Adult Career Pathways Resources
ACP Development Tools
Adult Career Pathways Glossary
Unsure about Adult Career Pathways and transitions terminology? You're not alone! The ACP Glossary is here to help clarify key terms and concepts.
“Minds On” Project-Based Learning in Adult Career Pathways: Designing Well-Balanced Career-Based Lessons for Low-Literacy English Language Learners
In project-based learning (PBL) students pose an important problem or issue, identify how to respond, and present results to a wider audience. Using PBL in adult career pathway (ACP) courses can develop mastery of academic and occupational content, help master transitions skills, and promotes equity. This PowerPoint slide set outlines the components of PBL as implemented in an ACP course, research about the effectiveness of PBL, and concrete examples of PBL used with low-literacy ELLs.
ACP Program Development for Managers
Minnesota's ACP Program Development Cohort provides ABE managers with a facilitated, supported, year-long cohort as they work to create or strengthen a career pathway program in collaboration with WIOA partners in their localities. Key features include an experiential learning approach, a mix of face-to-face and online interaction and presentation, peer partners, coaching calls, goal-setting, and local action steps.
Building and Sustaining Effective Collaborations
This 7-page research brief summarizes findings from 24 studies and reports conducted around the country over 15 years regarding what makes collaborations succeed (and fail), and then describes the key strategies that have shown to be effective in sustaining collaborations over time.
Building Strategic Partnerships Online Course
This online, self-directed course is intended for adult education program administrators interested in building new and strengthening existing partnerships essential for successful development and implementation of Adult Career Pathways programs and systems. (1 hour and 30 minutes)
Building Strong Enrollments – Guidelines & Examples plus Worksheet
A 7-step process that guides ABE programs and their partners to go beyond existing student populations and generic program flyers to instead be focused and strategic in building enrollments for adult career pathway programs.
Career Pathways Checklist
This user-friendly 10-page checklist is designed to help determine the extent to which a newly developed or existing ACP program meets the requirements for career pathways as outlined in WIOA.
Career Pathways Toolkit: Element Four – Identify Funding Needs and Sources
Element Four of the Toolkit provides useful guidance and tools to identify the costs associated with career pathway system and program development and operations; identify sources of funding available from partner agencies and related public and private resources and secure funding; and develop long-term sustainability plans with state or local partners.
Career Pathways Toolkit: Element One – Build Cross-Agency Partnerships & Clarify Roles
Element One of the Toolkit provides useful guidance and tools to engage cross-agency partners and employers; establish a shared vision, mission, goals and strategies; define the roles and responsibilities of all partners; and develop a work plan and/or memorandum or understanding for the partnership.
Career Pathways Toolkit: Element Three – Design Education & Training Programs
Element Three of the Toolkit provides useful guidance and tools to ensure that career pathway courses promote the competencies required in the target career; utilize accelerated, contextualized learning strategies; provide flexible delivery methods; and integrate comprehensive support services.
Career Pathways Toolkit: Element Three – Design Education and Training Programs
Element Three of the Toolkit provides useful guidance and tools to identify target populations, choose recruitment strategies, provide flexible delivery models, and more.
Career Pathways Toolkit: Element Two – Identify Industry Sectors and Engage Employers
Element Two of the Toolkit provides useful guidance and tools to identify industry sectors; conduct labor market analysis; clarify role of employers in program development and operations; and sustain and expand business partnerships.
College and Career Readiness: A Guide for Navigators
This guide identifies action steps that learners can take to achieve their college and career goals. The knowledge and skills outlined in it are specific and teachable. The guide is divided into three sections: college readiness; career readiness; and the intersection of college and career readiness. Simple concept maps and readiness charts help navigators understand the skills and knowledge students need to attain in each area and help them communicate with students about the ways in which career and college planning should be jointly addressed.
Designing Contextualized Instruction – Online Course
This 2.5-hour, self-paced course features three modules: (1) Understanding Contextualized Instruction (and the supporting research); (2) Building Contextualized Lessons; and (3) Overcoming Development Challenges.
Developing Effective Bridge Programs – Online Course
This 2.5-hour, self-paced course features three modules: (1) Understanding Bridge Programs; (2) Laying the Foundation; and (3) Developing the Curriculum.
Employer Engagement Toolkit: From Placement to Partners
Use the entire toolkit as a package or select individual exercises, checklists, planning guides, or resources that are most relevant to you. Includes an assessment of current employer relationships; provides strategies for new employer outreach; and provides tools that connect employers directly to your ACP program.
Engaging Employers – Setting SMART Goals and Action Steps
This template, useful in any adult career pathways (ACP) program development work, guides a step-by-step process to define a goal appropriate for one’s own context for engaging employers in an ACP in new ways.
Engaging Employers in Adult Career Pathways – Making It Happen
This activity, used in an ACP Program Development cohort of program managers, guides a process of identifying potential roles for employers in adult career pathway (ACP) programs; assessing employer partnerships currently in place; seeing opportunities for expanding employer partnerships; and communicating effectively with employers.
Engaging Employers in Adult Career Pathways – Webinar Recording
Hear from Minnesota ABE professionals and their employer partners about ways they collaborate, their challenges and successes. Understand the role of Career and Technical Education advisory committees and how ABE can get involved and connect with those employers. Gain strategies for effective employer outreach in your own context. (2018)
Engaging Employers in Adult Career Pathways Online Course
This 2-hour, self-paced course helps adult education instructors and program administrators understand how to identify, engage, and sustain engagement of appropriate employers in the development of career pathways programs.
