Report of the Working Group on Workforce Preparation and Business Linkages

2.0 ALIGNMENT

The Group discovered that the lament of numerous reports utilized by the Master Plan Commission of 1987 still rings true almost two decades later. It is best captured in a 1983 Assembly Office of Research report, Training Tomorrow's Workers, which says: "California's employment preparation programs and activities are isolated efforts that suffer from duplication and a lack of coordination". Still today, the state has a collection of programs in statewide job training with a fragile, if any, connection to the education system, which, itself, is a bevy of programs that simply evolved over time through accretion, not systemic planning.

Members reviewed and discussed the ECS P16 report, which states: "As long as governance, funding, and the policies affecting K-12 schools, two- and four-year colleges and universities remain unconnected to each other, there is little chance that the three sectors will cooperate to provide all students in grades 11-14 the education they need. New policies, funding formulas and possibly new structures that are designed with student education needs at the core are required." Even though myriad such studies and reports document how each segment of an education system is reliant on the others, testimony before the Group revealed the low degree to which the education segments work together to assist student transition to the workforce. In K-14, this manifests most prominently by the lack of articulation of programs. The Department of Education reported that schools with meaningful workforce preparation programs have standards-based and articulated curriculum across grades and segments.

While federal regulations regarding funding have unintentionally inhibited systemic alignment and coordination efforts, such as articulation, but a lack of will among segments looms significantly in this matter. Dale Parnell, author of The Neglected Majority, reflects this kind of institutional stasis best, when he states: "...articulation, as an attitude, is exemplified by the willingness of educators in all sectors to work together to transcend the individual and institutional self-interest that impedes the maximum development of the student. "While exemplary practices of intersegmental cooperation do exist in pockets across the state, including the IMPAC projects, meetings of articulation officers, compacts and agreements between community colleges and UC and CSU, a recent agreement by the CCCs regarding credit for high school work, and other endeavors, the Group agreed that more systematic planning is necessary to include all levels of education and link them to other critical players.

Recommendations:

2.1 The state should establish broad-based roles and responsibilities for a statewide system of career/workforce preparation programs in education, as follows:

Elementary schools shall be responsible for introducing career awareness to students.

Middle schools shall be responsible for initiating career exploration to students.

Secondary schools shall be responsible for providing school-to-career and employment preparation opportunities to students through programs offered at school and business sites.

• ROCPs shall be responsible for offering career and technical education opportunities which include employment and postsecondary education/training for high school students and skilled employment-training programs for adults.
• Adult education programs shall be responsible for meeting workforce-training needs by providing academic and short-term career technical programs leading to enhanced employability. The academic programs shall be those leading to the high school diploma or the GED, inclusive of English language acquisition.

Community colleges shall be responsible for providing expanded employment training programs in conjunction with specialized courses, career certificates, and the AA degree for adults. The training may be offered in high schools and ROCPs and/or articulated programs leading to four-year college degrees.

State-approved Private Postsecondary Institutions, Continuing Education, University Extension, Employer-provided training, and non education entities, such as WIA Board Community Partners, shall provide employment training programs leading to specific jobs and that are responsive to industry requirements for professional development and license renewal.

Public and private colleges and universities shall jointly be responsible for preparing associate, baccalaureate, and advanced degree graduates for productive roles as problem solvers, innovators, and leaders. All three public postsecondary systems should give prominent consideration to the state's changing economic needs and to emerging workforce opportunities for graduates, as factors in academic and strategic planning.

Rationale: The prior Master Plan for Higher Education had established roles and responsibilities for the public segments of education, and while this report envisions workforce preparation as inclusive of the entire system, members outlined roles and responsibilities at the broadest levels.

2.2 The alignment of career technical programs should be broad in scope.

Rationale: The fundamental goal for establishing this Master Plan is to create a more coherent system of education through the linking of K-12 programs and services to those offered at postsecondary levels. For this Working Group, the issue of alignment of workforce programs across the education segments and their linkage to the state's training programs is central to that goal. To more strategically address the gaps in career/work preparation for all students, as well as the future workforce needs of California, it is imperative that the state overcome the isolation of career technical programs within the segments of education and minimize the education system's distance from the state's job training programs. Members agreed that each system must first be more closely aligned within itself and then, each to the other. Ultimately, both should be more strategically linked to the labor market.

2.3 The structure of a career/workforce preparation system should reflect a tightly -coupled network model, characterized by relatively autonomous nodes of education/training providers, intermediary industry, trade, and professional organizations; strategic connections to the labor force; and a high level of communication among network members.

Rationale: A network model is desirable because the most important characteristic of successful networks is a shared vision, thus providing the state with a profound opportunity to transform the current system to one that is authentically student-centered and broad-based.

Through the strategic planning of a network approach, institutions would move incrementally toward more autonomy as performance and accountability measures are instituted and state regulations are diminished, accordingly. Strategic partnerships with business would be encouraged throughout the state and serve to inform curricula as well as training and professional development. Learning would occur in diverse ways and settings, and increased flexibility would allow assessing and accommodating changes in what learning is needed. There would be greater integration of institutional staff and business partners and learning between schools, colleges, universities, and work place settings.