Taking Root: The Virginia Career Pathways System

“The process for developing a career pathways system in Virginia offers a window into an effective set of strategies for pursuing statewide and regional workforce development policies and practices that work. By using a career pathways framework, the Commonwealth has begun a systemic and ambitious process of alignment at the state level, and is rolling out that alignment to regions across the state. This paper provides a national context for Virginia’s efforts, documents the Commonwealth’s work, and suggests how Virginia’s successes and lessons learned may be applied to other states.” (p. 1). (Abstractor: Author)

Viewing the Virginia experience as a case study, Working Group members and other stakeholders involved in the process have suggested lessons they have learned along the way which include: - Create a Statewide Planning Structure that Balances Agency Authority with Operational Capacity; - Task Force membership should be comprised of career positions, not political appointees; - Career Pathways Planning and Implementation Takes Time and Effort; - Build in the time to learn about Task Force member agencies; - Effective Communication is the Key to Success; - State agency heads and others interested in building on Virginia’s experience may benefit from reviewing these lessons as they seek to implement their own systems.(Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2012
• Author(s): Goldberg, Melissa; Alssid, Julian L.
• Organizational Author(s): Workforce Strategy Center
• Funding Source: Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, Ford Foundation
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies