Career Pathways Descriptions or Infographics for Adult Learners

Image of Career Pathways designed for adult basic skills learners

Colleagues,

Perhaps you can help. For several years I have been looking for simple, easy to read, attractive descriptions of career pathways designed to explain what career pathways means for adult basic skills learners, including immigrants learning English. The ideal would be one-page and it would be accurate,  attractive, well-illustrated and with text in plain language (English and possibly also in other languages). When I have have sent out requests in previous years, no one knew of examples. If anything, with WIOA, I believe the need for this kind of graphic, designed for low-skilled adult learners, has grown.

  • If you know of a description or infographic that meets these criteria, please reply here with a link to it or email it to me as an attachment.
  • If you don't know of one but you are interested in developing one, or are in the process of developing one, please email me to let me know.
  • If you have access to a small amount of flexible funding, consider sponsoring a contest to design one, and let us know that you are doing that. For example, in 2010 I with modest resources I tried that. The purpose of the contest was to encourage the creation of graphic images that would communicate to learners the concept of multiple career pathways. The idea was that pathways would begin with basic literacy and English language skills, and continue up through basic education and adult secondary education to higher education, job skills training and/or apprenticeship and work. The infographics of the three prizewinners, one an adult learner, are included above and below.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmaill.com

 

Image of Career Pathways designed for adult basic skills learners

Image of Career Pathways designed for adult basic skills learners

 

 

 

 

Comments

David's post focuses on a real issue in adult education programs, in the face of WIOA.  It is one that we need your help in addressing.  Please take one minute to answer these three Yes or No questions.  You can respond to this thread, or send an e-mail to David, or I, with your responses.  This will help us to potentially fill a void in the services we are providing to Adult Basic Education (ABE) and ESL learners in career pathways programs. 

 

1. Do you struggle with explaining career pathways to your ABE and/or ESL learners?

2. Would an easy to read graphic be helpful to you in explaining the concept of career pathways?

3. Would you be interested in working with other members to develop a career pathways graphic for dissemination to ABE and ESL programs?   Thank you for taking the time to respond.   Mike Cruse Career Pathways Moderator michaelcruse74@gmail.com   David Rosen Program Management Moderator djrosen123@gmail.com

In case you haven't seen the recent post in the Career Pathways community, sharing Career Pathways Programming for Lower-Skilled Adults and Immigrants: Report on Survey Finding, from the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy at the Pennsylvania State University, I encourage you to take a look.  

The report provides a wealth of information, including the definition of career pathways used by the 106 adult education agencies responding to their survey.  The definition, provided by CLASP, is as follows:

"The career pathways approach connects progressive levels of basic and post-secondary education, training, and supportive services in specific sectors or cross-sector occupations in a way that optimizes the progress and success of individuals - including those with limited education, English skills, and/or work experiences - in securing marketable credentials, family-supporting employment, and further education and employment opportunities". 

Does this match definitions used by yourself, or your agency, and how you envision career pathways programs serving ABE and ESL learners?

Best,

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com

I generally don't even try to explain career pathways because I am not sure what I would come up with would be valid.   (I just finished reading _Lower Ed_ which affirms my doubts that the path is clear). 

That said, I think a graphic would be helpful and ... I would be glad to help.   I have essentially no natural talent in the realm but I've worked at acquiring some skills because it's useful for math, and I've got GIMP (and "Canva" is also useful for this kind of thing).   

 

Hi, Susan -

Thanks for your comment, and willingness to share your skills to help us envision this resource.  Would you tell us more about what GIMP and Canva are, and how they could be useful to this project?

Best,

Mike

The first question (Do you struggle with explaining career pathways to your ABE and/or ESL learners?) rings a bell. Yes, I've struggled with the idea of how best to unwrap the career pathway to adult learners. I have come to appreciate the use of graphics because visualizing the path makes it more understandable. As educators, we need to tap into the learner's experiences and create curiosity about their goals/dreams. Like EdSurge.com suggests in the article, Adult Learning: Building Paths to a Better Future, "But what makes adult learners unique--and hopefully attractive to education reform innovators--is that they are grown-ups. They have life experiences well beyond the confines of the academy. " Let's engage them in shaping their understanding of the path and the goal they can visualize and believe in. We can begin by letting them tell their stories, their struggles and their thoughts about the careers they dream of taking on. This can provide opportunities for coaching and mentorship and while letting the learners taking the control of their path!

Hi, Benson -

Thanks for your comment.  It's good to hear that you appreciate the use of graphics to help students visualize a pathway.  Do you have examples of what you have used with learners that you would be able to share with us?  If not, can you tell us what your learners struggle with the most in understanding their role in accessing pathways, and following them to an exit point that ends in a credential, degree, or other work-based learning experience?

Best,

Mike