04/03/2019

Career Readiness for All Students

NCDA is part of the National Coalition for Career Development, a collaborative alliance of education, business, government and non-profit organizations to create a national movement dedicated to helping all learners become career literate and career ready.  The National Coalition just released a White Paper, Career Readiness for All Students, that was highlighted at the Coalition Press Event, April 3, 2019 in Washington DC.  NCDA is proud to support the Coalition. For more details, read the press release below:

 

                                                                                                             

Coalition for Career Development (CCD) Calls for Making Career Readiness the First Priority of U.S. Education

CCD addresses challenges facing our current education system, offers solutions to better prepare students

 

WASHINGTON (April 3, 2019) - Today, at a briefing on Capitol Hill, the Coalition for Career Development (CCD) will present its new white paper, “Career Readiness for All.”  The paper, released today, calls for making career readiness and career development the first priority in American education and presents a blueprint for transforming K-12 and post-secondary education to achieve this goal. 

 

The white paper is an outgrowth of the National Career Development Summit, convened by CCD in Washington, D.C. in September 2018.  The Summit involved 200 leaders in education, business, government and philanthropy who discussed the challenges facing our current education and workforce development system, and developed a framework of practical, cost-effective solutions to those challenges designed to equip ALL young people to achieve career success.

 

“CCD is committed to making career readiness the first priority of American education and providing ALL learners with high quality career development services and technology,” said Scott Bull, Co-Chairman, CCD Founders Council and CEO, Pace Industries.  “Ensuring that all learners have the opportunity to secure productive employment in their chosen career as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible will help more young people achieve the American Dream.”

 

Among the challenges discussed in “Career Readiness for All” is the inefficiency of our current education system, which has burdened students with $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, while failing to prepare many young people for career success. Our current education system is also ineffective because it often fails to expose students to in-demand careers and to equip them with the skills needed to succeed in those fields. Perhaps most troubling, our current system is also inequitable, because persistent racial achievement gaps are failing to prepare our increasingly diverse population for the jobs and opportunities of tomorrow.

 

To meet these challenges, CCD offers a framework for creating a high-quality career development system that is built around five pillars: prioritizing career planning, providing professional career advising, emphasizing applied and work-based learning, providing high-quality career development technology and ensuring accountability.

 

“Ultimately, these reforms have the potential to revitalize a society now torn by deep divisions, reduced economic mobility and a deep fear by many that the American Dream is dead,” said William Symonds, Executive Secretary of CCD, and Director of the Global Pathways Institute at Arizona State University.

 

“For far too long, we have neglected an essential component in educating our young people: career development programs that help them decide which career they are best suited for and that help guide them in mapping out the best pathway to that career,” said Leo Reddy, Chairman of the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council.  “I am hopeful that the work of CCD will help move us away from a system that has only served the needs of a fraction of students to one that will better prepare all students and help fulfill the American promise of equal opportunity for all.”

 

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About the Coalition for Career Development (CCD): CCD is an industry- and gubernatorial-led coalition headed by an Advisory Board of some 40 leading national organizations, including the National Governors Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, IBM, the Council of Chief State School Officers, education associations, and industry certification bodies. For additional information on CCD, please visit: www.coalitionforcareerdevelopment.org

 

For Immediate Release

Contact: Susan Haralson

SH@prismgroup.global

 

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