Crossing Boundaries to Develop Effective Pathways

Career Pathway Development Across Ten East Bay Community Colleges

A Career Pathway is a series of structured and connected education programs and support services that enable students to advance over time to better jobs and higher levels of education and training. Pathways connect progressive levels of education and work experience to prepare students for success in both college and career, linking in-demand skills to the employment needs of high-wage growth sectors in the regional economy.
As part of the DBS grant, CLP is working with 10 East Bay community colleges and with employer partners to align redesigned CTE programs into a regionally coordinated collection of offerings. These programs enable entry level and incumbent workers to advance in both college and career with articulated entry, exit, and re-entry points. The career pathway infrastructure in the East Bay is a dual customer strategy focused on helping:

• Employers increase regional engagement with the community colleges, and
• Individual job seekers and incumbent workers connect with competency-focused college programs of study.

The robust infrastructure includes pathways aligned to employment, industry recognized credentials, core competencies, and increased on-ramps to programs, as well as portability of skills and certificates so that students can advance toward higher unit credentials.