Mapping Tools to Help Students and Educators Navigate Job Pathways

WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility creates custom dashboards that show students and educators what educational programs are available and the jobs they lead to in their area, helping with course planning, career advice, and job placement.

The Challenge

When people are choosing education or training programs, they need to know what colleges offer and how those programs connect to actual jobs. Teachers and counselors need this same information to help learners plan their next steps—whether that’s after high school, moving from a noncredit program to college courses, or getting job training as an adult. The problem? Most tools that provide this information are either too complicated to use or cost money that educators don’t have.

Further, pathway tools are hard to build because of the need to really understand what each program teaches. For example, a program labeled “business” could focus on accounting, human resources, or marketing. Without detailed information about what each program actually teaches, it’s impossible to know if programs are similar or if they’ll lead to the jobs people want.

How We’re Taking Action

We have partnered with several regions and states to develop tools that help identify different education options along a student’s pathway and how those opportunities relate to jobs. In each case, we have made sure the tool is open source—so it can be modified by our clients and used for free by students and educators.

For example, North State Careers is a website designed for students that lets them explore popular jobs in northern California, learn what skills those jobs require, find college programs that train for specific careers, and see which high schools offer related career classes.

Our Opportunity Map Builder is an online data set that shows educators what types of programs are available, common related occupations in their area, the key skills required for those jobs, and how much those jobs pay. Teachers and counselors use this information to help students plan their next steps and to make sure programs at different schools work well together. We’ve created versions for Los Angeles and Utah.

We worked with the Nevada Department of Education to compare K–12 and community college systems and to rank priority occupations for the state. We also supported regional planning discussions that resulted in a formal report used for Nevada’s Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment under requirements for Perkins V.

We conducted studies for the Bay Area, San Diego, and Central Valley regions to compare K–12 and community college career education enrollment and labor market information. We used this information to lead pathway planning processes in all three regions to support planning for the California K12 Strong Workforce Program.

We compiled career education program data from over 400 local adult school catalogues in California and built a dashboard comparing adult school, noncredit, and credit career education offerings against regional and state labor market data to lead postsecondary transition planning across the state.

Our occupational skills dashboard uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to provide educators and administrators with a comprehensive database of the key skills graduates should possess for different jobs. Incorporating skills data helps institutions develop workforce-aligned and employer-responsive programs. This ensures that students graduate with in-demand skills and can effectively communicate those skills to prospective employers.

Resources

 

I don’t know of any other site that links directly from occupations to programs and has information about available job openings and wages, all in one place.

Blaine Smith Executive Director, North Far North Regional Consortium

What Makes Us Different

Curriculum-based information – We go beyond codes to examine the contents of education programs, leveraging our team’s practical experience with education curricula.

Open-source tools – We ensure information is freely available, built on platforms that are inexpensive to maintain, and train our clients how to update information so it stays current.

Purpose-specific development – While these tools often have a number of data points in common, we ensure we understand the way data will be used to determine what to include and how to visualize it.