This week I came across an article describing how 3 million senior citizens are still paying off student loan debt.

Click here to read it!

One individual featured in the article, now 76, incurred the debt when she was 59 years old. She still owes $40,000 in debt.

I have a very personal experience with this issue. My father retired from his career as a pastor in his early 60’s. He tried real estate for a couple of years then decided that law school would be a good challenge. Lo and behold, he paid for the endeavor with federal direct student loans. After completing law school three years later, he had a law degree, but honestly he was far too old to chart a meaningful career path in law. So, he got into mediation for renters’ rights. It was a great contribution, but something he could have easily gotten into with a short-term mediation training program. He was already an experienced pastor with a PhD in counseling. He didn’t need three years of law school!

Of course, when he enrolled in law school and applied for loans, NO ONE at the law school or in the federal lending program raised a red flag. Whoa, fella, are you really sure you want to take out this student loan debt and pay it off? Probably fearing an age-discrimination accusation, everyone just kept their mouth shut.

Tragically, dad was afflicted with dementia about two years into his mediation work, so he had to stop working entirely. After I was forced to take over his financial affairs, I discovered this big pile of student loan debt. I was shocked and angry about it. Ultimately, all his federal loan debt was “forgiven” – but that really means that all of us, as taxpayers, helped pay it off.

Now, presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are fighting over who can be more generous with government spending – offering to forgive lots of existing student loan debt and make four-year college completely free for low- and moderate-income students.

We do need to rethink how we pay for higher education, but their proposals would just throw money at the symptoms and allow the underlying problem to fester. Financial worries are not the only problem with college access. The large majority of students have no academic and career plan that is informing their college decisions.

I’m not suggesting we only pay for degrees in the STEM fields, because the skills developed in liberal arts degrees, when applied in the non-profit and for-profit settings, can be very valuable, but we need to create some guardrails. Things that protect individuals from taking on massive student loans without any sense of direction for how they will build and navigate a career. If we don’t create these guardrails, and just make everything government paid, then we just hide the problem.

Perhaps we should create new pre-requisite for any government-sponsored loan, grant or tuition payment. Not only should the student demonstrate financial need, but also have completed a personalized academic and career plan, based on some minimum criteria to show that the recipient is actually putting real thought into their post-secondary participation.  

Students already have to declare a college major to get financial aid, so we can’t just ask them to state a career objective. They actually need to complete an academic and career plan process, and that will probably take 20-30 hours to be meaningful. If they haven’t already done this prior to admission, maybe this has to be a first semester required course.

Warren blames the student loan crisis completely on government policy – you know that we’re giving tax breaks to billionaires but under funding higher education. Yes, over the decades, the onus for higher education funding has shifted from government to the individual, and student loans have made that possible. However, she’s missing the BIG contributing factor.

As a society we’ve made a fantasy out of the aspiration of college and university for all, saying that any form of college and any sort of college degree is equally valuable for every individual. If we’re really concerned about equity, then we need to make sure that every young person is getting high-quality career development to help them make the best possible personal choice for work and learning after high school.

As a policy matter, let’s put Career Development for all ahead of increased funding for post secondary education, and make sure the two are inextricably linked!

Hans Meeder is President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions (www.nc3t.com).  NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education 

ORIGINALLY POSTED FEBRUARY 2017

You’ve heard of the elevator pitch, right? It’s the idea that you get on an elevator, and someone asks you, “what do you do?” or “what are you working on?”, etc.  You have the length of an elevator ride (30 seconds to a minute) to explain what you do or what your idea is – in a way that makes sense to the listener.

This is far easier said than done; but it is incredibly important to do, especially if you want to explain your work around pathways and draw other people into the work with you.

Michael Hyatt, in his book “Platform. Get Noticed in a Noisy World” says that an elevator pitch should contain four components:

1. Your product name and category
2. The program you are attempting to solve
3. Your proposed solution
4. The key benefit of your solution

I spent some time recently trying to explain the elevator pitch for my latest book.  Since the book is all about pathways and pathways system, essentially it’s a pitch for the work around pathways.  Here’s the 30-second pitch for pathways that I came up with:

1 (product name and category)

Hi, I (my organization) is working on a very important education and workforce strategy — the Power and Promise of Pathways.

