Aligning Career Preparation to Labor Market Needs
Across a community, many providers offer career preparation programs to help people develop the skills and knowledge they need to find gainful employment. High schools offer career and technical education; community colleges offer certificate and degree programs; and community-based organizations, employers, or government agencies offer adult education or workforce training programs.
Providers bring valuable expertise and diverse training opportunities to their community. To maximize their benefits for workers and employers, it is important to coordinate across program providers and align offerings to the regional labor market. This can help avoid mismatches in supply and demand, ensuring workers are adequately prepared for available jobs. Moreover, ensuring training links to high-wage, in-demand fields can help individuals find work that offers financial stability.
By focusing on the alignment between career preparation programs and the local labor market, states and regional agencies can help their communities develop a more effective career preparation ecosystem: one that prepares individuals to enter the workforce and earn a living wage. This starts with understanding the types of training programs offered, who is served, and what the local labor market needs.
Our Three-Step Process for Assessing Alignment
Working with state agencies, Education Northwest has developed a three-step process to assess the efficacy and alignment of state or regional career preparation offerings:
- Inventory career preparation programs
- Map programs to relevant occupations
- Assess alignment between program offerings and the labor market
This approach enables us to answer a range of questions about the operation and efficiency of career preparation programming. Some key questions relate to program types and alignment:
Program Types
- How many career preparation programs are operating, overall and by sector? Which populations are served?
- In which fields or industries is training offered? What types of occupations are individuals being prepared for?
- To what extent do programs prepare participants for high-wage, high-skill, high-demand employment?
Program Alignment
- How do the number and type of program offerings align to existing and projected economic needs?
- How do program enrollments compare to occupational forecasts, and in what jobs is under- or over-supply a concern?
- Are there high-wage, high-skill, high-demand fields in which no career preparation programs exist?
Solutions for Data-Driven Systemic Improvement
By answering key questions with data and evidence, our approach can surface effective solutions to improve alignment among career preparation programs. We might recommend ways to better coordinate offerings across providers, or we may suggest strategies for systematic data collection and analysis to facilitate ongoing data-informed decision making.
Download our brief that contains more information about our three-step process, the questions it can answer, and the solutions it can surface.
Download Brief
Contact us to start exploring how to improve career preparation programs in your region for the benefit of individual workers, employers, and the entire community.
Sarah Asson uses mixed methods to evaluate the extent to which education policies and programs ensure access. She is especially interested in geographic patterns of access and the intersections between place and education, including how students of different racial, economic, and linguistic backgrounds access specific schools and programs.
Steve Klein is a senior expert in career and technical education (CTE) at Education Northwest. For more than 30 years, he has worked with federal and state agencies, school districts, and colleges to design improved performance accountability, finance, and career pathways systems for CTE.
Sam Riggs is a managing researcher at Education Northwest. He uses research and evaluation to identify opportunities to ensure that all students can access and succeed in CTE and postsecondary education. Sam draws on his technical skills and professional experience to ensure that his research findings are accessible and actionable.
