Decoding the New Career Cluster Framework: What You Need to Know (October 2025)

Hi everyone, welcome to our ACT October professional development. This is for October 2025 and our topic for today is going to be decoding the new career cluster framework, talking about what you need to know as work-based learning professionals.

Before we get started, I wanted to make sure that you had some information about our upcoming webinars. So, if you would like to download our webinar series calendar, you can utilize that QR code that is on the slide and that will bring you to a list of all of the different registration links. Coming up next month, we will have a spotlight on law and public safety career cluster areas and work-based learning within those career cluster areas.

Jan, do you want to talk a little bit about this?

Yeah, if you um want to connect um with other work-based learning division members, we would love for you to join our work-based learning community of practice. This is a place where we can ask questions of each other, share resources and information. Um we're continuing to build this out and make it into a really robust area. It's still in its beginning stages now, but join so that you're right there um as we build things out. um you go to that that link there will take you to the page where you can um sign up and um if you're not a work-based learning division member join so that you can be part of that community of practice.

Great, and I just realized that I failed to introduce our myself and Miss Jan Jardine. You probably already know Miss Jan Jardine. She is our fearless leader, our division VP for work-based learning, and she was the one that just presented about the communities of practice. My name is Saf Espinosa, and I am your professional learning chair for the work-based learning division.

Jan, this is also you. Do you want to talk a little bit about the mentorship that'll happen after this in about 45 minutes here?

You bet. I was just going some asked for the link. There's the link that you can use right in the chat um to get going on that community of practice. Um if you've been with us for a while, we've um the last couple of years done some mentorship calls in the fall and just tried to help connect with folks and um share some short little tidbits and then um answer any questions or concerns that you're dealing with right at that moment. Um we've decided this year to um attach this mentorship um with our webinar. So you don't have to carve out one more time. You can just carve out one time and and you're going to get it all. Um, so after our presenter finishes today and we wrap up the official recorded webinar, we'll turn off the recording and then we'll open it up for a deeper dive into the topic of the current cluster framework and there'll also just be time for question and answer um for anything that you're dealing with right now that you um just would like some other help and support. So we'd love for you to stay on and join us. um that will be no more than 30 minutes after the webinar finishes, but we'll we'll stay on for at least that long um for people who need want to take advantage of that mentorship opportunity.

Thank you, Jan. So, we also have our work-based learning conference coming up and that will be April 29th through May 1st and it is going to be in Providence, Rhode Island. We hope you can join us. If you want to save the date or want additional information, please use that QR code to look at our National Workbased Learning Conference. And that's the National Workbased Learning Conference for ACTE.

Now, without further ado, um I would like to present our guest speaker of today. Our guest speaker is here from advanced CTE and he's going to be here talking to us about the new career cluster framework and those implications that it can have for work-based learning. Um, so Mr. Dan Hinteler, please do go ahead and I will turn it over to you.

Great. Thanks so much, Staff. I will share my screen. Um, welcome everyone. It's really great to be with you here today. My name is Dan Hinderlighter. I'm the associate director of state policy for advanced CTE. Um, and for the last year or so, we've been working on the implementation of the modernized career clusters framework. Um, so today I'm going to take you through kind of a quick overview of the framework as well as the implications for work-based learning. U more specifically, um, and as well as some of the pushes that we're really working with state leaders on to really make sure that the modernized framework can be implemented with fidelity in um, the respective states across the country. Um, one thing that I wanted to um, just let you all know ahead of time is that this model that I'm presenting today is a national model. However, every state is uh, able to adjust the framework as uh, they need to to be more respective of your state's industry, the needs of your learners, the needs of the the state's uh, educational priorities. So there might be some minor tweaks and changes that are being made to your state's career clusters framework uh versus this modernized national career clusters framework, and that is okay. Um, but you should check with your state to make sure that you have the most uh, up-to-date uh, state-specific information. I'm going to go through this pretty quickly today. Anything that you can find about the career clusters framework can be found on our website careerch.org/career-clusters, and I dropped that link in the chat. Um, if you have any questions as we go along, I will have a Q&A at the end. Um, but if you have specific questions, you can I'm I'm monitoring the chat, so feel free to add questions as I go along and I'll try to address them as they pop up.

