Designing the Future of Career and College Pathways

Over nearly nine years, Spring Lake Park High School’s Career and College pathways have grown to 37 courses across three high-demand job sectors. In the most recent graduating class, 92 percent of students had taken at least one course. These pathways to career exploration are strong, and a project is underway to keep them that way.

It was 2018 when three Career and College Pathways launched at Spring Lake Park High School — Technology, Engineering & Design; Health & Human Services; and Business & Entrepreneurship. Each of the pathways includes a set of courses designed to help students test drive careers as they gain real skills. Of the 37 courses across the pathways, 14 offer college credit opportunities.

Pathways experiences are set apart by the fact that the courses deliver curriculum that is more hands-on with direct application. They also provide access to industry partners working in the designated field. Students build a house alongside tradespeople. They design communication and marketing plans for real business problems. They student teach young learners and earn certifications as EMTs.

“We have a strong foundation in place, and work is changing fast. We need to make sure we align student learning with evolving industry trends, technology advancements, and workforce demands,” says Hope Rahn, Executive Director of Learning and Innovation. “After nearly nine years, it’s time for a deeper review to identify potential areas of enhancement and expansion.”

This fall, a team engaged students, families and industry partners to gather their insights about Career and College Pathways. At the same time, they looked at Minnesota and national workforce trends as well as similar programs across the country. A design team is now preparing to come together to design the next phase of Career and College Pathways programming.

Industry insights

More than 200 community and industry partners engage today, in some way, with our Career and College Pathways programming. They are speakers invited into classrooms, experts who judge, evaluate, or mentor student work. In some cases, they host students in their workplaces. These partnerships help classroom learning come to life and making real connections to future careers.

Many of our industry partners have observed that high school graduates in general often have theoretical knowledge. They also may lack the practical experience, soft skills, professional maturity, and industry-specific knowledge needed to thrive. This experience is often what inspires community members to get involved with pathways. They see an opportunity to provide exposure, mentoring and resources to help connect students with real-world experiences that build these skills.

In surveys and focus groups this fall, industry partners revealed some of the emerging and dynamic challenges they face. While AI and technology are changing all workplaces, employers continue to place a strong emphasis on soft skills, communication, problem-solving, work ethic, and adaptability.

“In many of our interviews and survey responses, employers shared that having students prepared for the world of work and knowing how to be a professional is something that they're not seeing as strongly as they would like,” says Karen Kutz, innovative and personalized learning specialist helping lead the pathways review this year. “They are looking for strong work ethic, communication and people skills – being able to talk with people.”

Minnesota’s labor market and national projections reveal a sustained demand for workers in healthcare, business administration, manufacturing, construction, and hospitality. Additionally, technology-driven fields like data analytics, cybersecurity, and renewable energy are expected to have high growth rates and will be key career pathways in the future.

“We want to look at labor market projections and our pathways offerings and assess how the skills our students need are embedded in the learning experiences,” says Hope. “We’re hearing and observing that overall, adaptability, continuous learning, and willingness to embrace new tools are determining how employable our graduates are.”

Student and family perspectives

Not surprisingly, when families were asked, they shared keen interest in their children's long-term employability. Families shared their overwhelming hope that their children become happy, fulfilled, and successful adults who are financially independent and contributing members of society.

Many see high school, at its best, as a launchpad for life after graduation. Families want high school courses to help students discover their passions, build essential academic and life skills, and explore careers. Spring Lake Park High School’s Career and College Pathways are seen as unique and a strong foundation to build upon.

Through parent surveys and brief interviews this fall, parents shared comments like these:

"Appreciate all of the college and career offerings through the high school and the amazing counselors who are so knowledgeable and informative."

"I like the variety of learning you offer so students have career options."

"The vocational courses are what we need in American high schools. Amazing and laudable."

Families voiced support for exposing students to diverse career fields, trades and academic areas. They also placed an emphasis on the real-world learning opportunities that take students into the field – work-based learning, job shadowing and project-based experiences. They value real-life learning—like budgeting, time management, and other “adulting” skills—within required coursework.

College credit is also a high priority. Currently, there are 51 different courses at the high school that offer college credit without having to leave the high school experience. These courses can save students time and money. They also build critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills that students need regardless of their plans after high school.

Student focus groups revealed that students want many of the same things their parents want for them. Navigating their way to it is another matter.

“There is a lot of interest in a more personalized path and plan - somebody to talk with them and try to say, you know, here's a good path for you based on your interests,” says Karen. “While we do these things in pockets, we have an opportunity to be more systemic and equip all of our staff to be able to have these conversations.”

Specific to Career and College Pathways courses, the student experience highlights ways in which the current pathways vary in maturity. Some topics and areas of interest exist but may not be clearly communicated. Others need to be developed.

The current realities of high school schedules and a 6-period day also continue to influence student choices and present barriers to more of these opportunities. A student’s interest in music or language or both, may limit the space for other elective learning and pathways experiences.

“We don’t want to look at pathways in isolation but continue to explore how students can fulfill graduation requirements in different ways aligned to their interests right now and for their future,” says Hope. “We have co-created courses as one option, and we also know bringing more of the pathways experience into the core – English, Math, Science and Social Studies – is another.”

Hearing from industry partners, parents and students will help the design team focus in on what is most important for this next phase.

 “All of these insights will provide criteria for the design of next phases for Career and College Pathways,” says Hope. “It’s fun to have this strong foundation to build on.”

What’s Next

For next year, there are refinements to current course offerings to maintain responsiveness to student and teacher suggestions without making major overhauls. This includes adding a Mechatronics II course and adding an introductory course in technology careers that will provide opportunities for students to learn about careers in cybersecurity, IT and coding. 

“Students who have taken Epic Game Design at Westwood need an option that makes sense as a next step when they get to the high school,” says Karen. “The intro class will provide an intro to coding, cybersecurity, physical networks and from there students can decide to follow an interest in cybersecurity or coding or go more hands on with Mechatronics - branch out to find their niche in technology.”

This winter and spring, a design team will kick off their work by looking at all of the insights that have been gathered. As they design for the future, they will consider current Career and College Pathways, the offerings within each Pathway, and our college credit offerings. This will also include looking at opportunities in grades 7-8 and logical next steps.

We’re also always looking at opportunities to bring more Pathways-type experiences into courses outside of the Career and College Pathways programming. Students are more engaged with hands-on, relevant learning. When we can incorporate industry realities into learning, we can create well-rounded, workforce-ready graduates prepared to adapt to the future of work. Hope Rahn, Executive Director of Learning and Innovation

There are currently three Career and College Pathways that represent the predicted need for future jobs. There are 37 pathways courses offering a variety of ways for students to explore careers, gain hands-on experience, and often, earn college credit. Explore all high school courses currently offered at any time at our Course Registration hub.