Hartnell College has established strong connections from college to career for its agricultural, health, and education students through pathways that include work-based learning and internships. Now, with support from the James Irvine Foundation, Hartnell is looking to scale these innovations across the college.
Together with the Hartnell Foundation, Career Ladders Project (CLP) convened students, instructors, counselors, K-12 partners, and local employers in the agriculture, health, and education sectors to uncover the core principles underlying these successful pathways. Based on these convenings as well as surveys and interviews with stakeholders, CLP documented the resulting proposal for a college-wide Career Hub.
What has made the three pathways so successful at Hartnell? CLP identified the following factors: college personnel with direct ties to employers; integrated career exploration; relevant work experience for students; and cohort-based services. Stakeholders, including students, want a more centralized system for connecting college to career at Hartnell. The envisioned Career Hub would deliver meta-major specific career exploration and course-based career preparation, as well as work-readiness training. The hub would serve as a resource across the college–primarily for students, but also for instructors and counselors. And it would create more opportunities with local business partners, from work-based learning to apprenticeships and employment.
For more information, read CLP’s brief on Hartnell’s Better Careers Initiative.