If you're unfamiliar with advanced CTE, we are a national uh membership organization for state CTE leadership, uh, state CTE directors and their associate teams kind of across the country. Uh, we also, uh, wrap our arms around the entire CTE ecosystem. So we have employer members, we have associate members. Um, obviously there are folks from ACT who are members of advanced CTE as well. Um, we are also members of ACT. So we kind of bounce back and forth and kind of work collectively to make sure that we're uh in service of learners who are participating in high quality CTE uh programs across the country. Uh, and you should definitely check out our website if you haven't uh looked through it. We have a ton of resources in there um about work-based learning amongst a variety of other topics as well.

Um, I'd like to start our conversation today with a quotation from Kataden Jner, who is a former Skills USA national officer. Uh, he was part uh he was the learner representative for our national career clusters framework um national advisory group, and he gave this really great quotation about learner access and learner opportunity um that I think really sets the stage about the reasons why we decided to modernize the framework and some of the real pushes that we're hoping to make along the way. Uh, I'm not going to read it to you. You're all adults, so you can read it.

So, as we've been kind of working with the framework, um, we've really been thinking about this as a real opportunity to expand learner agency in the decision-making process about career tech ed futures, um, and about career futures more broadly. Um, I'll be talking about this in kind of three big three big buckets. Uh, particularly voice, choice, and opportunity. So voice is really about self-advocacy, making sure that learners have a seat at the table, can participate in discussions, and share their opinions about CTE more broadly and understanding the impacts that it has back on them. Um, choice is really about um making data-informed and educator-supported decisions about their future. Whether that's about the career pathway that they enroll in, the program of study that they participate in, which post-secondary CTE uh program they decide to uh enroll in after they graduate high school, which work-based learning opportunities they take advantage of, uh, and how those can really all work in concert with one another to maximize on the learner's decision-making. Um, and then last but not least, opportunity. Making sure that um a learner has the full breadth of opportunity that could be available to them through a variety of different course and pathways offerings, as well as how that instruction aligns with their interests and also with the uh employer and labor need for their particular region.

I'm going to go pretty quickly through an overview of the framework because I really want to dive into the meat of how the framework is implemented um and talk more specifically about the impacts on work-based learning. Um, if you have more specific questions about individual sections of the framework, um, you can drop those in the chat and I'll touch on them, or you can just go to our website uh via the QR code here, um, or the link that I dropped in the chat.

So, from the very beginning, we've been working utilizing this uh, purpose statement for the development of the modernized framework. Uh, this was approved by our board of directors as well as our state CTE directors. uh, and it really sets the tone for how we've been talking about the modernized framework, how we developed the framework, and really the purpose that we wanted to have for the foreseeable future. Uh, there are a couple of key parts that I wanted to highlight here as you can see in the different colors. Uh, the first is this real common language that bridges education and work. For too long, we've been kind of talking past each other, education and industry. Really thinking about what is the language that education is using that is the old career clusters framework versus the way that industry is describing itself. Talk about this a little bit more um a little bit later, but this modernized framework is very industry uh centered first and foremost. Um, it uses labor codes. It uses information that's been validated by industry. Um, and that's really to make sure that the language that we are using in education mirrors the language that industry is using to describe itself so that learners can enter into their career futures uh utilizing the language that industry is already using and the organizational principles that industry is using to organize itself.

The next part is that each learner. So we want the modernized framework to be applicable to every learner who participates in the CTE program regardless of geography, learner level, race, uh ethnicity, gender, uh whether or not they're a concentrator, whether or not they're a secondary learner, post-secondary learner, or adult CTE learner. Uh, so really any uh learner that wants to engage with the modernized framework has the opportunity to do so through the lens of their CTE program.

And then the last part of this is really this dynamic and evolving careers element. Uh, we when we were developing the modernized framework, we really developed it to encompass the entirety of the world of work. So thinking about any career opportunity that could be available for a learner, we want them to find a CTE pathway that could get them to that space. Maybe not necessarily directly, but we want them to be able to figure out which cluster, which subcluster, and how that might be operationalized through their education to access the career that they want and to not necessarily be futureproof, but to be uh wide enough so that any new careers that are available to learners can be added to the framework without completely upsetting the organizational principles that are embedded within.

