Career Pathways

In Colorado, industry-driven, competency-based career pathways ensure that education, training, and workforce systems stay attuned and responsive to the needs of the labor market in order to:

• Ensure businesses have access to appropriately skilled talent pipeline. 
• Prepare students and workers with the skills and credentials they need for jobs and careers.

Annually, CWDC, Colorado Community College System and the Colorado Department of Higher Education engage in a collaborative effort to integrate pertinent career pathway information into My Colorado Journey. 

Recent Activities

Public Health Career Pathway Refreshed

Public Health career pathways and occupations were initially published in 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Post-pandemic, industry partners requested that we update the qualitative information to reflect the industry's current state. These career pathway maps are published and publicly available on My Colorado Journey.

The published career pathways present information collected for students and job seekers to encourage a deeper exploration of occupations in the industry. The following information is presented on My Colorado Journey based on discussions with industry employers and public partners from July 2023 -June 2024.

• Healthy Communities: Public Health provides a foundation for healthier communities for everyone, everywhere. This is achieved by promoting healthy lifestyles, reducing disease and injury risk through community-based prevention, and responding to disasters and outbreaks.
•  Generalists and Specialists: Colorado has a wide variety of specialist and generalist positions. Some professionals are devoted to a single area or program, such as infectious disease or maternal-child health. Others may work across multiple program areas. Generalist positions are more common in smaller agencies and at leadership levels.
• Diverse Solutions: Healthy communities require solutions that fit the diversity of the people and environments in those communities. People from diverse backgrounds who speak multiple languages are highly valued in public health. Additionally, public health agencies often seek to hire people rooted in the communities those agencies serve. Sometimes, lived experience in priority communities can be as valuable as educational achievement.

Aerospace and Public Safety Career Pathways Released

The CWDC, in partnership with the Colorado Department of Higher Education and Colorado Community College System, launched two new career pathways in the My Colorado Journey career navigation and education platform. 

Job seekers and students who are looking to explore or advance their Aerospace and Public Safety career will now have access to career pathways, trajectories and annual salaries, job descriptions, skills, education, training programs, and resources to successfully take their next steps toward a brighter professional future in one of Colorado’s in-demand industries.

The pathways aim to address increases in demand for aerospace and public safety professionals, strengthen continued career development, and nurture increased public awareness and interest.

The addition of the Aerospace and Public Safety pathways bring the total number of industries with published pathways to 15. All of these can be viewed in the Careers in Colorado section of My Colorado Journey. To map career steps and identify resources and tools, you must create a free, secure account to start. 

My Colorado Journey is an innovative state effort to expand access to education and career data to help students and job seekers accomplish their goals. It provides user-friendly, personalized information to find pathways to good jobs and upgrade skills and credentials. Learn more about how My Colorado Journey can help. 

My Colorado Journey:

• Centralizes the most powerful career, education, and human services programs and tools, making it easier for the job seeker or student to access information.
• Aligns and streamlines services to be more cost-efficient.
• Provides a wide range of clear, in-demand options and pathways for students and job seekers.
• Supports continuous learning and skill development.
• Serves business and industry by better matching job seekers with the skills and knowledge employers need.

Next Pathways 

Starting 07/11/2024 - 06/30/2025, the CWDC will be working on Creative Industries and Financial Services career pathways.

Definitions & Resources

Career Pathway System

A career pathway system is made up of multiple career pathway programs that span educational institutions, workforce, and support service partners. A career pathway system aligns public partners and engages them in a continuous conversation that is led by industry to ensure that job seekers and students move seamlessly through and among support programs, educational institutions, training opportunities, and work-based experiences to build skills and credentials that meet industry demand and prepare them for jobs and careers.

Career Pathway Programs

A career pathway program offers a clear sequence of stackable credits and credentials, combined with support services, which enables students and job-seekers to secure industry-relevant skills, certifications, and credentials and advance to higher levels of education and employment in high-demand occupations.  

Competency-based Hiring, Education, and Training

Colorado is facing a skills gap that, if unaddressed, will diminish the ability of the economy to grow and limit the upward mobility of individuals throughout the state. Shifting our talent development network to embrace a competency-based approach to hiring, education, and training has been identified as a key strategy to address this gap and keep Colorado’s economy and its citizens moving forward. A competency-based approach is necessary because skills are the best predictor of a successful hiring outcome and competency-based models expand access to education opportunities beyond high school. 
 

Resources

Upskilling Frontline Retail Employees Report: A Statewide Approach to Preparing Hospitality, Tourism, Food and Beverage Services, and Retail Employees for the Future of Work - This report shares lessons learned from Colorado’s Lives Empowered initiative, which sought to support and sustain the launch of retail sector partnerships with the goal of piloting upskilling training programs for incumbent retail workers, including those in hospitality, food services, and tourism. It outlines what the CWDC learned throughout the process of implementing the initiative and provides communities with a guiding resource to design programs that meet their unique workforce and economic needs, regardless of location, population density, or industry mix. It also emphasizes the power of upskilling initiatives to address employment disparities in marginalized populations, including women and people of color, who were disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Building Industry-Driven Career Pathway Systems in Colorado: Step by Step Guide. 

Career Pathways Toolkit: A Guide for System Development: Toolkit for state partners developing WIOA Unified Plan. 

Career Pathways: Catalog of Toolkits: List of toolkits to help career pathways initiative stakeholders.

CDE Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness (PWR) Pathways Resources: Information and state guidance to advance PWR

CDLE Apprenticeships: Information on apprenticeships. 

Colorado Labor Market Information: Colorado Labor Market Information. 

Colorado Talent Dashboard: Understand needs of the labor market.

Colorado Talent Pipeline Report: Annual report with current labor trends. 

Competency Model Clearinghouse: Detailed competency models.  

Connecting Colorado: Job seekers can find job postings. 

CTE Secondary Pathways:  Colorado Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways and information for secondary program areas.

CTE Career Clusters: Career clusters for Colorado Career and Technical Education (CTE).

ICAP Toolkit: Individual Career and Academic Plan.

My Colorado Journey: Comprehensive career, postsecondary, job, financial aid and literacy exploration and planning.

Stakeholder Guidebook: A guidebook with step-by-step guidance for creating local and regional initiatives around demand-driven evidence-based career pathways.

The Power and Promise of Pathways, Hans Meeder: Comprehensive look at pathways.