Enrollment Spreadsheets
These two spreadsheet templates with examples are helpful tools for meeting enrollment goals through shared effort of all adult career pathways (ACP) partner organizations, and for creating an enrollment plan that factors in realistic persistence/attrition rates at each step of the pathway program.
Funding Career Pathways
This resource is a federal funding toolkit for state and local/regional career pathway partnerships. The toolkit aims to help partnerships understand key components and tasks involved in developing, implementing, and maintaining career pathway programs; and identify how federal resources can support these key components and tasks.
Healthcare ACP Promo Flyer – Example
An excellent example of a promotional flyer with key “benefit messages” to attract target participants; nice photos; a graphic explanation of the career pathways available; and clear next steps for anyone interested.
Learning Task Formats
View examples of learning task formats, which are routine structures for activities and tasks that provide practice of lesson content. Establishing consistent learning task formats creates predictability and a foundation for success for learners. Consistent learning task formats can also simplify instructor preparation of lessons.
LINCS Career Pathways Exchange
A free information service that consolidates and distributes career pathways-related resources, events, and information from federal and state agencies and partner organizations. The Exchange streamlines information from multiple outlets to facilitate a deeper national dialogue on career pathways systems development and implementation.
Minnesota ABE Comprehensive Career Pathways
A 13-slide PowerPoint with embedded audio that provides useful graphics and basic orientation to the what and why of adult career pathway programming and the role of ABE in these multi-partner efforts.
Minnesota Adult Basic Education Program Finder
This overlay map allows you to display boundaries for any or all of the following: ABE consortia, ABE transitions regions, career and technical education, Perkins consortia, school district boundaries, Minnesota State school sites, workforce centers, and workforce development areas. A helpful tool in defining ACP program needs and identifying potential partners.
Minnesota Adult Education Content Standards
Start here for information on the Minnesota Adult Education content standards: the College & Career Readiness Standards (CCRS), Transitions Integration Framework (TIF), and Northstar Digital Literacy Standards. These standards are the guide in setting learning objectives in any adult career pathway course.
Minnesota Association of Workforce Boards (MAWB) Website
MAWB represents the cooperative efforts of 16 area workforce development boards across the state. The MAWB website is the go-to online source for regional and local workforce development board plans, WIOA resources, the Governor’s workforce development board, and much more.
Minnesota Career Pathways Network – Core Elements
A concise 2-page document that outlines core elements of career pathway programming. Also includes the WIOA definition of career pathways and useful graphics on the “tipping point” and on ABE’s role in pathway work.
Minnesota Employment & Training Flowchart
This flowchart summarizes basic federal, state and local funding streams and administrative authority related to employment and training.
Minnesota’s Workforce System
A useful 2-page overview WorkForce Centers, workforce development areas, roles of workforce development boards and elected officials, and functions of MWCA.
MN Dept. of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) – Competitive Grants
Postings include all outgoing grants and open-ended services. Each solicitation includes a brief description of work and a link to its Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Application (RFA). See especially Minnesota Job Skills Partnership grants.
National Career Pathways Network (NCPN)
NCPN is a membership organization for educators, employers and others involved in the advancement of Career Pathways, career technical education, and related education reform initiatives. NCPN assists its members in planning, implementing, evaluating, and improving secondary and postsecondary transition programs.
National College Transitions Network (NCTN)
NCTN’s purpose is to strengthen policy and practice that prepares nontraditional learners for college and careers. The NCTN website includes tools and resources, technical assistance and information on numerous professional development opportunities.
Regional and Local Workforce Development Area MN Map
A useful color-coded reference map of Minnesota’s six Regional Workforce Development Areas and the smaller Local Workforce Development Areas within each region.
Understanding Your Role in a Team
This 56-item team role self-assessment exercise is an easy way to determine which of 8 team roles best fits your personality and operating style. A brief description of each type follows, including typical features, strengths, and allowable weaknesses. Understanding one’s role on a team can improve functioning in complex collaborative projects.
Work Readiness and Work-Contextualized Curriculum
A compilation of various resources with hyperlinks to websites for work readiness curricula; work-contextualized English and basic skills curricula; and guidance in creating authentic, contextualized or embedded materials. (15 pages)
Work-Based Learning Toolkit
This online tool kit provides state and local program administrators with information regarding the key components of work-based learning (WBL), an instructional strategy that enhances classroom learning by connecting it to the workplace. It offers guidelines and resources related to creating a state WBL strategy, engaging employers, collecting data, and scaling effective programs.
Workforce Brief: Adult Career Pathways
This is one of three innovative programming briefs created in collaboration with the Minnesota Association of Workforce Boards (MAWB), covering important workforce-oriented topics that are viewed as best practices for adult learners. The Adult Career Pathways brief includes a summary of what the practice includes, outlines their impact and benefit for adult learners, and spotlights a successful ABE program in the state leading these efforts.
Submit a Curriculum!
Do you have an Adult Career Pathways curriculum to submit for this library? Complete a Course Summary form and submit to ATLAS for review.
Curriculum Use and Sharing
NOTE: All curricula posted in this resource library are free for use and sharing under the following Creative Commons license:
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