Tennessee Secures Grant to Develop Bold Plan to Improve Career Preparation Systems

NASHVILLE— The Tennessee Department of Education today announced it has secured a $100,000 national grant to develop a detailed career readiness action plan, which is an essential step to expanding economic opportunity for students across our state.

“While we are proud of our progress and accomplishments to date, we aspire to further improve and transform our students’ educational experiences,” said Education Commissioner Candice McQueen. “Our goal is to provide all Tennessee students with access to high-quality academic and career learning pathways that are aligned with local and state workforce needs.”

Tennessee is among 24 states and the District of Columbia that secured grants for this work through phase one of New Skills for Youth grant opportunity. The grants are one piece of a $75 million, five-year initiative developed by JPMorgan Chase, in partnership with the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and Advance CTE, aimed at increasing economic opportunity for young people by strengthening career-focused education, starting in high school, and ending with postsecondary degrees or credentials aligned with business needs.

Through phase one of New Skills for Youth, Tennessee, and other selected states will each receive a $100,000 six-month grant, in addition to expert technical assistance and peer support from other grantees, to perform a diagnostic assessment of their career preparation system and prepare for implementation of a new action plan. An independent advisory committee recommended phase one grant recipients after a rigorous review process that considered states’ proposed plans, cross-sector partnerships, and demonstrated commitment and capacity to transform their systems of career preparation according to the grant guidelines. 

Tennessee, and the other phase one planning grant states, will be eligible to apply for the phase two grant opportunity, which will require states to demonstrate the commitment and capacity to execute the action plans developed in phase one.

The department's statewide Pathways Tennessee initiative, which over the last three years has worked with cross-agency stakeholders at the state and local levels to identify and implement career pathways through identified industry needs, will serve as the driver of this grant. 

The department has also committed to strengthen postsecondary and workforce readiness by creating the Career Forward Task Force.  This task force, who held their first meeting March 24, includes a broad spectrum of stakeholders from business, education, government, and communities across the state. The group will meet monthly throughout the spring and summer to learn, listen, discuss, and craft recommendations to strengthen the connection between K-12 education, postsecondary, and the workforce. They will work to define career readiness and the milestones necessary to prepare a student, as well as developing recommendations to align current workforce needs across the education spectrum.

Research shows that by the age of 25, only about half of young Americans have a meaningful postsecondary credential that enables them to compete for good jobs, and the U.S. youth unemployment rate is more than double the national rate. In Tennessee, the majority of our students are not adequately prepared to take advantage of opportunities after high school graduation, though 55 percent of all jobs in our state will require some postsecondary education by 2025.

For more information, contact Ashley Ball at (615) 532-6260 or Ashley.M.Ball@tn.gov.