Um, I'll also be talking about kind of three big impact areas as we're going through here. Um, one, we we've been using these kind of three different framings. Uh, the first is that it transforms pathways. I'll be talking a lot today about flexible pathways, how those can be um implemented in different school systems in different states uh, to really maximize on again that learner voice, choice, and opportunity that could be available. Um, and I think work-based learning is a huge part of that. Um, the next is systems, breaking down silos, sectors, disciplines, partners, learner levels. One thing you'll hear from me talk about over and over again is really that this modernized framework is far more interdisciplinary than ever before. And so as we're thinking about the ways that we want to incorporate high-quality work-based learning, um CTE uh initiatives more broadly, um dual enrollment opportunities, really giving learners the entire breadth of opportunity that could be available to them through their CTE program, we want to do that do so in a very interdisciplinary way that really reflects the modernity of the world of work um and looks at the opportunities that are available to them um through an entire uh lens rather than just through one narrow silo of a career pathway. And I'll be talking a little bit more about how that can be operationalized through things like the crosscutting career clusters um as well as more flexible pathway opportunities.

And the last but not least is transforming lives by preparing learners for all a of all ages and backgrounds for dynamic and high opportunity careers. Um, we think that all CTE has the opportunity to transform lives, but through the modernized framework in particular, we think there's a real opportunity to um innovate systems and make sure that they can be operationalized in a way that does act that is actually transformative.

Um, so as I mentioned before, the modernized framework provides an updated organizing framework for how we organize and deliver CTE more broadly that is more industry responsive. I'm not going to go into the full methodology. If you want a full technical report, you can download that from our website. Um, but we really involved quite a bit of industry engagement throughout this entire process of developing the modernized framework. Um, thinking about who was in part of the validation process, how they were engaged in the development itself, how we uh organized labor market codes both nationally and at the state level. Um, to really make sure it encompassed the entire breadth of the world of work. Um, everything that you can name that is a skilled and living wage career can be found somewhere in the career clusters framework. Because we really wanted to make sure that the framework was helping prepare learners for the jobs of their futures, not just the jobs that exist today.

So, if you look at the modernized uh career clusters framework, we call this our wheel model. Um, and there are a number of different layers to this wheel model. I'm going to go quickly through each of the layers so that we can dive into the meat of the framework. Uh, the first at the center of the framework are these career ready practices. Uh, the career ready practices, you might have heard them called 21st century skills. Uh, I hate soft skills because I think they're harder to learn than real than other technical skills are. Um, but those are the skills that should be embedded within the core of every single um, CTE program. Uh, every single work-based learning experience, every single capstone opportunity should all help a learner develop these career ready practices. These were also part of the original career clusters framework, but were updated and modernized as part of this process as well. We have 12 of them. Um, again, I'm not going to be I'm not going to read them all to you, but they do involve things like resilience, time and space management, creativity, and innovation. Uh, the normal things that you would exper.

Zooming out one layer, we have uh cluster groupings. These are kind of meta groups that are larger than the individual cluster to really help a learner see kind of the purpose of why they would enter into a given career and see which types of career clusters are embedded within that particular grouping. Um, so that kind of aligns more with their interests, their sense of purpose, and the impact that they want to have on their communities. So there are six of them: the building and moving, caring for communities, connecting and supporting success, which is the crosscutting career clusters, creating and experiencing, cultivating resources, and then investing in the future. And these are color-coded. So, if you look at the wheel diagram, you can see them correspond with the different sections of the wheel itself.

Zooming out one layer further, we have the career clusters. I'll dive into a little bit more about some of the major changes that we made as part of the modernization process. But the career clusters themselves are organized by industry sectors as defined by both the Standard Occupational Classification or the SOC codes, as well as the North American Industry Classification System or the NAICS codes. Uh, we used a mixed methodology there to utilize both the NAICS codes and the SOC codes to help do um a more comprehensive matching of how industry organizes itself at the federal level. Um, not every state is going to use every career cluster because they don't have the labor market to warrant a cluster in every career cluster uh in in every area, and that is okay. Um, but this cluster level is where states have historically used as the foundation for CTE program of study design. Um, and I'm sure it's the layer that you use most regularly. Um, it's also the kind of nomenclature that we use shorthand. We call it the the career clusters all the time. And you'll see these 14 here. Uh, I'm going to talk a lot more about the some of the specific changes that were made uh to think about what the updates really looked like.

