By Lisa Johnson

Major downturns in the global economy moved beyond headlines in early 2009 to directly affect thousands of American workers. In the face of more than half a million layoffs in January alone‚ education’s relevance to workforce development in the U.S. has taken on new urgency. Recent graduates and those who have lost their jobs must be properly prepared for the opportunities that are available.

AED is helping them do just that.

Through work with the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education‚ for instance‚ AED is training state and local teams of secondary and post-secondary educators on how to create and revamp “programs of study‚” or structured sequences of classes students take when they are seeking a degree. To make the programs as relevant as possible‚ AED focuses on aligning them with current workforce needs.

“Particularly in this economic crisis‚” Mindy Feldbaum‚ director of workforce development programs for the AED National Institute for Work and Learning said‚ “you don’t want to train people for jobs that won’t exist after graduation.”

LINKING SCHOOLS AND BUSINESS
School officials in Coweta County‚ Georgia‚ southwest of Atlanta, felt the need for job relevant curricula in the mid-1990s‚ when local businesses were on the verge of moving shop because they could not find employees in the area who were trained for the positions they had open.

Realizing the companies’ relocation would mean a local economic decline‚ the school district worked with employers to create the Central Education Center‚ or CEC‚ a publicly funded charter school that combines traditional academics with career and technical education for adults and high school students alike.

AED wrote a report that detailed the structure of the school and assessed the impact of the center on students‚ employers‚ and the local community.

“Programs like CEC directly link what students are learning with the kind of job they can get when they graduate‚” said Ivan Charner‚ vice president and director of the AED National Institute for Work and Learning. One of the unique aspects of the CEC model‚ Charner said‚ is that students are graded on work ethic as well as their academic performance.

“Success in the program depends not only on what you can do‚ but also on how you behave and act in the workplace‚” Charner said. “Employability skills‚ such as teamwork‚ communicating appropriately‚ and completing tasks‚ are extremely important to an employee’s performance‚ the productivity of a business‚ and the future of the economy.”

The CEC program’s achievements in preparing a workforce have attracted new businesses to Coweta County because they know they will find well-qualified employees there‚ according to Charner.

GREEN JOBS
So that other communities might follow Coweta County’s lead, AED created a replication guide and set of best practices. Currently‚ schools and businesses in Baton Rouge‚ Louisiana‚ are using it to prepare students for local jobs in the energy sector.

In fact‚ energy is one of the growing areas of opportunity across the United States. Investment in “green jobs” in industries such as biofuels and solar‚ wind‚ and geothermal energy is leading to new career options.

However‚ newcomers to the job force need training in such fields‚ and mid-career laborers and professionals need to acquire new skills to stay competitive with the changing job market‚ according to Feldbaum.

“Success today requires a lifelong learning process‚” said Feldbaum‚ who recently published a report on the leading role community colleges play in creating a workforce for the green economy. “Everyone needs to continue to upgrade.”

Lisa Johnson is a senior project officer in the AED National Institute for Work and Learning.

Learn more at http://niwl.aed.org

 

 

U.S. EDUCATION
AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT GROUP

• AED Center for Early Care
  and Education
• AED Center for School and
  Community Services
• Educational Equity Center
  at AED
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• AED National Institute for Work and Learning