Next Generation Career Pathways: A Manufacturing Case Study

Authored by Tom Vander Ark & Mary Ryerse
In partnership with:
GPS Education Partners, The Kern Family Foundation, Generac
Download the Paper
There are more than three million open skilled positions and twice as many disconnected young adults neither working nor in school.
In Next Generation Career Pathways: A Manufacturing Case Study, we assert that new market demands are shaping next generation career and technical education opportunities.
The rise of anywhere, anytime learning and competency-based approaches provides the opportunity for Career and Technical Education programs to lead the way in terms of applying blended, competency-based education in practical ways.
The paper addresses several key areas:

• Employability Gap. Outlines the inherent opportunity – both for organizations and for individuals – amidst the skill gap, with an emphasis on manufacturing.

• Next Generation Career Technical Education (CTE). We know powerful next-gen learning experiences are blended, personalized, adaptive, immersive, applied, work-based and grounded in a competency-based approach. While most next-gen models touch on just one or two of these, CTE programs have the opportunity to lead the way and cast a new vision for next-gen models.

• Case Study: GPS Education Partners. GPS Education Partners’ credentialed, competency-based, blended model offers authentic work-based learning experiences that extend throughout the educational continuum from K–12 to postsecondary to employment. GPS Education Partners works directly with local school districts and technical schools to implement this innovative learning and apprenticeship program.

View the paper for context of meta-trends – related to employability, readiness, and next-gen learning – along with a case study example to bring to life what these principles look like in practice.
The GPS Education Partners model, led by CEO Stephanie Borowski and CIO Andy Hepburn, is preparing to expand regionally and nationally.

Download “Next Generation Career Pathways: A Manufacturing Case Study“

For more on Next Generation Career Pathways and GPS Education Partners, see:

• GPS Education Partners: Closing the Manufacturing Employment Gap
• How Applied Learning is Accelerating Students to Technical Careers
• Experiencing Success at Work: High School Internships