Zooming out one level further, embedded within each of the career clusters, we have subclusters. Previously, these were career pathways. They are no longer career pathways, and that is something that I want to make explicitly clear as part of this process. The subclusters were not designed to be career pathways because we felt that for each subcluster, there could be one or more different career pathways embedded under each of them. So a given state might have three uh career pathways or programs of study that are embedded within a given subcluster. Other states might have zero care uh programs of study for a given subcluster. And that's okay. That indicates to them that either they don't have the labor market to warrant that program of study or they have some other type of uh program that's embedded maybe in post-secondary only that they can be reflected under that given um subcluster. What's important about the subclusters though is that again, they're not career pathways. We chose specifically not to use the career pathways framing uh because that framing has really taken a life of its own since the original career clusters framework was launched back in 2002, and we again, we didn't want to muddy the waters with our own uh individual organizational nuance about what a career pathway is and can be. So we decided to use the subclusters, again, indicating that they are embedded within each of the clusters.

And then last but not least, around the outside, we have three crosscutting career clusters. And I'm going to talk at length about this in a little bit. Each of the career clusters are unique because they are their own standalone career cluster, but they can also be contextualized within each of the other 13 career clusters. Um, these part these clusters in particular, we felt um kind of warranted this cross-landscape uh lens of how these could be implicated into each of the other industry areas and were not particularly unique to their own industry. Sometimes they are. So for example, like digital technology does have its own industry sector embedded within it. Obviously, management has its own careers associated with it as well. But we felt within industry, those could also be contextualized to be respective to that particular industry as well. And I'll talk about that again at length. Um, and again, those three crosscutting career clusters are digital technology, marketing and sales, and management and entrepreneurship. Uh, great question, Shireen. Drones are in digital technology. So you will find them across as one of the crosscut in embedded within one of the crosscutting career clusters.

So, some of the major changes that we made, again, nothing was removed from the modernized framework, only reorganized. So if you were thinking about, you know, maybe you were in um personal finance for under the old career clusters framework, and now you might find yourself in a simple finance program. Uh, other folks in the um energy or food energy and natural resources might have broken out into the energy and natural resources cluster. Others might be in agriculture. Um, so it really depends on where you find yourself. So if you can't find yourself, I encourage yourself to do some digging about where you might fit into the modernized framework. Again, we wanted to embrace the modernization of the entire world of work. So we expanded to the have the inclusion of energy. We included modern major industry focuses. So advanced technologies, automation, robotics, drones, for example. Um, and then we also broadened it the old IT cluster to be digital technology, again, to encompass the the breadth of careers and opportunities that are available under that entire sector. We also made this more reflective of individual industry sectors um as represented by a single entry point. So law and public safety, the old law public safety cluster, as well as the old government and public administration cluster were combined to a public uh public service and safety cluster. Uh, natural resources moved from agriculture to energy, and then we combined health sciences and and human services into a healthcare and human services se sector. Um, again, reflective of the way the industry was describing itself, but also representative of the entire holistic health of an entire community. Looking at not just um the physical health of a of individuals within that community, but also the behavioral and mental health, some of the other wellness supports that are embedded within that, including social work. And then we also dissolved the STEM cluster. So as we heard from industry, as we worked with different industry folks, they told us that STEM is really a lens through which you can embed a wide variety of different career sectors um and can and so there are STEM careers in every single industry sector um and so we felt we didn't want to um further silo STEM into its own career cluster um, but instead embed STEM more holistically into every single one of the career clusters. Um, so you will see STEM kind of dissolved and instead incorporated throughout the framework.

We also developed these crosscutting career clusters um and gave the opportunity for local flexibility based on state-level guidance, which is to say that a state is able to adjust this framework to be whatever they would like it to be um, as long as they are still reporting to the federal government based on this modernized framework. So they're going there are going to be updates that are made at the federal level. Um, but we are going to continue to work with states to figure out how reporting works um at that federal level as changes continue to be made to um the federal government as well as the reporting structure more broadly. Um, but we do uh have worked with many states who have already adjusted the framework to again be reflective of their local context.

