The America Forward Education Task Force’s Career and Technical Education Working Group has collectively developed its Career and Technical Education Policy Platform for the 115th Congress that outlines the priorities we believe are necessary to open doors that create multiple pathways and support individuals who seek additional training, credentials or credit hours to achieve their career goals, and equip them with the skills for the jobs of today and the future. These priorities are outlined below.
Preferences and incentivizes should be given, when awarding grant funding, to partnerships that include local education agencies and institutions of higher education and to programs that serve the highest need jurisdictions and allow individuals to receive post-secondary credit while in high school.
The role of businesses—for profit and nonprofit—is critical in developing programs of study in order to accurately reflect the economic needs of individual communities and states should be authorized and incentivized to allocate funding based on the development and implementation of partnerships that involve the business sector.
Programs of study should provide individuals with work-based learning opportunities and support should be provided to work experience through social enterprise, internships, national service, and other ‘bridge building’ opportunities that help develop work-ready skills.
Innovation funds, Pay for Success initiatives, and evidence-based grantmaking structures should be key elements in federal policy related to career and technical education.
While keeping in mind privacy and security protections, data should be readily collected and analyzed against a common set of performance measures in order to measure the success of post-secondary programs in awarding and renewing competitive grant funds.