The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) believes that to collaborate is to innovate—and great innovation takes diverse minds to solve complex community issues. This is the founding philosophy behind IEL’s Minds that Move Us initiative, which challenges public/private partners to examine the current education and training gaps within their communities and then create models that can be scaled and replicated within various industries to ensure social equity and economic mobility for all.
In response to a shortage of effective policies and programs, the first Minds that Move Us challenge is our Career Pathways Design Challenge. Through this challenge, we ask communities to design career pathway innovations for adult learners who do not have any formal postsecondary training or education and lack the skills necessary to put themselves on a career path, especially those with disabilities. With generous support from the ECMC Foundation, IEL, in partnership with the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) and the National Association of State Directors of Adult Education (NASDAE), is challenging 10 teams from around the country to design career pathway programs for adults 26 and over. During a three year period, teams will partake in a Design Camp, 24 hours of technical assistance and coaching, and a Career Pathways Festival to pitch their proposed solutions with a chance to win $100K!
IEL will select up to 10 subject matter experts (SMEs) who can provide technical assistance to the 10 teams during the three-day Design Camp, which is slated to occur in August 2018 (exact date still to be determined), and at other points throughout the three-year project period. SMEs may also be asked to assist with scoring and judging team submissions during the month of July 2018. IEL will also select up to five coaches who can provide 24 hours of coaching, to two teams each, throughout the project period. Spanning just over two years, coaching services are expected to begin in August 2018 and conclude around October 2020. Coaches will be matched to teams based on their expressed technical assistance needs.
Possessing knowledge of common barriers to adults entering, persisting and successfully completing career pathway programs, ideal SMEs and coaches will have expertise on how to establish effective programs by bringing together key public and private sector partners and leveraging community assets. They should also be fluent in "next generation" career pathway approaches for adults, including but not limited to: stackable credits and credentials, prior learning assessments, competency-based learning assessments, micro-credentials, universal design principles, and targeted wrap-around supports. Additionally, coaches will ideally live in the same community/region as their team OR in a community/region that has similar characteristics to the areas where their teams intend to start programs. A competitive hourly rate and travel will be provided. Selected SMEs and coaches cannot also be part of teams who are selected for inclusion in the project.
In addition to SMEs and coaches, IEL will select one evaluator who can chronicle the success of the project from its start point in May 2018 to the end point in December 2020. This scope of work may include, but is not limited to: photographs, graphs, qualitative and quantitative data on teams and communities, and vignettes to describe success. Depending on IEL’s needs and available resources, these items can all be in one report or packaged in different ways using soft dissemination. Ideal candidates will have extensive writing and publication experience, preferably having worked on the documentation of challenges, prizes and/or other alternative ways of incentivizing innovation in the past. A competitive hourly rate and travel will be provided.
If you are interested in being considered for a role as SME, coach, or evaluator, please fill out the appropriate 10-12 minute interest survey (see links below) by the specified deadline. Also, please feel free to forward this message along to other colleagues who may be interested in being considered.
SMEs: Please complete the SME Interest Form by Thursday, June 7, 2018.
Coaches: Please complete the Coach Interest Form by Thursday, June 14, 2018.
Evaluators: Please complete the Evaluator Interest Form by Thursday, May 24, 2018.
If you or others have any questions about the form, role, or project, please contact Alicia Bolton at careerpathwayschallenge@iel.org.
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Follow this link to download the Career Pathways Design Challenge Fact Sheet