On May 3, 2024, P20’s Executive Director, Emily Nicholson, and Joseph Fox, the President and CEO of Fox Management Consulting Enterprises, presented to our region’s CTE directors about career development plans and marketing of CTE programs, and how the Land of Sky P20 Council can help them in their efforts to comply with the new mandate.
Career Development Plans
In the 2023-2025 budget (see p. 87), the NC legislature included a requirement for all middle and high school students enrolled in public schools to complete a career development plan. However, the budget did not include any funding for school systems to purchase or develop computer software that can create and track these career development plans. One primary goal of Mrs. Nicholson and Dr. Fox with this meeting was to assess the CTE directors’ interest in working together to submit a cohort application to secure grant funding for a platform that could meet the new requirements for career development plans. Rather than each school district working separately to find and secure funding and vendors to satisfy this requirement, the five school districts could benefit from reduced costs and decreased time by leveraging the P20 Council’s expertise and by pooling their efforts. P20 offered assistance with:
- identifying tools for data collection for career development plans
- identifying potential funders for the data collection platform
- writing and submitting the grant application(s) to potential funders
Marketing CTE Programs
Mrs. Nicholson and Dr. Fox also solicited input from the CTE directors regarding how the P20 Council could aid them in marketing their CTE programs to underserved communities. The team discussed how P20 could assist with many of the CTE directors’ outreach goals and efforts, including:
- Increase participation of diverse populations in CTE Pathways.
- Develop regional marketing strategies that increase awareness of CTE pathways.
- Provide regional funding for CTE Professional Development.
- Develop community engagement strategies, including:
- Outreach to faith-based organizations.
- Outreach to diverse organizations.
- Outreach to diverse groups/clubs working with underrepresented students.
- Identification of diverse channels of communication for sharing information.
Next Steps
P20 staff and Dr. Fox are researching vendors who could provide a platform that would meet the data collection requirements for career development plans. Dr. Fox is developing community engagement plans. Additional meetings will be scheduled as needed to move forward.
