Carlsbad Unified’s Career Pathways Three-Year Strategic Plan
We all hope our children will succeed in following their dreams, enjoying happy family lives, and finding rewarding careers -- perhaps here in this beautiful community where they were raised.
But we know it is not a straightforward path. Although our local economy is rich with career opportunities for our young people, today’s labor market is complex and careers are specialized. Carlsbad is home to companies such as ViaSat, Thermo-Fisher, and TaylorMade, and to careers ranging from biotech and engineering to sports and leisure. Employers are looking to build a workforce possessing the education, talent, experience, and specialized training needed to fuel innovation and reap financial success. The challenge for young job seekers is to match their career interests and talents with the skills sets that the job market requires.
Carlsbad Unified’s Board of Trustees has long recognized the importance of helping students to find their strengths and passions and to select rewarding career paths, while readying them for tomorrow’s workforce. And, in endeavoring to prepare our students for their dream jobs while equipping them with the skills employers need, we perceived the need for a comprehensive plan that harnesses the resources of the school district, the community, and local business and industry.
To that end, the District created the Career Education Strategic Planning Workgroup, consisting of Carlsbad Unified administrators and teachers, representatives from MiraCosta College, regional pathways coordinators, and the Carlsbad Educational Foundation. This Workgroup has been meeting since January to create a comprehensive plan for career education.
At last week’s Board meeting, the staff presented a draft of CUSD’s Career Pathway 3-Year Strategic Plan. This plan is an ambitious K-12 approach to prepare students for their future education, careers, and lives. It sets out goals, and the action plans and measurement tools required for meeting them, in six areas: (1) Marketing, Outreach, and Recruitment; (2) Career Pathways Development; (3) Career Education Development K-12; (4) Funding, Facilities, and Equipment; (5) High Quality, Integrated Curriculum and Instruction; and (6) Industry and Community Partnership and Student Work-Based Learning.
Our Career Pathways programs are intended to help students:
● Identify their strengths, interests, and values
● Explore a variety of career options
● Connect instructional activities to areas of interest
● Interact with the business and professional community, and
● Prepare for education beyond high school.
In taking on these new career-related challenges, the District will benefit from the extraordinary curriculum and instruction work it already has undertaken over the past several years. For instance:
The attributes our Graduate Profile has identified as crucial for our graduates as they move forward in their lives are also the soft skills that will prepare our students for success in the workplace. These include effective communicators and collaborators; critical thinkers; ethical and responsible citizens; self-directed individuals; lifelong learners; and college- and career-ready scholars.
CUSD’s academic goals of increasing both the number of graduates meeting the requirements of the University of California and California State University systems (the A through G requirements), and the number of students enrolled in challenging academic courses (such as Honors and AP classes, community college courses, and/or career pathways programs), prepare students with the academic rigor and technical knowledge that will further their readiness for the highly-skilled jobs of the future.
Similarly, our current Career Pathways programs -- such as Biomedical Science, Digital Photography, and Engineering Design -- offer students key components of a strong career foundation: comprehensive support services; rigorous academics; career technical education; and work-based learning.
We are excited to build on this strong foundation to strengthen our K-12 career education curriculum, and to expand our collaborations with local business and industry. We look forward to bringing even more authentic career information and experiences into the classroom, and to sending our students out into the community to take advantage of valuable opportunities for work-based learning.
