Career & Technical Education
As taken from the NGA announcement:
Work-based learning programs such as apprenticeship, internship, and career and technical education (CTE) connects on-the-job learning (OJL) with related technical instruction (RTI). This memo looks at how states are regulating work-based learning programs during the crisis while many instruction sites, both in the classroom and at the workplace, are closed. SkillsCommons, the world's largest repository of free and open workforce training materials, is named as a resource within the memo.
NGA Memo Regarding Adjustments to WBL and CTE in Response to COVID 19
Career and Technical Education (CTE) is a crucial component for today's economic skyline. Now more than ever, students understand the importance of gaining skills and acquiring challenging academic rigor in order to be prepared for the high-skill, high-wage, high-demand occupations in the 21st century global economy. By embedding CTE into secondary learning schematics, Colorado schools give students an advantage toward securing sustainable employment and livable wages leading to a better world for themselves and their communities.
RESPONDING TO COVID19 THROUGH TEACHING: Healthcare safety training resources, whether it applies to the health, manufacturing, construction, or tourism industries, are critical for hygiene, infection control, and lab safety. These skills are and will continue to be critical to ensure all the stores, restaurants, cruise ships, healthcare offices, schools, libraries, and every workplace. By partnering with SkillsCommons, the Principal Institute can offer free and open training materials in these areas that teachers can reuse and revise as they wish to support classroom and workplace training needs.
Work-based learners and students enrolled in Colorado CTE programs need learning resources that are affordable, aligned with industry needs, and connected with their prospective careers.
Affordable Learning Solutions from SkillsCommons
SkillsCommons has provided the Principal Institute a free and open library of training materials, virtual labs, and general education materials that you can give your students to help them learn.
Career and Technical Education Course Showcase
Explore the collection of these free online course curricula organized by Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes, highlighted health care and facilities management resources to support responses to COVID19, and complete online certificate programs in various industry sectors that directly impact the economy across Colorado.
CAST is a nonprofit education research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a research-based set of principles to guide the design of learning environments that are accessible and effective for all. Now endorsed by federal policy and that of many states and districts, UDL informs all of our work in educational research and design, professional learning, workforce development, and publishing.
UDL at a Glance Video
CAST Online Lesson Planning: Accessible and inclusive — designed for ALL from the start.
- Key Questions to Consider When Planning
These essential questions, when used during lesson planning, can help keep your focus on designing for the wide range of learners you encounter. - Composing Our World: Integrating UDL with Project-Based Learning for 9th Grade ELA
Though focused on English Language Arts, the principles presented in this tutorial can apply to any lesson design. - Top 10 UDL Tips for Developing Learning Goals
Clear learning goals are even more important when planning for remote learning. Learn how to develop your learning goals to maintain high expectations for all. - Top 10 UDL Tips for Assessment
Your assessments should directly relate to your learning goals. Learn how to design and deliver high-quality assessments that can help inform your instruction. - UDL in the Cloud: A Conversation with the Authors
Learn how to design for remote learning through a UDL lens in this webinar with Katie Novak and Tom Thibodeau, authors of UDL in the Cloud: How to Design and Deliver Online Education Using Universal Design for Learning.
Gooru Learning Navigator
College and Training Readiness https://gooru.org/content/courses/play/b6d5125e-ffe0-496b-ba82-99b540321ff7?source=rgo Full Course
Softskills for the Workforce: Beginner, Intermediate, Adavnced Levels http://gooru.org/content/courses/play/2e511ef6-cf06-400d-83ce-201eed2a6d26 Full Course
Certified Nursing Assistant (and other entry level healthcare courses)
Success Skills for Certified Nurse Aids (CNAs) Video Series - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/14782
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/14782
Home Health Aide: Theory https://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/3459
Nursing Care for the Family Part 1 - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/3008
Paramedical
Basic First Aid eLearning Simulation - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/2486
Emergency Medical Technician - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/3000
Welding
Welding Automation - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/4621
AWS Electrode Classification for Shielded Metal Arc Welding - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/2191
Weld Positions and Joints - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/2194
General Welding - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/4801
Entrepreneurship
Be The Boss Online Course - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/8149
Soft Skills
Industry Readiness Training - Team Building & Communication http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/11168
Essential Writing - https://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/5372
College Skills - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/671
Principles of Management Online Course - Organization Ethics http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/9449
Time Management - https://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/7170
Safety
Lab Safety - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/7044
Basic Safety for Construction and Brownfield Workers - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/4665
Industrial Safety - http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/9348
CTE Online California
Full Listing of Available Curricula https://www.cteonline.org/curriculum
Medical Assistant Model https://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=668069
Industry experts in healthcare and facilities management have the extensive content expertise that will critical in training a large workforce in techniques to lower the risks of a contagion in hotels, cruise ships, restaurants, stores, and more. Manufacturing and construction specialists, workforce development experts, communication and tourism leaders, and others are finding their way into public educational settings to share their knowledge and expertise with tomorrow's leaders. Providing industry experts with effective guidance and quick-to-absorb tools leads to better student engagement, greater retention rates, and long-term CTE school staff.
SkillsCommons offers three, FREE, self-paced, online mini-courses with the first course providing thirteen (13) 17-20 minute interactive modules to help jumpstart industry experts toward becoming masterful teachers. Whether you are teaching face-to-face or online, these guidelines can help you teach your students and help learners acquire the skills that are critical for today’s Colorado workforce.
Overview of Jumpstart to Successful Instruction (IE2EI)
- IE2EI 101: The Basics on Becoming a Good Instructor
- IE2EI 102: Diving Deeper into Become a Better Instructor
- IE2EI: 103: Refining Your Teaching Skills
The WISE (Women in Sustainable Employment) Pathways is a career exploration course designed for women to explore non-traditional , in-demand jobs in the energy / utilities, construction, manufacturing, public safety, information technology and transportation industries. By completing all 16 sessions of the WISE Pathways program, women have the opportunity to learn about career paths, strategies in conflict management, team building, workplace expectations, resume creation, applying online, interviewing, and connecting with recruiters.
Hands-on experiences learning the skills of the trade is critical for many industry sectors. When apprentices can’t work at the side of knowledgeable co-worker, how can they continue to develop their skills?
SkillsCommons has organized a wealth of free online resources that the apprentices could review online and learn about safety requirements, watch videos by experts explain how to apply their trades, policies about business operations and customer relations, as well as soft skills to improve their workplace productivity and effectiveness
- Apprenticeship and Work-based Learning Portal - Explore and use this free and open resources by SkillsCommons.
- Apprenticeship Program Models - SkillsCommons also provides exemplary models for apprenticeship program that were funded by the U.S. Department of Labor grants.
- Workforce Development Online Curriculum - Explore the wealth of free and open online curriculum in a variety of workforce development areas.
Over 700 community colleges received a portion of a $1.9 Billion allocation from the U.S. Department of Labor’s TAACCCT program to build their capacity, improve their delivery, and innovate their workforce development programs. SkillsCommons has collected their instructional curriculum and program support materials for you to reuse and revise as you wish for FREE.
SkillsCommons also identified and showcases best practices in successful and innovative workforce programs. Explore these best practices and consider adopting those that meet your students' needs.
Aligning Workforce Programs with Industry Needs
Strategic alignment between community colleges, the public workforce system, and industries was an integral component to the TAACCCT initiative. Many states and regions created meaningful strides to better align these organizations.
Strengthening Student Services to Improve Outcomes
Student support services were crucial to helping students enroll, persist, and complete. A number of TAACCCT grantees implemented new procedures and policies delivered by new support staff, often known as navigators, success coaches, or career coaches.
Innovations to Improve Student Outcomes
New academic and industry credentials were created as well as innovative teaching methods designed to engage students in effective learning activities.
Sector strategies come to life through industry-led, public-private partnerships where collective business priorities are addressed. Colorado is home to many such partnerships and the Colorado Workforce Development Council, CWDC, provides technical assistance to advance them, specifically:
- Sector Partnerships
- Industry Intermediaries
- Workforce Development Boards
The CWDC embraces a regional, industry-specific approach, operating through Colorado’s 14 economic regions and 14 major industries that drive the state’s economy.
Industry-led means that businesses have come together to identify and work on initiatives that they collectively agree are vital to the health and growth of their sector. Colorado takes this very seriously, finding that without business at the table setting the agenda and building and implementing solutions, Colorado’s talent development system becomes fragmented, misaligned to job opportunities, and inefficient. By working together, Education and Employers can build on strengths, address new challenges, and seize new opportunities that will advance Colorado.
Sector Strategy in the Colorado Talent Development Network Video
2019 CO Talent Pipeline Report
2020 - 2023 CO State WIOA Plan
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career and Technical and Adult Education
Visit the CTE Showcase for more innovative strategies for building sustainable CTE skills!