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Experience with Career Pathways: Commonwealth Countries

Thank you for responding to the following survey about your experience with career pathways (education programmes that enable youth to explore and  successfully prepare for the world of work). Responses to this survey are confidential and the survey results will be shared only at an aggregate level to protect the identities of individual and organisation responses.  Responding with your name is optional. We appreciate you providing information about your programmes and your experiences about these important initiatives to support youth. Please note, if you are unsure of a response, you may leave it blank.
1.Name (optional)
2.Organisation
3.Country
4.Field: select the role that best represents your area of responsibility.
5.Geographic Focus (please provide a brief description of the region or area of your programme)
6.Scale: Please indicate the approximate number of students in your geographic focus participating in pathways in the current school year and the percentage that student population represents relative to the overall secondary student population in your geographic region.
7.Focus: If you are involved in a specific industry (e.g. healthcare, information technology (IT), etc.) or programme (NCEA, etc.) please explain.
8.Demographics: If you have information sources regarding the race, ethnicity, gender and academic ability of the students served, please include a link or indicate where we can find it. If not available, please indicate with N/A
Definitions
When you think about the students in career pathways in your geographic focus area, please help us define the programmatic attributes.
9.Our pathways are undertaken by:
10.Most of the time, pathways are designed to lead directly to specific employment opportunities after earning a secondary education certificate or completing a VET programme.
11.Most of the time, pathways are designed to inform and enable a student’s post-secondary choices or occupational area by engaging them in a sector, like health care or IT.
12.Approximately how many courses/modules/credits specific to a given career pathway is a student required to complete to fulfill the pathway requirements:
13.Most of the time, the students have a “work based learning (WBL) experience” prior to completing their secondary education or vocational education and training (VET) programme to help them make more informed choices about their post-secondary options
14.If so, please estimate the amount of time that the majority of students are in a work-based learning settings below:
0-25%
26-50%
More than 50%
Career Awareness (includes workplace tours or guest speakers coming to school)
Career Exploration (includes job shadowing or informational interviews)
Career Immersion (on-site work as an intern or pre-apprentice, paid or unpaid)
Apprenticeships (deep engagement with an employer)
15.Typically, this programming starts in earnest at age
16.What kinds of learning approaches are used in the career pathway to build students’ work-readiness? Please select the options used and provide details if appropriate:
A lot
Some
None
Project-based learning
Team projects or team-oriented experiences
Work-integrated learning
Student self-assessment on work-readiness mindsets and skills
17.How does fulfilling the career pathways coursework contribute to a student earning a secondary education qualification or industry recognized certificate (Select all that apply or leave blank if no qualification or certificates are integrated with the programme.)?
18.Is the career pathway integrated with tertiary education or ongoing adult education?  For example, can the student begin earning tertiary qualifications in the career pathway programme? Does completing the career pathway provide the student with an advanced standing in a tertiary education program or entry into a industry apprenticeship?  Please explain.
19.Does the career pathway have significant partnerships with tertiary education institutions, industries, or other? If so, please list the partners and provide a brief description as appropriate.
20.In talking to a student or parent, in a sentence or two, how would you distinguish “career pathways” from a traditional vocational education and training (VET) programme
Strengths
21.When you consider career pathways, what are the primary benefits for students?
Not a benefit 
Somewhat beneficial
Beneficial
Very beneficial
Greatest benefit
Engagement – For some students, learning by doing is a better way to learn.
Relevance – By seeing how their academic experience applies in a work setting, education becomes more relevant.
Achievement – Because this approach is more engaging, student achievement improves broadly.
Career-readiness – Career pathways give students a head start on the durable skills they will need to excel in the workplace.
Career fit – By exploring a given field, they have a better sense of what they do, and do not want to pursue as a career.
Agency – By having to make some choices about their future, students build confidence in owning their path forward.
Persistence – The programme helps students persist in completing tertiary education qualifications or industry recognized certifications.
22.Are there other benefits for students beyond those listed above?  What other thoughts would you share about the benefits to students in participating in career pathways?
23.How would you assess the effectiveness of the career pathways with which you are engaged? Please rate each attribute from low to high
Not strong
Somewhat strong
Strong
Very strong
Strongest
Reach – Your initiative has broad reach across schools and geographies.
Equity – Your initiative serves as a vehicle to level the playing field for all students.
Depth – For the students this works for, your initiative provides deep career preparation.
Coherence – Secondary, tertiary, and VET educators are better aligned and more integrated.
Alignment with Employers – Your employer community buys in to this and are proactive partners.
24.Are there other strengths that distinguish your programme? What might other countries that have career pathway programmes want to learn more about from you?
Opportunities
25.As the career pathways with which you are engaged continue to evolve, please assess the areas you believe need to improve by rating each one:
No improvement needed
Some improvement needed
Needs improvement
Needs more improvement
Needs most improvement
Employer engagement – Need for increased co-ownership with employers.
Access – Need for scalable solutions to get students to and from training and WBL.
Equity – Need to increase supports for those for whom full engagement in career pathways take more effort and support.
Career navigation – Need to improve supports for students in looking to make good choices in secondary education and beyond.
Expectation setting – Need to normalize that a university education is just one path to a successful career.
Engagement – Need to ensure that career pathways are seen as attractive learning programmes for all students.
26.Are there other areas of improvement that should be addressed?  What other improvements would you like to see in your career pathways programme?
27.As you think about what you might want to learn from other countries engaging in some version of the career pathways work, what are your questions?
28.If you would like to stay in touch with us regarding this project and career pathways, please share your email address.  We will use it only to contact you with questions that might help us better understand career pathways and to share the ongoing results of our project.