Career Cluster Plan
CTC Career Cluster Planning Model
The Community and Technical College (CTC) Leadership Team, comprised of division/department directors and chairs, established a planning format and timeline during the November and December 2005 Leadership Team meetings. This new approach to planning for the college was initiated based on the following assumptions:
- CTC is positioned to begin a strategic planning process, i.e. the program base is solid with well established operation processes in place to support and sustain quality within existing initiatives.
- The majority of CTC programs are aligned with high demand job growth areas, which link us to Alaskan industries that have the capacity and motivation to support educational programs that prepare a qualified workforce.
- CTC's organizational structure is aligned with the national career cluster model. This model views individual occupations within the context of career choices from a broader perspective. Planning around career clusters versus individual programs allowed us to initiate discussions surrounding how we serve an industry as a whole. Community representatives, with a global view of specific industry needs, were invited to participate in this process in order to identify anticipated trends in specific career clusters.
- Overall, CTC programs required specialized instructional space and equipment. Facility and lab space upgrades required long-range planning.
CTC Career Cluster Planning Model Description
The career cluster planning model moves away from planning solely around individual program needs and, instead, focuses on how CTC as a whole serves industry and students. More importantly, it takes a step beyond status quo and allows us to identify areas of potential growth, strategies for achieving growth goals, and resources needed to accomplish these goals in an integrated way through the year 2012.
Who?
Examples of audience for this planning model include:
- Industries we currently serve or should serve
- Faculty and students
- CTC leadership and budget office
- UAA Advancement and Development office
- Alaska school districts
- UAA and UA Academic Planning efforts
- External funding sources
- UA Statewide planning office, UAA Legislative and Development liaison(s)
Why?
This planning model will serve CTC in the following ways:
- Provide a focus on industry by brining them to the table early and often - foster buy-in
- Provide a primary vehicle to state our needs and facilitate Foundation accounts (fund raising)
- Provide case statement for other external funding sources and opportunities
- Assist in decisions related to facility needs (now and in the future)
- Increase collaboration between programs and across campuses
- Help us to manage our growth and make sound decisions based on demand
- Replace the CTC Unit Plans
- Allow us to focus on true demand and share resources in a global sense, rather than on individual program needs (without neglecting program accomplishments and goals)
Career Cluster Planning Model Criteria
- ID career cluster and educational pathways (programs included in the area).
- ID industries currently served by the program within each cluster.
- ID current status (snapshot of what our programs currently do the serve the industries - # of students served, etc.).
- ID projected trends and demand through 2010 (DOL date).
- ID collaboration opportunities - within UAA, UA-wide, program-to-program, community campuses, distance education, industry partners, and others.
- ID future needs to meet the demands (facilities, faculty, staff, equipment, distance delivery technology, what needs to be done to improve collaborations, etc. - this is the case statement part of the plan) - funding/resource needs will be attached to this.
Review the complete cluster plans by clicking on the names below:
