15th Annual Integrated Learning School to Career Conference

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15th AnnualIntegrated Learning - School to
Career Conference

• Other Ways to Win
• Counseling Teens in Uncertain Times
• Kenneth Gray
• Professor of Workforce Education and Development
• Penn State University

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Uncertain Times

• The new Gilded Age
• Decline in wages of BA graduates
• Growth of Gray Collar workers
• Growth of off-shoring of jobs
• Growth of high skill but low wage work.

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Obstacle 1The One Way to Win Paradigm

• Get a four year college degree
• 98 agree, 72 plan on grad school
• In order to insure economic success
• Three of top 4 reasons for going to college
• In the professional ranks
• Professional/manageral 65 Technical 6

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The Other Way to Win Message

• The one way to win philosophy is nonsense. It
  insures the majority of teens will fail.
• There are Other Ways to Win. Technical
  education is a better way for many from the
  academic middle.
• All students should go on to postsecondary
  education when and if they can benefit from the
  experience.
• Students who are at risk of dropping out or who
  will go to work after graduation are just as
  important as the baccalaureate bound.
• The traditional academic program alone is not
  likely to serve well many students from the
  academic middle.
• CTE is to some student what AP/honors is to
  others.

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The Fate of 24 Pennsylvania Elementary School
Children

• 5 drop out (23)
• 10 graduates go to work (53) only 22 get any
  formal on-the-job training.

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The Fate of 24 Pennsylvania Elementary School
Children

• 5 Drop out (23)
• 10 Graduate go to work (53)
• 9 Enroll in college (47)
• 2 Drop out freshman year (21)
• 5 Graduate in five years (60)
• 2 Take gray collar jobs, nationally (40).
• Only 3 win the one way to win game

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Employment of University Graduates2000-2012

• Supply Demand
  Employed
• University Grads 1,324,000 730,400 55
• Only 12 of all jobs require just a BA degree
  (Dept of labor projections to 2012).

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Financial Aide
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Obstacle 2 Fundamental Fears Misconceptions

• A college degree is today what a high school
  diploma was before.
• There will be so many with a university degree
  that they will take all the good jobs.

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Fundamental Fears Misconceptions

• College grads earn more than others. It must be
  because they have a college degree.
• Education explains less than 10 of earnings
• Extreme wealth at the top distorts truth.
• 26 BA grads earn less than HS grads
• 21 HS grads earn more than BA grads
• 83 of associate degree holders have same median
  annual earnings a 4-yr grad.
• (Thurow, Ulreich,NYT, 1/17/05)

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Obstacle 4Labor Market Misconceptions.

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1. The High Skills/High Wage Workplace
Semi-conductor Manufacturing
Ratio 1 to 2 to 7
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2. Labor Market Projections Can be Misleading

• Opportunity is greatest in occupations where
  demand exceeds supply.
• Fast growing,slow growing and even net job loss
  may or may not mean opportunity.

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Shortages of Technicians

• There will be 100,000 more jobs for computer
  technicians than computer engineers.
• While construction trades employment is predicted
  to grow only by 13 retirement of older workers
  results in a net demand of over two million jobs
  from 2000 to 2010

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Among high-tech industries - those with a high
proportion of scientists, engineers, and
Technicians, are projected to grow
rapidly Source Hecker, Monthly Labor Review
(July 2005), p. 57.
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3. Occupational Skill not Degrees Provide Labor
Market Advantage
High Skill/ High Wage

Occupational Skills
Academic Skills
Work Ethic Work Ethics
Low Skill/ Low Wage
Other Ways to Win
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What Types of Employees are Expected to Be in
Short Supply Over the Next Years?
Source 2005 Skills Gap Report A Survey of the
American Manufacturing Workforce by National
Association of Manufacturing
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Types of Skills Workers Will Need in the Future
(NAM. 2006)
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Obstacle 5Widespread Career Immaturity

• The Need to Help Teens
• Get Real

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Today Success Requires

• Appropriate Academic skills
• Career Direction
• Few Graduate with Both

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Where High School Seniors Expect to be Employed
Occupations All Seniors
Males
Females Professional 59.0
49.3 68.8 Manager
6.0
6.6
5.4 Craft/Precision manufacturing/
2.8 5.3
0.3 Specialized repair Technicians
6.0
8.4 3.7 Source
U.S. Department of Education

Other Ways to Win
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Consequences of Indecision

• Many colleges now have prerequisites required for
  entering college majors.
• 50 seniors change their career goal in 18 months
• One quarter of those who start at a four year
  institution transfer.
• One third of those who enter two year colleges
  intending on transferring to a university, do so.
  Of these, only one third graduate in six years..
  success rate 11.

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Parents

• National surveys suggest most parents welcome
  help with college/career planning.
• The majority of parents do not want their
  children to do what they do for work.

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All my life Ive always wanted to be somebody,
but I see now I should have been more
specific.
Wagner, 1986
Other Ways to Win
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Old Advice that is Now Bad Advice

• Postpone career choices as long as possible - You
  dont want to close any doors.
• Do not worry about career/college major
  indecision - you will decide that in college.

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Creating Other Ways to Win Career Guidance

• By the tenth grade all students will have
  participated in activities designed to help them
  identify several career options.
• In the eleventh and twelfth grades all students
  will participate in activities that allow them to
  verify these choices, using the results to
  develop postsecondary plans.

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Career Verification Activities Preferred by Teens
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Student Outcomes Goals of Career Development
Programs

• Help teens make the best career decision they can
  based on what they know now about themselves
  and the world of work.
• If this is a good decision, the next decision
  will be even better.

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Summary

• Half of all teens in PA either drop out or go to
  work after high school graduation.
• There are other ways to win
• There will be more opportunity at technician
  level occupations. 1-2-7
• Career maturity is as important as academic
  maturity.

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• CTE
• Is to Some Teens
• What
• AP Honors
• Is To others.

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(No Transcript)