New "Educating Georgia’s Future Workforce" launches with focus on expanding partnerships with business and industry

This initiative will bring all stakeholders to the table to strengthen our career, technical, and agricultural education offerings and ensure students are being prepared with skills that will serve them well in the workforce of the future.”
-- Richard Woods, Georgia's School Superintendent

---

The Georgia Department of Education is launching Educating Georgia’s Future Workforce, an initiative aimed at increasing the state’s focus on career education a​​nd expanding partnerships with the business community, State School Superintendent Richard Woods announced today.

“Georgia’s students must leave our schools with skills that prepare them for higher education or to immediately begin a career,” Superintendent Woods said. “It’s essential that we offer the very best career education available, responsive to the changing economic landscape and aligned to the needs of business and industry. This initiative will bring all stakeholders to the table to strengthen our career, technical, and agricultural education offerings and ensure students are being prepared with skills that will serve them well in the workforce of the future.”

Some major components of Educating Georgia’s Future Workforce include:

• Participating in listening sessions during business and industry visits by the State CTAE Director and State Board Members to determine how we are doing in supplying labor force needs
  
• Hosting twelve “Partners Educating Georgia’s Future Workforce” regional meetings during fall 2015 with a focus on economic development and Georgia’s Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) offerings (These meetings will provide a chance for business and community partners to learn more about CTAE in Georgia and develop new partnerships with local school systems, thus positively impacting economic development)
  
• Identifying and making available valuable economic development resources to both educators and business partners with a Pathways to Prosperity toolkit
  
• Developing a Superintendent’s Business and Industry Advisory Council
  
• Offering an International Skills Diploma Seal to graduates who demonstrate a strong interest in international business and policy. Students earning the Seal have engaged in courses and extra-curricular activities that foster global competencies.
  
• Partnering with Harvard University’s Pathways to Prosperity project to analyze the efficacy of Georgia’s CTAE initiatives and offerings

“Educating Georgia’s future workforce can only be done by forming partnerships with a variety of stakeholders,” State CTAE Director Dr. Barbara Wall said. “These partnerships are formed through relationships based on trust and communication, and we are working to develop these relationships every day.”

In Georgia’s schools, students take Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) courses and, in high school, choose a Career Pathway that equips them with skills and industry certifications in a field of their choice. The Educating Georgia’s Future Workforce initiative will strengthen the business and industry partnerships that support CTAE, and further develop the skills students need to enter the global workforce.​

“Creating Career Pathways was a major step to improving educational outcomes for Georgia students,” said Chris Clark, Georgia Chamber president and CEO. “The launch of Educating Georgia’s Future Workforce will advance this cause even further, preparing our next generation of students with the skills employers need them to know for the jobs of tomorrow.”​