Center for Global Education at Asia Society Releases Free Professional Development Resources for Career and Technical Education

NEW YORK, September 20, 2017 — The Center for Global Education at Asia Society today released “Global Competence Through Career and Technical Education,” a free professional development course and toolkit. These materials will help U.S. educators address a critical imperative: to prepare all students for work and civic roles in an environment where success increasingly requires the ability to compete, connect, and cooperate on an international scale. One in ten Americans is foreign born, and local communities—urban, suburban, and rural—are growing more diverse. To take advantage of global market opportunities, companies must hire workers with global competence—that is, the capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance. With an anchor in preparing students for the careers of their choice and a focus on the critical academic, technical, and employability skills needed for success, career and technical education (CTE) offers a natural platform on which to build global competencies. Furthermore, integrating project management into CTE curricula helps students strengthen the skills necessary to cooperate in teams, identify and mitigate risk, and execute and monitor collaborative work, skills imperative in the 21st century workforce.

Created by the Center for Global Education in partnership with ACTE and Advance CTE and supported through the generosity of the Project Management Institute Educational Foundation (PMIEF), “Global Competence Through Career and Technical Education” is a customizable, 10-12 hour, online course and toolkit for middle and secondary school CTE teachers. This professional development combines CTE learning opportunities and curriculum with global competence and project management. The online course is available through ACTE’s CTE Learn community and the toolkit is available on the Center for Global Education website. All materials are available free of charge.

The project addresses three main objectives:

• Educate and engage with CTE stakeholders on the need for global competence in order to prepare students to meet the demands of careers in a global 21st century.
• Educate CTE teachers and students about the global career opportunities that exist in CTE pathways.
• Build educator capacity to integrate global competence and project management into CTE career exploration and classroom projects.

Tony Jackson, Vice President, Education and Director of the Asia Society’s Center for Global Education, says: “To be successful in the global economy, which impacts local communities everywhere, students must become proficient in 21st century competencies like project management through a global lens. Many CTE educators have come to us seeking resources to include global content in their classroom projects, but they did not exist. We therefore chose to partner with PMIEF to create professional development materials that will allow integration of project management into instruction while paying careful attention to the importance of global education.”

Jeannette Barr, Executive Director of PMIEF, agrees. “The global economy mandates people’s ability to work together using a framework that facilitates communication, promotes collaboration, and encourages creativity regardless of geography. These competencies are inherent to project management and are especially critical in the kinds of careers today’s CTE students ultimately enter,” she says. “PMIEF recognizes the importance of not only helping students learn through projects in their CTE coursework, but also helping them learn to manage those projects in preparation for the world of work. In addition, we know that CTE teachers must understand, appreciate, and integrate project management into their curricula to ensure their students develop and strengthen these skills, and our partnership with the Asia Society helps them do so.”

“As the world becomes even more interconnected, today’s careers require an ability to collaborate with people from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. CTE educators are preparing students for increasingly complex futures that require additional knowledge and skills to meet today’s evolving workforce demands. This course is helping to further arm them with the tools they need to better equip students with the global competence that is critical in so many sectors of today’s job market,” says LeAnn Wilson, Executive Director, The Association for Career and Technical Education.

“With the goal of preparing students for the careers of their choice and a focus on the academic, technical and employability skills needed for success, CTE offers a natural platform for teaching global competencies,” says Kimberly Green, Executive Director of Advance CTE. “These resources not only fill a critical need at the classroom level but also will help state leaders as they support CTE programs of study that ready learners for the global economy.”

As we look to a future where students will need to be lifelong learners, able to navigate an ever-changing international job market, it is clear that 21st century skills, taught through a global lens, will be more important than ever. The “Global Education Through CTE” professional development will enable educators to provide these skills for all students.

For more information about these resources, contact Heather Singmaster: [email protected].

Advance CTE

Advance CTE: State Leaders Connecting Learning to Work is the longest-standing national non-profit that represents State Directors and state leaders responsible for secondary, postsecondary and adult Career Technical Education (CTE) across all 50 states and U.S. territories. Established in 1920, Advance CTE supports visionary state leadership, cultivates best practices and speaks with a collective voice on national policy to promote academic and technical excellence that ensures a career-ready workforce.

ACTE

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) is the nation’s largest not-for-profit association committed to the advancement of education that prepares youth and adults for successful careers. ACTE represents the community of CTE professionals, including educators, administrators, researchers, school counselors, guidance and career development professionals and others at all levels of education. ACTE is committed to excellence in providing advocacy, public awareness and access to resources, professional development and leadership opportunities.

Center for Global Education at Asia Society

Asia Society is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among the people, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. The Asia Society Center for Global Education drives education transformation in the U.S., Asia, and around the world to develop a generation of global citizens able to thrive in a global economy and address the world’s most intractable problems. AsiaSociety.org/Education

PMI Educational Foundation (PMIEF)

The PMI Educational Foundation (PMIEF) is a 501(c)(3) supporting organization of Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading not-for-profit professional membership association for the project, program and portfolio management profession. Founded in 1990, PMIEF develops, implements and delivers innovative programs to leverage project management for social good globally. These include scholarships, awards and grants as well as educational resources that strengthen project management knowledge of teachers, youth and nonprofit organizations. PMIEF’s vision that “all people worldwide have a better tomorrow by applying project management skills in their daily lives” comes to the life through the generosity of individual and corporate donors as well as the PMI community. For additional information, visit www.pmief.org.