Provides a national context for Virginia’s efforts, documents the Commonwealth’s work, and suggests how Virginia’s successes and lessons learned may be applied to develop a statewide career pathways model that other states may use to develop their own models.
“The process for developing a career pathways system in Virginia offers a window into an effective set of strategies for pursuing statewide and regional workforce development policies and practices that work. By using a career pathways framework, the Commonwealth has begun a systemic and ambitious process of alignment at the state level, and is rolling out that alignment to regions across the state. This paper provides a national context for Virginia’s efforts, documents the Commonwealth’s work, and suggests how Virginia’s successes and lessons learned may be applied to other states.” (p. 1). (Abstractor: Author)
Major Findings & Recommendations
Viewing the Virginia experience as a case study, Working Group members and other stakeholders involved in the process have suggested lessons they have learned along the way which include:
- Create a Statewide Planning Structure that Balances Agency Authority with Operational Capacity;
- Task Force membership should be comprised of career positions, not political appointees;
- Career Pathways Planning and Implementation Takes Time and Effort;
- Build in the time to learn about Task Force member agencies;
- Effective Communication is the Key to Success;
- State agency heads and others interested in building on Virginia’s experience may benefit from reviewing these lessons as they seek to implement their own systems.(Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)