Career clusters at CareerTech VISION: the next step in the career clusters' journey.

Blosveren, Kate

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE DIRECTORS OF CAREER

Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) and ACTE are taking our long-standing partnership to the next level. Starting this year, we are extremely excited to embed the 12-year-old National Career Clusters[R] Institute into ACTE's CareerTech VISION.

Through this partnership, we believe we will be able to better leverage both organizations' expertise and proven success in supporting the CTE community to help make this year's VISION the best ever.

So what will this look like in practice? To start, there will be a career cluster strand that will have 15 sessions focused on high-quality programs of study that will be led by state CTE directors, national experts and local leaders. While the sessions range in topics--from career coaches to global competency--what they have in common is their focus on the intersection of state policy and local implementation; actionable strategies to advancing high-quality CTE; and CTE programs of study that extend across the full continuum of education systems, students and career fields.

Career Clusters 101

Now, everyone working in CTE is familiar with the 16 Career Clusters to some degree, given their prevalence within the CTE enterprise. The clusters are an organizing framework for CTE programs, encompassing every industry, sector and career. In fact, as NASDCTEc found in its 2012 study, "The State of Career Technical Education: An Analysis of State CTE Standards," (1) every state uses career clusters in one way or another.

Some states have embraced the Career Cluster Knowledge & Skills Statements as the basis for their CTE standards. Other states have used the 16 Career Clusters as a jumping-off point to organize their own career clusters, such as Nebraska and Montana, which have identified six career fields into which the 16 Career Clusters fit, or Georgia, Colorado and Florida, which added a 17th Career Cluster in Energy.

Most common, however, is for states to use the Career Clusters as a conceptual framework for organizing and communicating their existing CTE programs, rather than a practical framework that provides standards for creating or affirming CTE programs. At minimum, all states use the Career Clusters as the organizing framework for reporting student participation in CTE programs, a requirement set by the U.S. Department of Education.

In short, it's a matter of fact that the Career Clusters are out there and in use across the country at every level of CTE. But where did they come from? Why are they organized like they are?

Career Clusters: A Brief History

When the Career Clusters were first introduced in the 1970s, their goal was to organize education around the "world of work." The U.S. Office of Education (now the U.S. Department of Education) developed the first 15 "career clusters" that identified the major business and industry sectors in existence at the time, i.e., agribusiness and natural resources occupations, business and office occupations, environmental control occupations, fine arts and humanities occupations, and personal services occupations.

The clusters concept was given fresh momentum in 1994 with the passage of the National School-to-Work Opportunities Act, which promoted the use of career pathways and career majors as a framework for the delivery of work-based programs and career development strategies. This momentum was also driven by the 22 technical skill standards projects funded by the U. S. Departments of Education and Labor in the 1990s to analyze occupations, create related performance and skill standards, and develop ways to certify attainment of such skills. Yet, these projects were experimental, so their definitions, outcomes and organizational formats were not required to be consistent from one project to the next.

Around this same time, in 1998, the Linkages initiative was launched, which shepherded the prototype of today's National Career Clusters Framework. Led by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (now better known as the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE)), Linkages provided grants to consortia of states to create skills standards for a handful of industry sectors, or clusters.

With consistency still a challenge, in 1999, OCTAE made the game-changing decision to require the use of Career Clusters as a means of reporting student enrollment as a part of the Perkins accountability requirements, which meant that the Career Clusters had to be more clearly defined, with a consistent framework for each cluster. The department issued an RFP to ensure the identified 16 Career Clusters were covered equally, and the State Career Cluster Initiative was born in 2001.

By 2002, the 16 Career Clusters were designed, developed and validated through a national effort managed by NASDCTEc. At this point, the key definitions--largely still in use today--were released:

* A Career Cluster is a grouping of occupations and broad industries based on commonalities.

* Expectations at the cluster level represent the skill and knowledge, both academic and technical, that all students within the cluster should achieve regardless of their pathway.

* Expectations at the pathway level represent the skill and knowledge, both academic and technical, necessary to pursue a full range of career opportunities within a pathway--ranging from entry level to management, including technical and professional career specialties.

The Career Clusters Today

Suffice it to say, the Career Clusters are not a new concept. Since the 1970s, CTE leaders have sought to position the field as representing the full range of work (rather than preparation for a subset of jobs), encompassing broad-based knowledge, as well as more focused skills, and bridging the K-12 and postsecondary divide. While it took a few decades, since 2002, the Career Clusters have helped transform CTE by raising the quality, rigor and reach of CTE programs across the country.

Through the multiple updates and revalidations of the Career Clusters Knowledge & Skills Statements in 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2012, the National Career Cluster Framework has evolved to reflect the labor market. Today, the framework serves as a critical model for organizing and delivering high-quality CTE programs through comprehensive programs of study. In addition to identifying the knowledge and skills expected by employers, the Career Clusters serve as a useful guide in developing programs of study, bridging secondary and postsecondary curriculum, and creating individual student plans of study for a complete range of career options.