So where we are at this po at this point in the process, a year after implementation, most states that we have talked to are adopting the framework with little customization or minor edits. So that might be a one-word here or there in the title of a cluster. Maybe they have a legacy program that they really wanted to be representative in a subcluster, so they incorporated that there. Um, but most states are adopting the framework wholesale. Um, being respective to the process, the years-long process that we went through to update the framework. Um, we did update the wheel design. So originally it was looked different. We have made mo uh modifications to it to the one that's on the website now and and in the presentation to be uh clearer about where those crosscutting clusters lie. We've worked with ONET to update and align to the modernized framework. So, if you're familiar with the ONET system, um, you can now sort and filter the ONET uh careers and use their career navigator as filtered by the modernized framework. We worked with the career technical student organization national organization um headquarters to align their competitions and programs to the framework. I have a slide in here about where they've identified themselves. If you want to see a much more holistic uh look at that alignment, there is a a resource on our website about aligning the CTSOs to the modernized framework. We are still currently in the process of developing new resources for state leaders. So, we're working right now on a policy tool. We're working on some um model templates for potential programs of study. A a number of other tools that we're kind of looking forward to. But we've been working on this process again for over a year. So, as we're thinking about the um other things that we want to build and develop as part of this process, we do have an open call for resources on our website. So, you can request a resource to be developed. Uh, we can't guarantee that every resource that is requested through that form will be developed. It's really just dependent on um what need arises from our state and local leaders to make sure that we are um developing the resources that are most requested first and are most needed by the field.

And then last but not least, starting this fall, um, states are required to start collecting Perkins 5 data for the 2027 Department of Education Consolidated Annual Report, um, or the CAR, based on the current career clusters. So, uh, if states were still utilizing the old framework, um, they still do need to start reporting um, starting this collecting data starting this school year to be reported in uh, January 2027.

So, how some states are doing this in practice um, and these are some examples from states that are participating in our we have a co a cohort of early adopters as well as a community of practice of state leaders that have been kind of working on the implementation over the past year or so. So Montana is designing a cross-agency alignment between their secondary and post-secondary systems to really drive connection between those agencies through the lens of the career clusters. Nebraska has developed a comprehensive implementation plan with multiple cross-sector groups um to really think about how they've engaged the field more holistically as well as making sure that they have a really strategic way of working through their timeline, making sure they're checking every box, making sure they're crossing every T and dotting every I, um, and making sure that that uh makes sense for them. Um, South Dakota is has developed some color-coded marketing um as corresponding to the modernized framework. They have a rebrand um with some ombre um that looks at the blending of clusters together and some of those industry sectors. New Mexico is has developed new programs of study that they uh saw had gaps looking at the modernized framework and they revised their existing programs of study with realigned post-secondary opportunities. They have a really nice wheel diagram that shows all of their programs of study and then how that connects to post-secondary for each of those programs. Um, Delaware is looking at revising their labor market analyses to reveal gaps in program delivery. So using the crosswalks that we've developed, really understanding of how this um plays out in practice. Um, and then Kansas is also developing their own internal statewide crosswalks for program connection and data reporting, looking at those um SIP codes, the SOC codes that are used for data reporting more more broadly. Um, Sophia, I see your question. I will get to that at the end.

So, as part of the uh framework, we've really implemented these mo these crosscutting career clusters, again, reflecting how interdisciplinary the world of work is more than it ever has been before, and how that can be in uh more fully implemented in the classroom. Um, and we think that the crosscutting career clusters is one avenue through which work-based learning can really prove a value to significantly added value to a CTE program of study. Um, and I'll show you a couple of examples of that as we move forward through this section here. Um, a couple of months ago, I did a presentation um for the state of New York and I looked at Northwell Health, which is the largest employer in the state of New York. Um, and Northwell Health is of course a healthcare delivery company. They provide a lot of healthcare um and supervised hospitals across the state and across the larger region. So, I went to their website and pulled a number of uh careers from their open postings that were embedded under what we would classify digital technology, management and entrepreneurship, and marketing and sales. And so, you can see these different types of careers as organized by those three crosscutting career clusters. But what's really important and really interesting about each of the job postings for these various career opportunities is that every single one of these roles had knowledge of healthcare, patient services, or other industry-specific information as a preferred qualification for those careers. So even though these careers could be found in the crosscutting career clusters, it was important to in order to be hired by Northwell Health that they had some sort of contextualized understanding of how those uh types of opportunities could be leveraged in a healthcare setting. And we'll we'll show a couple of different examples of how this can be further operationalized. But we think for capstone examples, but we we think for work-based learning, there's a real opportunity to help learners really see these types of crosscutting career opportunities in practice. Um, to really make sure they understand that they don't need to just know about healthcare. They need to know about digital technology through the lens of healthcare. They want to know about marketing and sales. They need to know how that's contextualized in a given industry sector in order to get a leg up in that given industry sector.

Another example of this, we kind of look at this in two different ways. Learner A and Learner B. So Learner A loves working with drones and he's taken two courses, one in drone technology, one in programming. But given the understanding of how to use drones, how to operate drones, he really wanted a more contextualized application for drones. So he took an a a capstone that involved a work-based learning experience with an agricultural surveying company to really help understand how those drones can be leveraged in an agricultural setting. Learner B, on the other hand, she grew up in a rural community. She wants to be a farmer. Her f, you know, comes from a long line of farmers. But given the modernity of the agriculture field, she really wants to know how drones could be used to help improve her agricultural techniques to help um build more revenue for her family farm. So, she takes a drone technology course. Because she took those courses, she was then able to see to use the same capstone as Learner A, but from a different entry point. So Learner A comes at it from the digital technology side, looking at the contextualization of digital technology into agriculture. Learner B used the crosscutting cluster as an add-on to her a uh experience to help understand how one of those crosscutting clusters, again, could be contextualized in the agriculture space. So, I think this is a really great opportunity to think about how work-based learning could really be um a nexus point for learners to think about how they could broaden their career exploration, really understand the breadth of careers that are available to them, and really understand what other types of opportunities they could get into. Um, thinking about again, the contextualization of their of their education into their career field of their choice.

Some other potential use cases of this include capstone courses or work-based learning in entrepreneurship, data science, or market research that could count towards any program of study. There are already states that are working on this to look at just a capstone in general and thinking about how a learner might be able to design their own capstone experience. Um, there could be flexibility in courses in a given career cluster that can or should be taught across multiple clusters. So for example, welding has contextualized applications in a wide variety of different experiences. So how could a learner in a welding program of study have a contextualized application across agriculture, supply chain and transformation, transportation, um advanced manufacturing, and really understand how to contextualize their welding experience into a variety of industry sectors. And then last but not least, and we'll talk about this um in more detail in a second, these really integrated programs of study that draw across the career clusters and combine the crosscutting career clusters with one of the others. So at the intersection of digital technology and advanced manufacturing, you might find an integrated program of study for artificial intelligence and robotics. Or at the intersection of arts, entertainment, and design and marketing and sales, you might find media production and advertising. So there's a real opportunity to think about what those interdisciplinary programs of study might look like and how those could be operationalized.

Some other ways that states are looking at this in practice. So North Carolina is using the digital technology crosscutting cluster to help fulfill a computer science graduation requirement for all of their learners. So they're incorporating that into each of their programs of study. California is implementing focus areas into their different pathways that correspond to the crosscutting career clusters. So for example, if a learner who's interested in um the uh the business side of filmmaking, so thinking about those those understandings, or in the um digital technology side of filmmaking, so they can kind of choose a focus area depending on their given pathway. Um, Iowa is leveraging the crosscutting content in their exploratory and early CTE courses. So really helping think about it from the career exploration standpoint, um thinking about how if a learner is interested in again, agg, they might find careers in each of those crosscutting career clusters. Um, and then last but not least, again, Delaware is maximizing on the incorporation of project-based learning for those crosscutting courses to support contextualized instruction. So a learner who's in an a pathway, for example, um might think about projects that correspond to digital technology throughout the course of their entire a program of study.

So, some other areas for impact and innovation, again, returning to this framing, we really want to make sure that learners have the opportunity to share their interests, to talk about what uh opinions they have about their futures, really choose what is uh right and best for them and their families, and have the opportunity to do so. So all of these kind of conditions have to be in place in order to make this happen. I have a link here. We do have a full resource. I'll drop the link in the chat um that corresponds to each of these uh different areas. Again, I'm not going to go into all of these in specific detail. There are quite a few examples in the publication that I just linked. Um, but we think that there's a real opportunity to expand uh pathways to be much more flexible and interdisciplinary, more personalized for learners, to really make sure that the interests that they have and the careers that they want to have are accessible through their CTE education. That could include an interdisciplinary approach where again, we're combining two career clusters or multi or more than two career clusters to have a a course sequence that corresponds to how an industry in a given localized area might have a specific program of study that more specifically caters to guiding learners towards careers with that um industry sector. That's particularly popular in areas like biotechnology that might incorporate learning from agriculture, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare, all combined into a single program of study. U there's an adaptive approach, which is a single entry point um where learners might have a common first course and then they kind of choose from an option of two or three or four uh second courses, and then maybe they come back together for a collective capstone. Um, you could also think of this as kind of a major-minor approach. So they might like major, if you will, in agriculture and then maybe minor in digital technology. Um, so there's kind of operation uh more operationalized opportunities for that. Uh, and then last but not least, a fully personalized approach to help a learner um design, with guidance from a work-based learning coordinator, an advising professional, um, a more independent study model, if you will, to help really understand how this could be personalized to meet their own independent needs.

