CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

What Can We Learn from CTE Abroad?

How is CTE different abroad? You’ve probably heard about the German vocational system, but what about other nations?

To answer these questions, the National Center on Education and the Economy has studied CTE internationally and released three publications on:  

• the Swiss vocational and education training (VET) system, in which 70 percent of young people participate, and its commitment to coordination between each industry sector and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation
• the Chinese VET system, which has been weak historically but is experimenting with improvements
• the VET system in Singapore, which has progressed rapidly in the past 70 years to develop state-of-the-art postsecondary institutions and apprenticeships

As I mentioned earlier, you’ve probably heard the praises of the German vocational system sung among CTE advocates. But can that system be effectively translated to the United States? The Global Cities Initiative, a collaboration between Brookings and JPMorgan Chase, has determined three key takeaways for U.S. leaders looking to adapt the German system to the United States: 

• regional collaboration between public, private and civic representatives
• targeted institutional intermediaries that address market and coordination failures
• incentive-based investments to support small- and medium-sized businesses

Examples of U.S. programs that have embraced one or more of these strategies are provided in the publication, including Apprenticeship Carolina, the Michigan Advanced Technician Training Program and Toyota’s partnership with Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Kentucky.

Research Shows Postsecondary CTE Improves Student Earnings Outcomes

A report issued this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that postsecondary CTE programs hold great potential to increase students’ earnings once they enter the workforce. The report, titled “Career Technical Education and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from California Community Colleges,” examined data from 112 community colleges and 2.6 million students to determine a student’s return on investment after participating in postsecondary CTE  by measuring their earnings once they entered the labor market.

The study indicates that many CTE program participants experienced significant increases in their earnings, which averaged 12 to 23 percent higher after attainment of CTE certificates and degrees. The programs that demonstrated the highest return on investment were in health occupations, including long-term certificate and associate degree programs which showed increases of 50 percent or more.

The study cautions, however, that program outcomes can be inconsistent depending on the student’s background and field of study. The authors recommend that further research be conducted to examine the longevity of these findings by sector, as well as to determine what previous educational experience lays the foundation for students to make the most of their participation in postsecondary CTE.

Getting Out-of-School Youth Back Into the Pipeline

There are 6.7 million opportunity youth in the United States—young people aged 16 to 24 who are neither in school nor working. How can we help these youth get back into the education and employment pipeline?

To help answer this question, the American Youth Policy Forum has conducted a review of two states, Michigan and Connecticut, that are developing pathways to postsecondary education for these individuals. Of the best practices AYPF has identified, one of the most important is providing both education and workforce opportunities through industry-recognized training programs.

Further research on this topic from MDRC emphasizes that programs for opportunity youth need to be demand driven, closely aligned to industry needs to ensure that participants are being prepared for jobs that exist while not displacing other workers.  

This employer-side of the equation is the focus of a U.S. Chamber of Commerce publication on how companies are developing pathways to bring young talent into the pipeline through two strategies: 

• creating specific internal programs, including collaborating with education institutions for work-based learning and customized training  
• partnering with strategic nonprofits and external organizations

These elements—technical training, work-based learning and industry partnerships—are critical not just for opportunity youth, but for all youth and adults looking to prepare for further education and the workplace.

Policymakers Talk Manufacturing Workforce at Briefing

Recently, I attended a briefing entitled “Made in America: Building a Thriving Workforce and Manufacturing Base” hosted by Third Way and featuring a keynote address from Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. Perez spoke about the need to expand the workforce pipeline in manufacturing to fill the high number of positions coming available as older workers begin to retire. He pointed to the passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the Administration’s efforts on apprenticeships, specifically the Registered Apprenticeship-College Consortium (RACC), as important policy initiatives that support the needs of workforce development in manufacturing fields.

Additionally, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) spoke about his leadership on the “Manufacturing Jobs for America” campaign, an effort to bring together a bipartisan coalition of Senators around a broad slate of legislative proposals addressing issues that affect the manufacturing sector, including education and job training. He will be joined in this effort by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), co-chair of the Senate CTE Caucus, who also spoke at the briefing. She discussed the important role of CTE in preparing the manufacturing workforce, and highlighted her recent visits to CTE programs in Wisconsin, which included Bay Link Manufacturing program at Green Bay West High School. You can read more information about the role of CTE in manufacturing, and other critical industry sectors, in ACTE’s Sector Sheet series.

Data Privacy Bill Targets Ed Tech Vendors

Providers of education technology services are prohibited from selling student data and targeting advertisements to students, and are required to meet new regulations for data privacy, security and transparency, in a bill introduced this week by Reps. Polis (D-CO) and Messer (R-IN).

The Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act also gives regulatory authority over these service providers to the Federal Trade Commission. Other provisions of the proposed legislation include:

• protection for student metadata
• correction and, upon request or by one year after service has ended, deletion of student information
• procedures for addressing data breaches

This bill, which pivots focus to the vendors themselves rather than the institutions and systems using their tools, seeks to update older legislation created before the proliferation of ed tech services. You can read more coverage of the proposal in Ed Week and Consumerist.

In addition to this bill, a discussion draft of an update to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) has been circulated. ACTE is monitoring this and other legislation related to how student information can be safely used to help improve programs, foster student success and create connections across the education-workforce pipeline.