Career Advancement Academies

Funded in part by California Community College's Chancellor's Office

  

Three state sites received $50,000 planning grants, and have been awarded $1.6M each for FY 2007-08 to establish regional Career Advancement Academies (CAA). Each CAA will be designed to establish pipelines for underprepared, underemployed young adults to careers and additional higher education opportunities. The CAAs will address foundational skills in reading, writing, and mathematics, in the context of particular career pathways of importance to the regional economy. All CAAs build on partnerships between the local community colleges, employers, workforce boards, social service agencies and community based organizations. These partnerships are instrumental in designing and implementing broad-based outreach, providing individual support and case management, and employment links to businesses and labor, including apprenticeships. Each project is designed to serve as a prototype offering instruction in remedial/developmental education and industry driven occupational training. These projects are expected to enroll substantial numbers of targeted young adults (18-30) and will incorporate independent evaluation as part of the design.

CAA Videos Career Ladders Project has produced a set of videos for the Career Advancement Academies, serving as documentation and tools for sites and partners of the Career Advancement Academies.

Awarded projects:

East Bay Career Advancement Academy

Central Valley Career Advancement Academy

Los Angeles Career Advancement Academy

Background documents and materials:

• The Governor's Career Technical Education Initiative
  Report to the Legislature, the Governor, and the Director of Finance
• Career Advancement Academy Announcement
• The Request for Application
• Addendum #1
• CAA Planning Grant Memo
• CAA Planning Grant Request For Application

The Career Ladders Project (CLP) works with the Career Advancement Academies to provide technical assistance, document lessons learned, and foster a community of learners among the sites. CLP sponsors regional trainings and state-wide convenings for project managers and faculty; attends site meetings to assist with program implementation; provides guidance for partnership agreements and supports initiatives to identify, research and develop regional career pathways. The staff at CLP have developed and maintain a centralized CAA project database/management site for program faculty and managers to share best practices and learn from colleagues. In addition, CLP provides an extensive reference library of best practices, research publications and statistical reports on their website at www.careerladdersproject.org. CLP operates under the auspices of the Foundation for California Community Colleges, a 501(c)(3).

For more information about the Career Ladders Project, contact the Executive Director, Linda Collins .