Northwest Aerospace News December 2018 | January 2019 Issue No. 6 | Page 46

The Value of
?
Guided Pathways
?
Washington’s community and technical colleges are embracing career-focused
guided pathways that will provide opportunity, increase graduation and transfer
rates, and prepare students for the future education and the labor market
By: Mary Kaye Bredeson, executive director; and Jennifer Ferrero, APR, marketing communications Center of Excellence for
Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing
Jennifer Ferrero
APR, Communications and Marketing
COE for Aerospace and Advanced
Manufacturing
www.coeaerospace.com
I
f there is any problem with the current economy – with the lowest unemployment rate in
almost 50 years – it might be that there are many jobs going unfilled in the aerospace and
advanced manufacturing industries because there are not enough people with training and
desire to enter these careers.
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) has em-
braced Guided Pathways, which is a national model being implemented in a variety of
states. The model first came onto the scene in 2015 following a report by the Community
College Research Center at Columbia University which asserted that the status quo “cafe-
teria plan” of class registration wasn’t serving students who wanted and needed to graduate
and transfer or go directly to work.
Mary Kaye Bredeson
Executive Director, COE for Aero-
space and Advanced Manufacturing
www.coeaerospace.com
COE SPOTLIGHT
46
The aerospace and defense industries have been worried about training the next generation
for at least a decade with the silver tsunami of retirements. This exasperating problem is one
of concern at most aerospace trade conferences and seems to cause continual hand wring-
ing, without strong solutions.
Until now.
The guided pathways model, which may as well be called, “Enroll here, explore your
options early, get on a direct path to useful post-secondary education, and enter the labor
force,” may be the best answer for our community and technical college system.
NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS