This year the CTE Plan Action Team committed to providing quarterly updates on progress being made to implement the Alaska CTE Plan (http://www.alaskacteplan.com/).
Each update will provide:

• A new focus for the quarter as a “Call to Action”
  
• “Alaska CTE Plan Update” – what progress has been made to implement the plan
  
• A “Celebrate Success” story featuring an Alaska CTE program, practice, or person(s)
  
• “Other CTE Highlights”

Click here or on the graphic above to view or download the current update as a one-page PDF.

We hope you will join us this quarter in doing what you can to further implement CTE in our state, especially connected to our state workforce development plans. Thank you for your support, and remember, CTE is Learning that Works for Alaska!

Sincerely,
The CTE Plan Action Team

The national Americorps program has announced a grant funding opportunity open to the following eligible applicants:
tribal governments; local governments of U.S. cities, counties or towns; school boards; state service commissions; and quasi-governmental organizations such as Councils of Governments and non-profit regional development authorities including park, housing, or economic development authorities.

The BP Alaska Process Technology scholarship application is now available. Please visit the scholarship website for more details and to download the application.

DOLWD grant solicitations will be publicized through the GovDelivery notification service as well as the Alaska Online Public Notice system. Please sign up for one or both of these notification services in order to ensure you receive timely announcements of DOLWD grant opportunities!

Highlighted today on our Celebrate Success page - Glenallen develops hydroponic program; students grow and sell veggies, meet with USDA Secretary.  Read the entire article here.

Where will the jobs be between now and 2022?  Which industries will grow the most? What jobs will pay the most?  How much postsecondary training is needed for the top jobs? The table below shows that most of Alaska's Top Jobs require postsecondary training - but not all of them require a 4-year degree!
Read the entire issue of Trends here.

New research from Harvard Business School reports that 69 percent of human resources executives believe “their inability to attract and retain middle-skills talent frequently affects their firm’s performance.” 

The report states "The market for middle-skills jobs—those that require more education and training than a high school diploma but less than a four-year college degree—is consistently failing to clear. That failure is inflicting a grievous cost on the competitiveness of American firms and on the standard of living of American workers. How can business lead the charge to close the gap?"

Read the report and its recommendations for educators, business leaders, and policymakers.

Prepared by Citrus College in California, this 9-minute video talks about preparation for the realities of tomorrow's labor market, and speaks to making informed decisions about postsecondary options, early exploration of career choices, and the need for technical skills.

Direction and Motion Graphics: Brian Y. Marsh brianymarsh.com
Written and Narrated by: Kevin Fleming teloses.com

The complete transcription of the video with data references is available here: citruscollege.edu/academics/cte/Pages/default.aspx

The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS), the precision manufacturing industry’s premier standards and certification body, and the Gene Haas Foundation (GHF), have teamed up to support a new grant opportunity to help schools prepare more students for success in precision manufacturing careers.

The GHF-NIMS Credentialing Grant will provide eligible secondary and post-secondary institutions with grants to build high-quality technical programs by providing funding to support implementation of industry-recognized credentials.  Eligible institutions must not currently offer NIMS credentials.  The grant has launched with a $100,000 investment from the GHF.

With an estimated 99,500 projected job openings for machinists and 117,100 projected job openings for industrial maintenance technicians nationally through 2020, we need to ensure individuals are learning the proper skills to enter into high-paying, lifelong career pathways.  

We ask that you please consider sharing this opportunity with your networks, school administrators and instructors.  In order to apply, there is a very short, simple online application available.

Follow this link to access the online application.

Proposals are due by December 1, 2014.

For more information or should you have any questions, please contact me at mstover@nims-skills.org or at (703) 352-4971.

Melanie Stover
Director of Strategic Initiatives
National Institute for Metalworking Skills, Inc. (NIMS)

Alaska’s Statewide Library Electronic Doorway (SLED) offers a wide variety of test preparation, practice tests, and a wealth of information about preparing for life after high school, all at no charge to Alaskans.

Peterson’s Test Preparation Packages give students practice tests and resources for many of the assessments they may take, including WorkKeys, PSAT, SAT, PLAN, ACT, GED, CLEP, ASVAB, TOEFL, civil service tests, PRAXIS, and more.

Also included are checklists for students and parents for each year of high school, a scholarship search, career-specific practice tests, a virtual career library, and a wide variety of other resources and information.

Visit http://sled.alaska.edu/databases/az.html#T, and click on "Testing and education Reference Center to get started.  You may be asked to establish an account before accessing some of the resources, but that is a quick and simple process - remember, it's available at no charge to Alaska residents!

Download a new "What is CTE" Fact Sheet from the National Association of State CTE Directors.  Great overview of CTE plus quick facts about the value of CTE.   Download and print the PDF fact sheet here or click on the graphic.







This makes a good companion piece to our own Alaska high school CTE fact sheet posted here last week (http://www.alaskacteplan.com/news/spotlight-on-high-school-cte-in-alaska).

Two great resources for youth safety in CTE programs and in the workplace!


1.  NIOSH offers Youth@Work: Talking Safety, a foundation curriculum in occupational safety and health. This curriculum is the culmination of many years’ work by a consortium of partners dedicated to reducing occupational injuries and illnesses among youth. This curriculum is meant to be used in a classroom or other group training setting. The entire curriculum includes instructions for teachers and a step by step guide for presenting the material. For details and to download all the curriculum and resources, see http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/talkingsafety/states/ak/.




2.  Alaska's Youth Employment and Safety Program is a youth outreach program that aims to teach young people about workplace safety. At no cost to schools, an AKOSH youth trainer conducts safety presentations and training exercises at middle schools and high schools statewide.

For more information on the program, contact Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Youth Safety at 800-656-4972, email the Youth Training Coordinator at Elaine.Banda@Alaska.Gov, or visit the website at http://labor.alaska.gov/lss/oshhome.htm. 

The goal of the CareerSafe Professional Development Program (CPDP) is to enhance all educators’ knowledge of workplace and classroom safety. It achieves this not only by providing youth-focused, interactive training to students, but also by providing teachers with the resources and tools they need to facilitate effective integration of the training resources into the secondary and post secondary curricula. Completing the CPDP will also provide teachers with individual school sponsored professional development credits which can be applied to their annual State requirements.  Please review your state approved hours.

The CPDP is designed for teachers, administrators and others within the educational community responsible for creating a safety mindset. Printable Course Description (pdf)

Course Prerequisite: Must complete either the CareerSafe OSHA 10-Hour General Industry Training or the CareerSafe OSHA 10-Hour Construction Industry Training prior to purchasing the CareerSafe Professional Development Program.

More at http://www.careersafeonline.com/index.php/professional-development-plan.

Since FY2012, the Alaska legislature has provided $625,000 annually for implementation of the CTE Plan through competitive grants to school districts, postsecondary institutions, and non-profit organizations, to enhance existing CTE programs or implement new ones. These grants include a requirement for business partners to be involved, as well as requiring use of Personal Learning and Career Planning, an important foundation of the CTE Plan. 

Grant projects have supported a variety of programs and projects across the state, including health science programs of study in rural Alaska, construction training for incarcerated women, upgrading of CTE facilities, industry certification programs for high school students, a summer academy in community public safety, and development of a digital design and fabrication program. 

For details about all grant projects, please visit 
http://www.alaskacteplan.com/dolwd-cte-grants.html. 

The application for FY16 CTE Plan Grants will be published in early 2015.

For more information on this year's CTE and other state workforce development grants, please see the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development website at http://labor.state.ak.us/bp/workforce_investments/. 

Teachers John Niebergall and Randy Hughey, along with students, other teachers, and business partners, talk about the digital design and fabrication program and the impact it has had on students and local businesses.

Collaborative Digital Design at Sherwood and Sitka High Schools from Rhino Tutorials on Vimeo.

The Alaska School Counselor Association is hosting its annual conference November 11-15, 2014, at the Anchorage Downtown Marriott.  For full conference details, please visit the conference website at http://www.alaskaschoolcounselor.org/page/conference-info. 

Students, parents, and educators - learn more about the Alaska Performance Scholarship at a webinar hosted by the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development and the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education. Upcoming dates are November 4 and December 9, 2014. 

Please visit this webpage - http://acpe.alaska.gov/STUDENT-PARENT/Grants_Scholarships/Alaska_Performance_Scholarship -  to register for a free webinar!