Designing Statewide Strategies & Programs

Designing Statewide Career Development Strategies & Programs
rigorous evaluation, or an “evidence-based
practice” (National Secondary Transition
Technical Assistance Center, 2015).
Communication and Marketing Materials:
To support career development implementation
efforts, states should also develop
communication and marketing materials tailored
to specific stakeholders. Audience centric
materials are necessary because what is
relevant to one group may be less relevant to
another. Materials should accurately describe
and clearly highlight the importance of career
development programming and its anticipated
benefits for both youth and providers.
Colorado, for example, has created both
fact sheets and presentation materials to describe
their Individual Career and Academic
Plan (ICAP) initiative (Colorado Community
College System, 2010). The Wisconsin Department
of Public Instruction has a portion
of its website dedicated to Academic and
Career Planning (ACP). The ACP Resources
section offers multimedia resources related
to communication and messaging, including
audience-specific documents, PowerPoint
presentations, and videos. These resources
showcase the student-centered nature of
engaging youth in career development (academic
and career planning) through ILPs. In
addition, stakeholders can subscribe to the
WI ACP Updates email list.
An excellent example of tailoring materials to
a specific stakeholder audience is the Minneapolis
Public Schools’ Web-based Marketing
pilot program which provides information
geared specifically to students and families
about STEM engagement and student workbased
learning opportunities. Communication
materials for the business community
should focus on helping employers become
aware of the value of offering work-based
learning opportunities for youth as well as
provide guidance and resources to assist
prospective employers. Wisconsin provides
employers with a range of information related
to youth apprenticeship to support their
engagement in offering paid work-based apprenticeship
experiences (State of Wisconsin
Department of Workforce Development,
n.d.a). In order to ensure that the experience
focuses on developing employability skills,
Wisconsin also provides an Apprenticeship
Flow Chart which describes the roles and expectations
for both the employer and mentor
in supporting student apprentices (State
of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development,
n.d.b).
Given that many of the benefits youth derive
from career development are accrued
through self-exploration and career exploration,
it is important that the communication
materials that states develop explain
that providing youth with these opportunities
enables them to define their own career
and life goals which in turn enhances and
strengthens their engagement. Furthermore,
creation of a personalized development plan
that links both education and work-based
learning experiences should be promoted
35