New Report on Education and Workforce Training Initiatives

NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. educational institutions and the business world must collaborate to develop more effective job-specific career pathways, a new McGraw-Hill Research Foundation white paper says. The result of an increased collaboration will be more hires, greater opportunities for advancement, and a pathway to prosperity for students who do not pursue traditional college degrees.

"Portable, Stackable Credentials: A New Education Model for Industry-Specific Career Pathways," written by James T. Austin, Gail O. Mellow, Mitch Rosin, and Marlene Seltzer, details how secondary and post-secondary educational institutions and business can meet the challenges of a 21^st century global jobs market that demands increasing numbers of employees with mid- and high-level technical skills.  The authors show how this could be accomplished by designing a system of portable, stackable credentials embedded in transparent, more easily navigable career pathways. 

These credentials would provide employers with a reliable method for hiring and maintaining a skilled workforce and give workers a clear pathway for building a sustainable career with the opportunity for advancement. (A credential refers to a variety of different work qualifications—including diplomas, certificates, certification, degrees, and licenses.)  The policy paper outlines how other nations, including Germany and Canada, have been successful in creating skilled workers with similar measures.

"There is a common goal here and mutual needs among business and education," say the authors, "but there is also a lack of understanding and communication between these heretofore separate worlds. Current silos between U.S. secondary and post-secondary education systems (including separate funding systems) further add to the challenges of developing a career and technical education system that can meet the needs of 21st century employers and educators, as well as the students and workers."

The policy paper advocates for creation of a career pathways credentialing system designed to produce credentials that are trusted by employers and educational institutions throughout the country and allow students to quickly earn shorter-term credentials with clear labor market value and then build on them to access more advanced jobs and higher wages.  It also describes innovative programs that are being developed at the federal, state, and local levels that are leading the way in redesigning how we train our country's workforce.

The authors conclude that, "As a nation, we need to recognize and embrace that there are multiple paths to high quality careers that involve post-secondary education: portable, stackable industry-recognized credentials and/or a traditional college degree." 

James T. Austin is Director of Assessment Services at the Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE) in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University; Gail O. Mellow is President of LaGuardia Community College/City University of New York; Mitch Rosin is Director, Adult Learning and Workforce Initiatives at McGraw-Hill Education, and Marlene Seltzer is President and CEO of Jobs for the Future (JFF).

To download a copy of Portable, Stackable Credentials: A New Education Model for Industry-Specific Career Pathways," click here.

About The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation

The Foundation was established with the support of The McGraw-Hill Companies and is a Section 501(c)(3) organization. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hillresearchfoundation.org/.  

SOURCE McGraw-Hill Research Foundation