News

Educators may be conversant with some of the career learning opportunities employers offer students during the school year, but it’s probably not as well-known what companies are doing to provide career exposure during the summer. One such opportunity that’s caught the state’s eye comes from Sigma Resources’ subsidiary, Simcoach Games. Simcoach has partnered with the […]

Administrators and counselors in our Thriving Futures program this year designed a gamut of ways to improve students’ future readiness–from identifying employer partnerships and expanding career exploration opportunities, to revising 339 plans, strengthening programming around social and emotional learning (SEL), and raising the bar for meeting state Career Education & Work (CEW) benchmarks. The Consortium […]

Fresh from the Spring session of our Act 45 course, administrators have hit the ground running with techniques learned in Human-Centered Design to Support Student Growth & Achievement. The HCD strategies already have helped Ridgeway Area School District Superintendent Heather McMahon-Vargas make headway in discussions to condense Ridgeway’s school week to four days for students, […]

You’re missing out if you don’t subscribe to our YouTube channel! Last month, our expanding collection of playlists garnered some 3,000 views, and it’s no wonder—with hundreds of videos, there’s something for every educator! Our collection ranges from resources for understanding Human-Centered Design (HCD) to learning more about Elementary Future Readiness. Educators also often use […]

Our Executive Director, Jackie Foor, was honored to serve both as a co-presenter for a workshop and as a participant for a panel discussion in late April at the Pennsylvania Workforce Development Association’s (PWDA)  Next Generation Youth Workforce Summit. In the breakout, which she co-presented with UPMC, Foor discussed the role intermediaries like the Consortium […]

Businesses, community organizations, and post-secondary institutions naturally see partnerships with K-12 schools as opportunities to introduce their job opportunities or academic programs to an upcoming generation. More than 20 businesses, universities, and community organizations supported them in their work. The community partners included 412 Food Rescue, Allegheny Land Trust, Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham University – […]

Teams from 11 school districts and two Career & Technical Centers came together at the Energy Innovation Center (EIC) in March for presentations and poster displays of projects they designed to move their communities or schools toward greater sustainability. All participated over the past semester in the Student Sustainability Design Challenge (SSDC), a Project-Based Learning […]

The inaugural session of our Act 45 course Using Human-Centered Design (HCD) to Support Student Growth & Achievement is getting excellent reviews as educators enter the home stretch of their work. Participants report both enjoying the course and also reaping benefits from learning among peers. New Kensington-Arnold School District Superintendent Chris Sefcheck, Ed.D., for example, […]

It was the third he’d attended, but Kris Hupp said he seems always to get something new out our annual Future Ready Partnerships Conference (FRPC). Among takeaways from this year’s, the Cornell School District Director of Technology & Instructional Innovation said he and two Cornell teachers who accompanied him got some ideas from the “hands […]

Teachers in K-12 schools have increasingly been expected to support students in career learning. But it can be a challenge for the many who have had little exposure to jobs or workplaces outside of education. That’s why Cornell School District decided to offer its teachers an Educator in the Workforce (EIW) experience from the Consortium’s […]