2 (the problem)

Too many students don’t understand how education connects to their future, or how to make good decisions about careers and college. 

3 (the proposed solution)

In the Pathways System approach, students learn about career options; they see the world of work; they try out career programs, and they learn to make smart decisions.

4 (the benefit)

Through this approach, school starts to make sense, student work harder, and they make smoother transitions to college and good careers, which leads to a better life.

You may have noticed that this 30-second version really focuses mostly on the education perspective. I created a longer version (1 minute) that also touches more on the employer perspective and the value for adult learners and communities.

So, how would you make your elevator pitch?

• What is your “product” name?
• What is the problem your working to solve?
• What is the proposed solution?
• What are the benefits?

Here’s a link to the video by Hyatt explaining the concept.

By the way, I wrote an entire book on this topic before I actually created this very useful elevator pitch!  Don’t make the same mistake! You will find this exercise incredibly beneficial for bringing clarity to your work and helping others understand the essence of the pathways movement.

Hans Meeder is President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions (www.nc3t.com).  NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education

Over my career, I’ve worked with lots of organizations – businesses, schools, and nonprofits – who focused obsessively on product or service quality. “Build a better mousetrap,” they reasoned, “and the world will beat a path to your door.”

But I’ve learned that this can be a dangerous mindset: Building a better mousetrap in no way means that you’re going to be successful in the mouse-catching business. Here are a few other mousetrap quotes that I would counter with:

Before you build a better mousetrap, it helps to know if there are any mice out there.

– Anonymous

It’s very easy to fall in love with a product or service without considering whether it meets a real need. You could build the best broadcasting program in the world, but there’s not much point if there are no broadcasting jobs in your area, and/or if you can’t find any students interested in becoming broadcasters. Before you start inventing, think about the needs and interests of your audience.

Innovation is a mousetrap. The first innovator usually gets whacked, but the second one gets free cheese.

– Reed Markham

Being first is great for visibility: We all remember the first man to walk on the moon, for example, but not many people remember the second. (It was Buzz Aldrin in case you’re curious.)  However in business, and in education, being the first to create something involves a tremendous amount of groundbreaking work, dealing with lots of nay-sayers, and tripping over lots of unexpected hurdles. It can be far more productive to go find the innovators, learn from their pioneering efforts, and get up to speed at a fraction of the time and resources.

If you build a better mousetrap and don’t tell anyone about it, your competitor with the lousy mousetrap is still going to get all the business.

– Brett Pawlowski

I worked on an unprofitable magazine back in the 90s. Every time we received an infusion from our chief investor, the publisher directed it toward improving the product; such as getting new technology or hiring better writers but never into finding new subscribers. As a result, our readership dwindled, serving fewer and fewer readers with better and better content. Even the best mousetrap is useless if no one knows about it. Sometimes the best approach, as Guy Kawasaki says, is “ready, fire, aim” – get out there with something good enough and look for real-world feedback before you invest more time in developing your product or service.

What’s the takeaway for educators? Quality is important, but it can’t happen in a vacuum. Make sure you’re meeting a real need; make sure you’re not reinventing the wheel (or the mousetrap); and put your efforts into action, with as wide an audience as you can find, so the world doesn’t pass you and your unknown initiative by.

Brett Pawlowski is Executive Vice President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions (www.nc3t.com). NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education.

I saw a tweet recently to the effect of…”My teacher used to tell me that if I didn’t study I’d end up as a garbage man, never telling me that the garbage man made more than he does.” That stuck in my mind as I read a new article in Education Week titled, “Why the High-Achievers Have Moved to ‘Shop’ Class.”

The article begins:

A new breed of students has flooded into career-technical education, and they’re transforming a slice of the K-12 world that’s long suffered from stigma and disrespect.

