CAP in Motion

Application

The CAP commission requires a cross-agency, future-focused commission framework, supporting and forwarding the work of the 2030 Commission, and the Office of Transformation and Opportunity, collaborating, and convening relevant agencies, and allowing for liaisons to connect and assure representation from: 

1. Business & Industry

2. Early Education through High School Graduation 

3. Continued Education and Training (“Post-secondary”)

4. Community

5. Government: Policy and Advocacy

6. Military

Framework for the “CAP” Commission

The CAP Commission addresses the chasm between education and the workplace. As a state, and as a nation, we generally do not examine the gap on its own. We see Career Awareness and Preparation as a part of education or a part of the workforce, and those are the stakeholders that tirelessly do this part time, with limited talent and resources dedicated to it. 

Research has defined the strongest of these bridges as work-based, also called "experiential" or "project-based" learning. This provides a means to connect learning with the student's life experiences. It is a strong and effective career mentoring model.

There is a need to help forward work-based learning opportunities in Pennsylvania, as well as related and relevant career awareness and preparation programs and initiatives.

The overarching CAP goals are: 

• to help design and orchestrate state vision 

• to shift efforts from industry-specialized, geographically-targeted programmatic work to more accessible and equitable work 

• to bind together a collaborative and cohesive system. 

Navigating and Realizing the Collective, Unified Impact of the Seven C’s from Cradle to Career

The framework would have the capacity to map existing work, identify commonalities and best practices, locate, secure, and shelter funding, and offer gap solutions. An effectively staffed CAP Commission could potentially sustain itself through a mixture of capturing untapped federal funding, accessing private funding from national foundations. State-level support, commitment and investment in the future economic and community health could bring in additional capital from associations and chambers, along with allocation of dedicated and sheltered state to solely do this work. 

CAP Commission Goals:

1. Connector – a “gathering” for business-education partnership coalition. CAP “connecting” efforts can help bring program, initiative, and event awareness to underserved regions, and prevent duplication, nurture / develop time and resource efficiencies, identify inequities / gaps & align workforce needs with efforts.

2. Collector –inventorying, partnering, and supporting the wide variety of Career Awareness programs can develop a comprehensive state collection portal. This independent, cross-agency/industry portal could integrate and promote quality reviewed programs with common goals and data / metrics collection potential. In PA, Erie, and later, Berks developed regionally focused portals, and their platforms were duplicated and offered for all counties thanks to PDE’s efforts. While the platforms are excellent and provide many opportunities, they are self- limiting due to the exhausting requirement for ongoing and constant recruiting, updating, and integrating. A state system, linking existing platforms, and feeding into a One-Stop-Shop/Indeed-like recruiting system would provide businesses new “checkboxes” to add WBL experiences and offerings. MA & MD have developed statewide systems like this. 

PDE has developed a sound framework for this with the Career Education Work Standards, and Future Ready Index. They provide many great resources to support the Commonwealth’s locally controlled schools and districts. Pennsylvania is unique in the nation, and aligned globally, in providing a K-12 framework for career exploration. The next step in achieving these intents equitably, and supporting the framework is through the development of an independent, cross-agency collaborative commission.

3. Convener – Developing a common coalition - shifting from fragmented programmatic solutions to systemic & collective work with common outcomes will help meet and align school and workforce needs. Convening, weaving, and connecting the Commonwealth’s expanse of alliances and efforts will help to create more equitable solutions in underserved regions and populations.

4. Communications – Creating a common collection site for state vision, actions / experiences means a common collector, “explainer” & promotion tool for career awareness. Communicating “wins” and progress towards state vison/goals brings energy and awareness to stakeholders, opening doors for new collaborations. Additionally, communicating offerings can be confusing to new audiences. For example, communication with teachers, community, and families can help them to understand what apprenticeship is, and its tremendous value. A simple, neutral, uninvested reframing to help grasp apprenticeship, targeted to school educators could be: “career mentoring - student teaching you get paid for.”

5. Cipher -  Developing a lexicon for cross-industry language and common data collection – Developing metrics standardization aligned with state vision across agencies, business & industry. Helping to understand and navigate “cross sector language/terminology” can be accomplished by researching and developing a statewide cipher or “Rosetta Stone.” For example, the phrase “life skills” has different meaning in education than in business culture. Some businesses refer to life skills in the context of “soft” or “essential” skills, needed in the workplace for every student. In education, “life skills” is terminology used specifically for “special needs” populations.

6. Capture – Capturing Federal funding and resources and locating public/private supports will assist regions that do not have the capacity to hire grant writers, supporting those in remote/underserved areas where there may not be industry leaders to forward this work. Federal funding and supports from Jobs for the Future, US Chamber Talent Management Pipeline, National Science Foundation, the US Department of Labor, as well as the Bill Gates Foundation, Toyota Foundation, and others are available and often under or unachieved and/or untapped by PA. Capturing these funds can assist with incentivizing career pathways programs, supporting costs for skill development and career education, and helping support work-based learning efforts comprehensively.

7. Cross Coordinator – Developing a statewide approach means sharing resources and information across sectors and regions, avoiding duplicative work, finding new and creative ways to serve career awareness, CTE, and WBL offerings for all PA students. Developing a single state entity with the sole focus of Career Awareness and Preparation means that new creative and collaborative approaches and efforts can be realized. Reviewing other states’ efforts, and even global methods will allow PA to take the lead in the work.