So again, thinking about this, what what this means for work-based learning, hopefully you've picked up on a couple of these pieces as I've gone along. The first is that really interdisciplinary experiences are not just okay, they're encouraged. As we're expanding the what's uh necessary to prepare learners for the future of the world of work for careers of their choice, we want to make sure that we're giving them opportunities that expand on that interdisciplinary nature and really expose them to those transferable skills, to how those career ready practices could be embedded within any career of their choice. Uh, we think there's a real uh opportunity to expand career exploration and development outside of their cluster to help them understand the connections between their clusters and other sectors. If you think if you look at the data, um, there's not really good data about how many learners enter into careers that correspond to their secondary programs of study. But if you look at the limited data, uh very few secondary learners in a program of study enter into that uh corresponding career pathway once they graduate from uh their secondary or post-secondary um degree pathway. So we really want to make sure that they can leverage a variety of career opportunities that could be available to them. We also think that this is an opportunity to expand more intentional career advising that's aligned with learner interest, not just with what the state or the district uh says the pathway requires. And then last but not least, I we can and should think more creatively about employer engagement. So really thinking about um an employer who might not necessarily be say an agger, but can leverage agriculture-oriented um instruction and technical skill into say drone technology. Or vice versa. An a student might take a capstone or a work-based learning experience with a drone technology company, a little bit out of the box for an A student thinking more traditionally, but under the modernized framework, really giving them that experience to think more broadly about those contextualized applications of their learning into a variety of experiences.

We also understand that the CTSOs are a connected part of this. I'm sure many of you might be CTSO advisors as well. We did work with the CTSOs to identify which career clusters they felt the most connected with. Again, this is in that resource on our website about the CTSOs. Um, but you can see many of them, for example, SkillsUSA has selected every single career cluster that they correspond with. Um, so there might be opportunity to expand their work-based learning, their employer engagement through the lens of their CTSO as well.

Last but not least, we think that there's a couple of things that you may want to consider as you're thinking about expanding your work-based learning opportunities, understanding delivery uh of content and guidance. Who should be communicated and consulted with? Where do you all collectively fit into the overall strategy of this process? Um, building a roadmap for implementation. So, having short-term goals about how you might want to pilot this with a couple of students and then thinking more holistically about how this might expand to your entire district. Um, and then last but not least, identifying your policy priorities. If you're working at the district level, um, if you if you sit on state-level advisory boards, you might want to identify what some of those priorities are for your state to really make sure that they are reflective of the needs of learners rather than the interests of the adults in the room.

And I'll go through this really quickly. Again, you can find all of our framework resources on our website. And if you ever have any specific questions about the implementation of the career clusters, you can always email careerclusters@care.org. That is a much faster way to get a response and it helps us collect all of our career clusters related questions into a consolidated space. Um, I did see some questions in the chat, so I'm going to go to those first. Um, and then if you have any other specific questions, feel free to adjust those and adapt them.

All right. So, um, what credentials are needed to teach courses in the crosscutting areas? So, that's uh a state-by-state decision. Um, our thought on this is that any stu any educator who is uh has the experience and the skills to teach a given course should be eligible to teach that course through their state policy. So whether that means expanding the licensure opportunities for that uh in for that instructor, whether that means adding on some sort of um endorsement or additional uh expansion to their license, there there's a lot of models already out there for how a state can do that. Um, we actually have a publication on our website about expanding teacher certification and licensure through the modernized framework. Um, but we really at the core think that if a instructor has the skills and experience and background uh to be able to teach a given course for a learner, they should be able to do that. I'm thinking particularly about entrepreneurship. So for example, if an uh someone who teaches an A has an A license but runs their own A business, they should be able to teach entrepreneurship if they have the experience and skill set to teach that type of course. Um, and they can teach entrepreneurship to any student that wants to take entrepreneurship, not just the ones who are in an AG program of study. Um, so there's a lot of opportunities to do that.