These students are focusing on professions like engineering and health care instead of traditional trades like manufacturing and agriculture. They have higher grades and test scores, and more positive attitudes toward school. They come from better-educated families and are more likely to attend four-year colleges than their peers in old-school career-tech education or what was once known as “vocational education.”

Let me say that I’m happy that more people are discovering CTE – really happy. However, this whole article reeks of the kind of bias CTE practitioners and advocates face on a daily basis.

There are a lot of people who think that academics are an end in themselves. The “good kids” are the ones who take academics seriously by working hard and getting good grades so they can go to a four-year liberal arts college. They attend that college to get a “good” degree – the kind that the academically minded can ooh and aah over. Once their educations are done, way too many of those “good kids” are loaded up with debt and have nothing but a piece of paper to offer prospective employers.

I was one of those good kids – good grades, good liberal arts university, though I deviated from the academically divine path and sullied myself by majoring in business. And let me tell you, even in the business program I didn’t learn anything that would actually help me land a job or perform in the workplace! Aside from my own summer and evening jobs, I never once came face to face with an employer. I never had a single opportunity to experience or prepare for the world of work.

When the author talks about students who “have higher grades,  test scores, and more positive attitudes toward school” as being a “new breed” of students (meaning better than the current breed), her bias is obvious. And what she doesn’t realize is that school is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. Students aren’t going to stay in school for their entire lives: at some point, they’ll graduate at whatever level, and most will need to find jobs. Those grades, test scores, and positive attitudes about school mean very little to employers. What does matter is experience, practical knowledge, and skills.

Quoted at the end, Kate Kreamer of Advance CTE has it exactly right:

“We run the risk of re-stigmatizing the more traditional CTE, and creating two new tracks, with ‘These are the programs we put these kids in, and these are the programs we put those kids in,’” Kreamer said. “We need to think about CTE as one system and figure out how to serve everyone well.”

Brett Pawlowski is Executive Vice President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions (www.nc3t.com). NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education.

Each year for the past several years, going back to 2013, two national CTE organizations (Advance CTE and ACTE) have created valuable reports that summarize all the CTE-related policy and funding initiatives that impact the delivery of career-connected learning across the states.

It is encouraging that, while change often seems slow to take hold at the local level, there really is a strong momentum happening in promoting multiple pathways for student success. In the 2018 summary report, 30 states implemented significant changes or increases in funding related to CCL, and 26 states implemented policies related to Industry Partnerships/Work-Based Learning.  Other topics included: Dual/Concurrent Enrollment, Industry-Recognized Credentials, Graduation Requirements, Access/Equity, CTE Teacher Certification Development, Career/Academic Counseling, Governance, CTE Standards/Accreditation, Data, Reporting and/or Accountability, and STEM.

I wanted to point out four initiatives that caught my eye:

In Iowa, the governor announced the creation of the Work-Based Opportunity Regional Referral Consortium. A partnership of the Iowa Community Colleges and the Iowa Association of Business and Industry created to expand and improve work-based learning in the state.  The purpose of the partnership is to “increase the number of work-related learning opportunities, such as internships and apprenticeships, available to learners.

In Oregon, Future Ready Oregon is a statewide initiative focused on closing the skills gap to help youth and adults by providing skills and job training.  Strategies include: expanding CTE and other career-connected learning to every high school student in the state, expand NextGen Apprenticeships in five growing industries adding 1,000 Work Experience Programs for under-engaged Oregon youth, and connecting high schools to Oregon’s WorkSource Centers and launching career coaching pilots in three communities, among other strategies

Rhode Island piloted the PrepareRI Internships Program that places high school students in paid summer internships across the state.  The program will be managed by a statewide career readiness intermediary organization.

Tennessee passed legislation that created a liability framework for an employer participating in work-based learning coordinated through a local education agency.  The legislation specifies that an employer will not be liable unless through gross negligence and the local education agency must maintain liability insurance coverage.  The legislation also establishes a $500 tax credit to the employer for each participating student.

Of course, this is just a tiny example of all the innovative strategies that are spreading across the states.

Using these reports, you can see what’s happening across the entire nation. It’s also really valuable just to take a look at what’s been developing in your state across the last few years.

All of these pieces begin to add up.  With good local implementation support, I believe we’ll reach a tipping point soon when Career-Connected Learning will seem normal and natural, rather than the exception to the rule.  Let’s keep working for change at the national, the state, the regional, and the school district levels.  Over time, Career Connected Learning will become a reality for all students.

You can review your state summary all the way back to 2013 to get the big picture. Here are the links to reports for the last three years.

2018 Summary Report

2017 Summary Report

2016 Summary Report

Hans Meeder is President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions (www.nc3t.com).  NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education

Unless you’re completely new to career-connected learning, you’re most likely familiar with the bias towards four-year degrees as a postsecondary choice. And you’re probably also familiar with Mike Rowe, former host of Dirty Jobs and a strong advocate of “middle skill” jobs, those that require some kind of postsecondary education (a certification, apprenticeship, and/or Associates Degree).

So it’s probably no surprise that Rowe had some things to say recently about the “either or” approach of presenting four-year degrees: Specifically, the idea that either that you get one, or you won’t reach your potential:

“I think we’re stuck in this binary box, this or that. Right, blue-collar or white color, good job or a bad job. Higher education or higher alternative education.

When you only have two choices or you think you only have two choices, then you do one thing at the expense of the other.

So for instance, you know we have talked about this before, but it just seems so clear now. When four year degree universities needed a P.R. campaign 40 years ago, they got one.

But the P.R. Came at the expense of all of the other forms of education. So it wasn’t hey, get your liberal arts degree because it will give you a broad base of appreciation for humanity. It was if you don’t go get that degree, you will wind up over here turning a ranch or running a welding torch or doing some kind of consolation prize.

So we promoted the one thing at the expense of all of the others.

And that one thing just happened to be the most expensive thing. And so, look, I don’t think the skills set is the mystery. A reflection of what we value.

7 million — 7 million jobs available and they require training. Yet we are obsessed not really with education, you know. What we are obsessed with this credentialing.

People are buying diplomas. They are buying their degrees. It is a diploma dilemma, honestly. And it is expensive. It is getting worse. It’s not just the kids holding the note. It is us.”

You see this in the recent pay-for-admission college scandal. You see it when parents make angry calls to guidance counselors who dared to suggest two-year schools as a great option for their children.

But it has to stop. We have to reframe postsecondary education as a means to an end (the end being a satisfying, steady job with good pay) and not as an end in itself. A postsecondary credential, whether a four year degree or not, is not an end goal; it’s a prerequisite for certain kinds of jobs.

Honestly, when it comes to job opportunities, those credentials and two-year degrees have become a far better pathway to opportunity.

Brett Pawlowski is Executive Vice President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions (www.nc3t.com). NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education.

Last week, I participated in Advance CTE’s Washington DC conference. Advance CTE is a national organization of state leaders and supporting organizations focused on excellence in Career and Technical Education.  One of the highlights of the meeting was the announcement of the annual Excellence in Action award, a program to recognize local CTE programs of excellence.

This year’s winners are:

• Mishicot High School, Plant Science (Wisconsin) 
  Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources Career Cluster®
• Susan Miller Dorsey High School, Dorsey Film Program, (California)
  Arts, A/V Technology & Communications Career Cluster®
• Como Park Senior High School, Academy of Finance (Minnesota)
  Business Management & Administration Career Cluster®
• Henderson County High School, Health Science (Kentucky)
  Health Science Career Cluster®
• Questar III BOCES Rensselaer Educational Center, Criminal Justice I & II (New York)
  Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security Career Cluster®
• Kaukauna High School, Manufacturing (Wisconsin)
  Manufacturing Career Cluster®
• Nashua High School North, Biotechnology (New Hampshire) 
  Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Career Cluster®
• Irving High School, Aviation (Texas)
  Transportation, Distribution & Logistics Career Cluster®

You can see the short summaries of all the programs, and link to the 2-page summaries here.

Each of these programs have been around long enough to have an excellent track record and very specific indicators of student success.  When you review the program summaries, you’ll see three consistent strategies that have contributed to their success.

First, they are specifically aligned to regional workforce needs and opportunities, and many of the programs have evolved over time to stay aligned to changing workforce needs.

Second, they all are built upon, and benefit from, extensive employer involvement and support.  The programs don’t just ask for support from local employers; they involve employers in the design of the programs, listen carefully to employer input, and act upon the input they receive.  They also involve employers as partners in creating work-based learning experiences, school-based activities, career technical student organization activities, and in providing work-based learning experiences like internships and job shadows.

Finally, they create strong partnerships with postsecondary partners to ensure that these programs provide early college credits where possible. They align the high school programs with postsecondary programs so students can make seamless transitions from high school to postsecondary learning.

You can also learn about all the past award winners: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014.

Most importantly, as you think about your own programs, ask:

• Are we working hard to keep our programs aligned to emerging workforce needs?
• Are we asking for and listening to employers, inviting them to help us design and revamp our programs?
• Are we actively engaging and aligning with postsecondary partners?

All three of these questions require a little loosening of control over your programs and inviting others more directly inside the school to share program design and delivery.  But to have a healthy, growing and thriving program, there really is no better way.  Your programs and your students will reap the benefits!

Hans Meeder is President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions (www.nc3t.com).  NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education

I made a very sad decision last week: After years of avid gardening, I’m finally going to tear it all up and plant grass in that space instead. The reason? The trees in our backyard, which were small when we moved in 11 years ago, are now so big that my (former) garden area isn’t getting enough sun.

Every year those trees cast more and more shade, and every year I was able to grow less and less. I was in denial for a long time, but I finally had to accept that conditions had changed, and I had to change in response.

What does that have to do with career connected learning? Everything.

Like my garden, there are lots of CTE and pathways programs out there that were created when conditions were great, or when things were done very differently. A media program, for example, that was launched decades ago may no longer reflect the kinds of opportunities available in the community. An auto tech program designed 20 years ago, left unchanged, may not prepare students to deal with the modern “computer with wheels” that we call a car.

That’s why I’m very excited about one of the new requirements in Perkins V: The Comprehensive Needs Assessment. The law says:

“To be eligible to receive financial assistance under this part, an eligible recipient shall— (A) conduct a comprehensive local needs assessment related to career and technical education and include the results of the needs assessment in the local application submitted under subsection (a); and (B) not less than once every 2 years, update such comprehensive local needs assessment.”

I hope people realize what an opportunity this represents: By regularly reviewing workforce needs and occupational requirements in your community, you’ll help to ensure that your program is truly relevant and that you’re truly preparing students for their futures. As my garden experience demonstrates, things change – and regularly doing a Comprehensive Needs Assessment ensures that you’ll have the information you need to change with them.

Brett Pawlowski is Executive Vice President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions (www.nc3t.com). NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education

On April 3, on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the newly formed Coalition for Career Development unveiled its landmark policy paper,  “Career Readiness for All.” NC3T is a member of the Coalition and our aim is to ensure that career development is a central focus of K-12, postsecondary and adult education.

We at NC3T had the honor of working on a final edit of report, and I’m delighted to share it with you.

Click here to download a copy.

The report suggests Five Pillars of a Solution framework.  The pillars are: Prioritizing career planning: Providing professional career advising: Emphasizing applied and work-based learning:  Providing high-quality career development technology; and, Ensuring accountability.

This is an important report; you’ll find it is easy to read and not too long. One of the primary authors of the report is Bill Symonds, who is an author of another important work, “Pathways to Prosperity” from 2011.  It’s meant to be read and shared. It will provide excellent information for conversation and action.  Make sure to download a copy and share it with all your influencers in your network.

Thanks, Hans

Hans Meeder is President of NC3T, the National Center for College and Career Transitions (www.nc3t.com).  NC3T provides planning, coaching, technical assistance and tools to help community-based leadership teams plan and implement their college-career pathway systems and strengthen employer connections with education