Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century

“The Pathways to Prosperity asset-mapping process for Illinois serves three complementary purposes. First, it assesses resources in Aurora and Chicago for building grades 9-14 pathways linked to high-demand careers. Second, it assists those regions in their design and planning for implementing pathways. Third, it takes advantage of the state’s significant Race to the Top investment in designing and establishing a statewide pathways infrastructure.” (p. 1).

“…A cornerstone of the state’s strategy is public-private working groups designed to scale up P-20 programs of study and nine Learning Exchanges that will support high-demand industries in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) industry clusters…..Among the state assets for building pathways is the Work-Based Learning Working Group. It is developing P-20 models for work-based learning and identifying incentives, policy recommendations, and supports to build capacity and increase the availability of such experiences. The working group includes representatives from state agencies, P-20 education institutions, industry associations, after-school programs, and workforce boards, among others. It has drawn from a variety of Illinois models, such as the Youth Partnership Toolkit produced by the Chicago Workforce Investment Council and the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, as well as the National Academy Foundation and Wisconsin-based apprenticeship models.” (p. 2-3). (Abstractor: Author)

“Planning for and investing in Pathways to Prosperity in Illinois, the energetic leadership of Aurora's core Pathways team, and the wide community and employer support for the initiative indicate strong potential for implementing an exemplary model in the region” (p. xii). Next steps include addressing four types of questions:Intermediary Leadership - • What organizations or individuals could lead regional implementation of the initiative? What capacity and support would they have to coordinate the four elements of the Pathways model?Scale - • What scale of initiative is the Aurora region prepared to create? How many industries, schools, and young people should it prepare and for what jobs?Industry Targets and Organizing - • Could the city's proposed Tech Center act as an incubator, linking community and youth IT training with existing and hoped for IT business and job growth?Public Relations and Policy • How could legislative support and public sector leadership help the region create employer incentives and encourage secondary-postsecondary collaboration? • What performance measures will be used to monitor progress and give institutions valuable feedback to improve educational and career outcomes? (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2012
• Author(s): No individual authors identified
• Organizational Author(s): The Pathways to Prosperity Network; Jobs for the Future; Harvard Graduate School of Education
• Funding Source: Jobs for the Future
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Justin Venneri
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies