By the 10th grade, students will have participated in career exploration activities to identify potential career pathways. In 11th and 12th grades, students will engage in activities to verify their choices and develop postsecondary plans. While parents may be ambivalent about career guidance, teens prefer hands-on activities like job shadowing and internships to explore options. Promoting career pathways can help more students graduate and pursue further education or careers aligned with labor market needs.

1. Educating for Careers CA Career Pathways Consortia 2009 Career Pathways Solving Quiet Dilemmas in California

7. Occupational Skills -Not Degrees- Provide Labor Market Advantage High Skill/ High Wage Low Skill/ Low Wage Work Ethics Academic Skills Occupational Skills

8. The fact is that large numbers of CA college graduates leave school as unsure of what they will do “when they grow up” (except perhaps continue to go to school) as they were when they started. How CA Postsecondary Education Systems Address Workforce Development (2007). CA Postsecondary Education commission

9. All my life I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific. Wagner, 1986 Other Ways to Win

10. Career Verification Activities Preferred by Teens Job Shadowing 71% Vocational Education 56% Internships 64% Unpaid employment 51% Paid employment 61% Guest speakers 36% Career focused academic class 60% Career interest inventories 17%

19. The High Skills/High Wage Workplace Semi-conductor Manufacturing Ratio: 1 to 2 to 7

23. The High Skills/High Wage Workplace 30% Ratio 1-3-2-4

24. 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