Planning Between Agencies to Help Them Match Education and Job Training Systems With Employment
WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility supported the California Governor’s Office to gather community input on how to redesign education so that it supports access to good jobs and career opportunities.
The Challenge
Many states are trying to make sure their education and job training programs teach what employers are looking for. As AI changes the workplace and workers need to upskill throughout their careers, state agencies may need to rethink how they prepare people for school and work. When agencies try to plan together, however, it’s often difficult because they get their funding from different sources and have different goals that make it hard to find common ground:
- Governor’s offices may push schools, colleges, and workforce training providers to be more responsive to what employers and learners need.
- Policymakers may want better coordination across different funding streams so they can implement strategies such as apprenticeships and career preparation in K–12.
- Educators may be limited by the need to keep their programs running.
- Learners often struggle to find the right training and job options to reach their goals.
How We’re Taking Action
In 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom released an executive order that called for state agencies to create a Master Plan for Career Education, focusing on three areas: career pathway programs, hands-on learning, and universal access and affordability. We played a key role in the development of the plan.
We began by synthesizing preliminary recommendations from eight agencies, generating a document that highlights core concepts in reform recommendations. WestEd used the core concepts document to engage the public. After leading a webinar that clarified agency priorities, we participated in dozens of meetings with organizations representing employers, educators, community-based organizations, and advocacy groups. This one-on-one engagement helped to clarify implementation considerations for different industries, training providers, and populations.
To pressure test emerging ideas, WestEd worked with regional collaboratives to host eight design sessions. Hundreds of people shared their pain points and recommended ways to address these challenges. Their extensive feedback was shared in a community input report that was released to the public. WestEd helped to bring community perspectives to the forefront through webinars and legislative hearings.
WestEd provided support to the agencies to review the community input and to document their commitments and early actions in a single document, which led to the final Master Plan for Career Education report.
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