As the foundation of the Common Career Technical Core (CCTC) (end-of-program of study standards developed for and by states), the Career Clusters continue to push the field forward while anchoring them in the common goal of helping students discover their interests and passions to empower them to select the educational pathways that lead to success in high school, college and careers.

The CCTC builds on the Career Clusters by supporting CTE instruction that provides breadth and depth, allowing students to gain the skills demanded by industry, as well as the deeper technical skills aligned to specific careers.

Back to CareerTech VISION

With over 40 years of history behind them, the Career Clusters are core to the CTE movement and agenda. As they have once again evolved to underpin the program of study model, there is always more to learn about and from this framework.

Come check out some of the most impressive and leading ways the Career Clusters continue to drive CTE programs of study, instruction, student support, career exploration, collaboration and more at VISION. I look forward to seeing you there!2 Tech

Kate Blosveren is the associate executive director at NASDCTEc. E-mail her at kblosveren@careertech.org.

ENDNOTES

(1.) To read "The State of Career Technical Education: An Analysis of State CTE Standards," visit http:// careertech.org/state-CTE-standards.

(2.) For a wealth of resources related to career clusters, including Knowledge & Skills Statements, plans of study, credentials lists and crosswalks, see www. careertech.org/career-clusters.

RELATED ARTICLE: The 16 career clusters & 79 career pathways.

Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources

* Agribusiness Systems

* Animal Systems

* Environmental Service Systems

* Food Products & Processing Systems

* Natural Resources Systems

* Plant Systems

* Power, Structural & Technical Systems

Architecture & Construction

* Construction

* Design/Pre-Construction

* Maintenance/Operations

Arts, A/V Technology & Communications

* A/V Technology & Film

* Journalism & Broadcasting

* Performing Arts

* Printing Technology

* Telecommunications

* Visual Arts

Business Management & Administration

* Administrative Support

* Business Information Management

* General Management

* Human Resources Management

* Operations Management

Education & Training

* Administration & Administrative Support

* Professional Support Services

* Teaching/Training

Finance

* Accounting

* Banking Services

* Business Finance

* Insurance

* Securities & Investments

Government & Public Administration

* Foreign Service

* Governance

* National Security

* Planning

* Public Management & Administration

* Regulation

* Revenue & Taxation

Health Science

* Biotechnology Research & Development

* Diagnostic Services

* Health Informatics

* Support Services

* Therapeutic Services

Hospitality & Tourism

* Lodging

* Recreation, Amusements & Attractions

* Restaurants & Food/Beverage Services

* Travel & Tourism

Human Services

* Consumer Services

* Counseling & Mental Health Services

* Early Childhood Development & Services

* Family & Community Services

* Personal Care Services

Information Technology

* Information Support & Services

* Network Systems

* Programming & Software Development

* Web & Digital Communications

Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security

* Correction Services

* Emergency & Fire Management Services

* Law Enforcement Services

* Legal Services

* Security & Protective Services

Manufacturing

* Health, Safety & Environmental Assurance

* Logistics & Inventory Control

* Maintenance, Installation & Repair

* Manufacturing Production Process Development

* Production

* Quality Assurance

Marketing

* Marketing Communications

* Marketing Management

* Marketing Research

* Merchandising

* Professional Sales

Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

* Engineering & Technology

* Science & Mathematics

Transportation, Distribution & Logistics

* Facility & Mobile Equipment Maintenance

* Health, Safety & Environmental Management

* Logistics Planning & Management Services

* Sales & Service

* Transportation Operations

* Transportation Systems/lnfrastructure Planning, Management & Regulation

* Warehousing & Distribution Center Operations

RELATED ARTICLE: The Career Clusters at ACTE'S CareerTech VISION.

Throughout November 20 and 21, VISION will offer 15 Career Cluster-focused sessions, all organized around the 10 components of a rigorous program of study, that will offer actionable information and practices for both state and local CTE leaders, as well as secondary and postsecondary CTE instructors.

Featured speakers:

* John White, State Superintendent of Education, Louisiana

* State CTE directors from Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina and North Dakota

* The executive director and director of marketing and membership services, SkillsUSA

* Winners of the 2015 Excellence in Action Award

* Local secondary and postsecondary CTE leaders from across the country, ranging from Arizona and Illinois to Kansas and Virginia

Sessions include:

* Implementing and Measuring Career Readiness Standards

* Leveraging Reimagined Employer Advisory Committees: A Strategy for Driving Quality in CTE in Louisiana

* Collaboration in California: CTE Courses and College Readiness

* Lessons Learned from the Office of Career, Adult and Technical Education (OCTAE)'s Rigorous Programs of Study Initiative

* Scaling Alabama's Career Coaches Through Secondary-Postsecondary Collaboration

* Balancing the Quantity and Quality of Industry-recognized Credentials

* Recognizing Excellence in STEM

* Preparing a Globally Competent Workforce Through High-quality CTE

* Building a Pathways System on a High-quality CTE Foundation

* The Best of the Best: Excellence in Action Award Winners

For more see, https://s1.goeshow.com/acte/vision/2015/ PDF/V15CareerClusters.pdf.