters and fold
  them into
• Six Mega-Clusters

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Why do we care?

• Our world has changed and will continue to.
• No longer a primarily unskilled labor force.
• Seamless transition from secondary to
  post-secondary education.
• To stay globally competitive, we need to focus on
  high skill, high demand, high wage careers.
• Instruction needs to relate to student career
  interests and their personal aspirations.

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Why change?
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION CAREER EDUCATION
for some students for ALL students
Some jobs ALL careers
6 7 disciplines 6 career fields/16 clusters
In lieu of academics Align with and support academics
High School focused K-12 post-secondary focused
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Why do we care?

• Business and industry demand change.
• Workforce is aging Baby boomers are retiring.
• Montana will have a major labor shortage
  beginning in 2013 and the shortage will continue
  while the demand for workers will increase.
• Clusters and Programs of Study are part of the
  new Perkins IV law.

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DEFINITIONS

• A career field
• Means the overall description of one of the six
  areas of employment opportunities.
• Business, Management Information Systems

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DEFINITIONS

• Each career field
• shares the common
• Foundation Knowledge Skills
• of all fields and clusters.

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DEFINITIONS

• A career cluster
• is a list of occupations that fall under the
  particular career field heading.
• Montanas clusters are
• Marketing Sales
• Management Administrative Services
• Hospitality and Tourism
• Finance
• Information Technology

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DEFINITIONS
FIELD
clusters
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DEFINITIONS

• A Big Sky Pathway
• (aka Program of Study)
• Is the sequential, non-duplicative coursework
  necessary for seamless transition from secondary
  to post-secondary studies for a select set of
  occupations.

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Wholl develop the model Pathways?

• Specialists from OCHE
• Specialists from OPI
• Members of Consortium for Educational Advancement
  (CEA) ---formerly the Tech Prep Consortium
• Educators (Secondary Post-Secondary) from the
  business/marketing field
• Business Industry partners

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THIS YEAR

• Will all Big Sky Pathways be developed this year?
• No.
• But ten model pathways will be developed
• Two in each of the following
• Business, Management Info Systems
• Industrial, Manufacturing, Engineering
  Systems
• Health Sciences
• Human Services Resources
• Environmental Agricultural Systems

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THIS YEAR

• We will choose two
• from the Business, Management, Information
  Systems field this year .
• Then the rest will follow in 2008-2009.
• will coincide with the re-writing of the
  Business/Marketing section of the Montana
  Standards and Guidelines.

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REQUIRED ELEMENTS

• Coordinated and non-duplicative sequence of
  courses.
• Contains both secondary and post-secondary
  elements.
• Challenging academic and career technical
  education content
• Culminate in technical skill proficiency,
  industry-recognized credential, certificate,
  degree, or completion of a recognized
  apprenticeship program.

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PERMISSIVE ELEMENTS

• Opportunity for secondary students to participate
  in dual or concurrent enrollment programs or
  other ways to acquire post-secondary credits.

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Where and HOW do we begin?

• Dont just plug in our existing courses ...
• Think outside the box! What is best for
  students??
• Carefully analyze what were teaching in light of
  challenging academic and CTE content
• Consider high skill, high demand, high wage
  (Montana statistics)
• What seamless transitions can we make?
• Look at sample programs of study
  www.careerclusters.org
• Network with other teachers whove begun the
  process.

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FOCUS GROUPS

• Divide into groups according to class size.
• (AA, A, B, C-size schools)
• Recruit a RECORDER and a REPORTER for your group.
• Discuss together and analyze your current program
  offerings in light of the challenging academic
  and CTE content and high skill, high demand, high
  wage.
• What would a Big Sky Pathway look like in your
  size school?

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FOCUS GROUPS

• By group consensus, choose two of the 5 clusters
  that you would recommend the Pathway Development
  Team develop as a model template for 2007-08.
  Explain your reasoning behind your decision.
• Future plansPROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTwhat should
  be our areas of focus?
• Industry knowledge and industry skill
• Interventions supports (academic services)
• Technical skill
• Academic skill (math, science, reading)
• Teaching skills (pedagogy)

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Take a BREAK!

• Take a BREAK!

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FOCUS GROUPS

• Individual groups report back.

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WRAP UP

• Thank you,
• thank you!
• Questions??

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REMEMBER

• Some times you have to move slow to move fast.
• Dont stress learn and glean from others work
  smarter, not harder!

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CONCLUSION

• Please contact me if youd be interested in
  serving on the
• Pathway Development Team
• CONTACT INFORMATION
• Diana Fiedler
• dfiedler_at_mt.gov