Um, do you think the crosscutting thought process will expand past the three designated as crosscutting? That's a really great question. I hope so. Um, I think that there is a lot of opportunity to think about the intersection of two uh career clusters. Really understanding what the Venn diagram of uh programs of study might look like. Um, I think that there's a real avenue to explore um how programs of study are co-taught, how they can leverage um communal resources for a given district, how they can utilize employers creatively um through the intersection of some of those career clusters um, particularly in areas that say have um high industry in semiconductor manufacturing. How can they leverage the experiences in supply chain and transformation, transportation, uh digital technology, and uh advanced manufacturing to create a semiconductor manufacturing program of study that guides learners directly into that um those career opportunities for that given area. So yes, I do think that the crosscutting thought process will eventually expand past um, and we're hoping that as we talk to state leaders more about expanding their approval processes for programs of study, thinking about uh the comprehensive local needs assessment and how those are utilized in a creative way, um, that there's a lot more opportunity for some flexibility and personalization of pathways that do create uh the intersecting points for multiple clusters.

Um, how do we make more how do we make pathways more flexible and still meet reporting requirements for Perkins? Great question. Um, this is one that a lot of states are uh kind of reckoning with. Our response to this is again, it's up to the state to determine how they are coding their data. Um, but we think for the most part, most courses can and should be coded under multiple programs of study. For example, welding is a really great example. If a learner takes a welding class, if a even if it's instructed by say a construction educator, that shouldn't count for a construction program of study if the learner is in an AG pathway. So that should count for their AG program of study, even if it's taught by a different uh different instructor. So we think that there's a lot of opportunity to think more creatively about course coding, about the way that uh different uh courses are uh included as part of a program of study to make sure that they are uh continued to be uh counted as a concentrator or if your state uses a completer metric um as a completer of a program of study. Uh, that answers Safer's other question about the definitions of a completer or concentrator. Also, um, I think that's all the specifics.

Does teaching count does teaching the subject count as an experience? That is up to the specific state. Um, depending on the uh the industry sector, many states require some sort of in-the-field experience. Uh, we are huge proponents of teacher externships, teacher opportunities where you can get additional upskilling to get the most recent industry knowledge. We're also uh huge fans of visiting educator models and other models that allow for instructors from industry to come directly into the classroom. Uh, so we think that there's um opportunity to kind of expand how teacher licenses. However, I do want to caveat that by saying that we still feel that even though there's flexibility in teacher licensure and teacher certification, that all instructors have to be of quality. So whatever that means for a particular state, we still want there to be some sort of quality measure for how uh an instructor is developing their pedagogy, their classroom management, as well as their um conveying the technical skill that they need to be aware of for that particular program of study.

Any other questions, thoughts, ideas?

Thank you so much, Dan. I think you've really given us a lot to think about and a lot of great information. I knew a little bit coming in here about uh the career cluster framework and what that was going to look like, but, you know, wheels were turning in my brain while you were talking. And I just, you know, I I posted a few questions, but then I wrote down a few more that um I think I'm going to be exploring and thinking about as this comes out. So if we have any other questions, I would say post them in the chat. Other than that, we will um shortly be moving to our communities of practice mentoring section. So I not communities of practice, but our work-based learning mentoring section. But I did want to yet again thank you so much, Dan, for sharing that. Thank you for the time from Advanced CTE um for allowing us to to borrow you for the afternoon. Um, and I'm going to share my screen and also share with you some information right before um we end this section on.

Can I just plug one more thing, Staff, for you?

Oh, absolutely.

We will actually have quite a few advanced CTE staff members at ACT Vision in December. Um, and we have a number of sessions that correspond to both the career clusters as well as flexible pathways. We have a session on credentials of value. Um, so if there's any specific things um, make sure you take a look at the entire um synopsis so you can see if there are any advanced CTE folks that you want to see a session from, including myself.

Wonderful. Thank you so much.

Yep. Absolutely. Thanks for the invitation.

Absolutely. So, we wanted to share with you real quick. Um, please do submit your nominations for the work-based learning professional of the year award. Uh, this is sponsored by You Science Brightpath, and the QR code is right here. So, I'll give you a second for that. And I believe Jan might be sharing that link also in the chat. Um, or or maybe she's working to do that right now. While she's doing that, I will just put up again, if you want to join us for some of our other webinars, the QR code to download the entire U webinar series codes is right here on the screen. So you can either choose an individual session or you can download the whole calendar and sign up for the sessions as you are able.

And then I'm going to turn it over to Jan to start our deeper dive and our mentoring session. For those of you who are not going to be staying for that, thank you so very much. Dana, we can stop the recording so that we can move on to the mentoring.