NCPN is dedicated to strengthening the education-to-careers pipeline through professional development in Career Pathways, Adult Career Pathways, career and technical education (CTE), and workforce development.
Join Us - NCPN Webinar Series
NCPN Connected Conversations: Creating Industry-responsive and Learner-supportive Career Pathways
Join us in this dynamic free webinar series hosted by CORD and NCPN. Thought leaders in education and industry will share insights and actionable strategies for building career pathways that align with industry needs and support learner success. Learn more.
NCPN’s activities serve secondary, postsecondary, adult, and correctional education; workforce and economic development; and workforce investment boards, community-based organizations, and employers.
Through conferences, workshops, and publications, NCPN facilitates the exchange of promising practices and innovations and assists educators and their partners in planning, implementing, evaluating, and improving Career Pathways.
NCPN connects people and resources, provides leadership and professional development, and facilitates the discovery of solutions through partnering at local, state, and national levels.
Annual Conference
Our annual conferences are among the best professional development opportunities in the country. Join us!
Workshops
For high school, community college, and adult educators as well as workforce personnel, tailored to fit local needs
Leadership Technical Assistance
Let us help you acquire core leadership skills in a supportive, mentoring environment.
Career Pathways Leadership Certification
Workshops designed to help develop, maintain, and improve Career Pathways
Resources
Visit our resource center for toolkits, books, reports, and other useful materials.
Webinars
Timely information on Career Pathways, stackable credentials, employability skills, and related topics
Leadership Development Academy
Let us help you acquire core leadership skills in a supportive, mentoring environment.
Pathway Perspectives
The online journal of the National Career Pathways Network
Featured Updates from NCPN and Our Affiliates
ARTICLE
NCPN Connections 33-2
Youth Apprenticeship Collaboration Helps to Shape Future Northeast Wisconsin Workforce
Mike Snowberry, Director of Learning Services, Luxemburg-Casco School District, Luxemburg, Wisconsin
In September 2022, Forward Analytics, the research arm of the Wisconsin Counties Association, indicated that without more people moving to Wisconsin the state’s working-age population is projected to shrink by approximately 130,000 people within the next eight years. Wisconsin tends to lose more college graduates than it retains. The Washington Post found that Wisconsin loses slightly more than 20 percent of its college graduates on average when it analyzed “brain drain” by state in September 2022. At least 106,000 people, age 26 or younger, have left the state over the past decade, according to the Forward Analytics report. One way to attempt to reverse these troubling statistics is to develop a robust Youth Apprenticeship program.
ARTICLE
J ATE, Vol 2-1 (Summer 2023)
Building a Well-Equipped Skilled Technical Workforce by Adopting the Framework for a Cross-Disciplinary STEM Core
Ann-Claire Anderson, Mark Whitney, Center for Occupational Research and Development; Deborah Hecht, Center for Advanced Study in Education at CUNY Graduate Center
STEM technicians and technician education programs face a world in which advancements driven by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and myriad other emerging and converging technologies are transforming existing industries and creating new ones at an unprecedented pace. Today’s technicians are immersed in diverse platforms and interrelated systems that once belonged to single industry sectors. While demand for positions involving tasks that can be automated is declining, new occupations are emerging. Rapid technological change means that technician jobs are converting to what some call “hybrid jobs” and “superjobs,” requiring “skills which are in demand across multiple emerging professions.” The skilled technical workforce, sitting at the center of this disruption, needs a broad, cross-disciplinary skill set to enable them “to navigate a dynamic landscape of accelerating change: job losses, job changes, and job creation.” With these challenges in mind, how—and what—do we teach new technicians?
PODCAST
Preparing Technicians for the Future of Work
Episode 43: Unlocking Potential Through Technology
Podcast Guest: Amy Kardel, Senior Vice President, Strategic Workforce Relationships at CompTIA (Oct 2022)
As an IT professional with an entrepreneurial spirit, Amy brings her vast international experience in both large and small tech companies to share her insight into the Tech workforce. What skills does a technician coming into the workforce need to have to be employable and successful? Hear her ideas about lifelong learning and reskilling as the development arc technicians need for a continuous trajectory of a thriving career in tech. Learn how Career Pathways, apprenticeships, and certifications are providing strategic inroads for students as well as a valuable pipeline of talent for industry.
RESOURCE
Preparing Technicians for the Future of Work
A Framework for a Cross-Disciplinary STEM Core
Produced by Preparing Technicians for the Future of Work (an NSF ATE project of CORD, the parent organization of NCPN), the Framework for a Cross-Disciplinary STEM Core makes recommendations for incorporating knowledge and skills in advanced digital literacy, data knowledge and analysis, and business knowledge and processes into associate degree technician preparation programs. The Framework represents a paradigm shift for institutions that provide technician education. Technician educators must be empowered to integrate multiple disciplines into existing programs and develop new programs that support emerging disciplines and occupations.
RESOURCE
Preparing Technicians for the Future of Work
Adopting the Framework for a Cross-Disciplinary STEM Core: A Toolkit for Action
Designed to assist in the process of adopting the same project’s Framework for a Cross-Disciplinary STEM Core, this toolkit suggests six steps for adoption and provides checklists for self-assessment and links to resources designed to assist in the adoption process. Using the toolkit, educators and employers can prioritize STEM Core skill sets and identify where those skills are taught within existing program curriculum and instructional gaps where new cross-disciplinary skill sets could be easily integrated.
WEBINAR
May 10, 2022
Breaking Down Silos to Build In-Demand Pathways
Michelle Van Noy, Director, Education and Employment Research Center, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers; Lee Lambert, Chancellor, Pima Community College; Sarah Janes, Associate Vice Chancellor, Continuing and Professional Development, San Jacinto College
Noted Rutgers researcher Dr. Michelle Van Noy is joined by community college leaders Lee Lambert, Chancellor of Pima Community College, and Sarah Janes, Associate Vice Chancellor, Continuing and Professional Development at San Jacinto College, for an insightful look at breaking down the silos between noncredit and credit programs. Panelists discuss how they developed in-demand pathways that intentionally align noncredit and credit programs. This holistic approach offers accessible pathways for all learners that lead to market-valued credentials and degree completion.
