Unlocking the Potential of Education Business With Windows and Doors

Career-connected learning offers a tremendous opportunity for both employers and educators. Recognized by an increasing number of CEOs, career-connected learning can help companies build high-quality talent pipelines that are essential to remain competitive.

But to achieve progress, systems that accelerate progress and enable employer/educator collaborations at scale are necessary. These platforms must be both market-driven and student-focused, as well as receiving support from governments and system builders.

Government leaders and system builders must be willing to challenge traditional ways of thinking and adapt to the new demands of a workforce that requires more skills than ever before. They should be ready to assist educators and employers in making difficult decisions about where they should allocate resources, time, and energy.

For instance, many of the most successful career-connected learning initiatives involve partnerships between high school students and local businesses that offer work experience. These programs help students comprehend their careers and how they fit into the larger economy, while companies gain insights on how best to attract and hire top talent.

These programs can also equip students with a comprehensive set of job-ready skills, many which aren’t typically taught in schools. These may include soft abilities like leadership and critical thinking as well as hard ones like digital media production or construction management.

They can be tailored to the unique requirements of a company or community, and may include apprenticeships, internships, co-ops and other forms of work-based learning which provide students with an early start in their career before they’ve even graduated high school.

They can be designed in such a way that fosters self-efficacy and pride in one’s accomplishments, as well as develop social and emotional skills which are so vital in today’s workforce where many feel isolated or unsupported.

Realizing such an accomplishment is no longer just a pipe dream–promising statewide systems are already taking shape across places like Washington, Delaware and California. But it won’t happen overnight–it requires time, dedication and investment.

Employers and educators must collaborate more productively, aligning on a shared vision of what they can accomplish together, as well as helping more diverse students get the jobs they deserve. However, the biggest challenge lies in preventing these collaborations from devolving into an exercise in attrition between employees and employers.