New Jersey Pathways to Career Opportunities Initiative

New Jersey’s Community Colleges and the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) launched the New Jersey Pathways to Career Opportunities program in December 2021. The initiative is aligning employers, industry associations, labor unions, educational institutions, and workforce development partners to provide students and workers with structured pathways to find career opportunities—and to ensure that employers have access to a highly skilled workforce to meet critical labor market needs.

The Pathways initiative is led by Collaboratives that are focusing on four industries that are the foundation of the state’s economy: (1) Health Services; (2) Technology and Innovation; (3) Infrastructure and Energy; and (4) Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management. Each Collaborative is working to obtain high-quality, timely labor market information about the changing needs of employers, and to build an ecosystem of education and training partners that encourage collaboration and information sharing.

Ten Centers of Workforce Innovation are supporting the Collaboratives. All 18 of New Jersey’s Community College partners, as well as high schools, four-year colleges and universities, and community-based training providers across the state are involved. Their common goal is to align and improve existing curricula, prioritize industry-valued credentials, and develop transfer agreements.

Deliverables for the Pathways initiative include:

• development of a state strategic workforce plan for each of the four industries
• identification of labor market demand and industry-valued credentials for each industry
• development of detailed career pathway maps to guide the work
• dissemination of the career pathway maps to students and workers at all levels.

Resources

• Video featuring education, business and legislative leaders
• org

Partners

• New Jersey’s 18 Community Colleges
• New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA)