Nancy Hoffman

A compelling appeal to center the perspectives of young people to support them in mapping pathways to future success In How We See Us, Michaela Leslie-Rule amplifies the voices of young people approaching adulthood as they consider their experiences, needs, and goals for their education, early careers, and lives. Leslie-Rule encourages adults who support young people to listen more closely to youth voices so that their perspectives are centered in interventions made on their behalf. Based on the findings of a research project of remarkable breadth and scale, with in-depth interviews, surveys, and focus groups of nearly 4,000 students from Black and Hispanic communities and low-income households in both urban and rural regions across the United States, the book finds thoughtful self-reflection and an optimistic mindset in the stories of the youths’ successes and challenges. The rich accounts of how they experience their identities, communities, education, and employment refute dominant narratives that so often frame their abilities in terms of deficits and that suggest that young people, and students of color especially, live in a perpetual state of crisis. Leslie-Rule advocates for listening more deeply to young people and provides a framework, as well as tools, prompts, worksheets, and other resources, to improve practice. Such consideration, she argues, enables educators, policymakers, and researchers to better address the barriers students experience in building and navigating pathways to education, career, and adulthood.

Career Pathways in Action, a companion to Learning for Careers by Nancy Hoffman and Robert B. Schwartz, offers a detailed, on-the-ground exploration of the Pathways to Prosperity Network’s efforts at state, regional, and local levels. This new book describes a strikingly wide range of systems and efforts that the Pathways Network has helped establish in recent years, and provides a clear and detailed sense of promising ways forward. Editors Robert B. Schwartz and Amy Loyd include case studies of five different Pathways programs from different regions of the United States: Delaware, Tennessee, the Great Lakes, the rural Central Valley of California, and Marlborough, Massachusetts. The cases illustrate efforts to scale up strategic partnerships; balance state policies with particular regional needs and circumstances; ensure postsecondary success; create continuities between high schools, colleges, and workplaces; and build a STEM early college. While the programs vary significantly from one another, all of these efforts involve cooperation between political, business, and educational institutions. As such, the portraits in this volume provide fascinating, practical models for the sorts of partnerships that can best serve both young people and the industries in which they hope to find rewarding work.

Career Pathways in Action, a companion to Learning for Careers by Nancy Hoffman and Robert B. Schwartz, offers a detailed, on-the-ground exploration of the Pathways to Prosperity Network’s efforts at state, regional, and local levels. This new book describes a strikingly wide range of systems and efforts that the Pathways Network has helped establish in recent years, and provides a clear and detailed sense of promising ways forward. Editors Robert B. Schwartz and Amy Loyd include case studies of five different Pathways programs from different regions of the United States: Delaware, Tennessee, the Great Lakes, the rural Central Valley of California, and Marlborough, Massachusetts. The cases illustrate efforts to scale up strategic partnerships; balance state policies with particular regional needs and circumstances; ensure postsecondary success; create continuities between high schools, colleges, and workplaces; and build a STEM early college. While the programs vary significantly from one another, all of these efforts involve cooperation between political, business, and educational institutions. As such, the portraits in this volume provide fascinating, practical models for the sorts of partnerships that can best serve both young people and the industries in which they hope to find rewarding work.

Vocational Education and Training for a Global Economy investigates the greatly varying ways in which four countries-Singapore, Switzerland, China, and the United States-prepare young people for the twenty-first-century workplace. The book looks first at the highly successful vocational education and training (VET) systems in Singapore and Switzerland, describing them in revealing detail and accounting for the assumptions and social arrangements that account for their unique features. It then turns to the two largest-and arguably the most dynamic-nations in the world, China and the United States, and examines the differing conditions, goals, and arrangements that have affected their respective programs for preparing their citizens for present and future work. At a time when a highly competitive global economy is prompting profound changes in the workplace and in the skills required for professional success, all countries feel a heightened sense of urgency in finding ways to guide and prepare young people for work. As this book makes clear, however, the resulting preparatory systems within these four countries differ dramatically-and for a wide range of economic, cultural, and political reasons. A detailed and incisive look at VET systems in the United States and abroad, Vocational Education and Training for a Global Economy will be indispensable reading for all who are concerned with preparing youth for today’s competitive and demanding modern workplace.

What began as two books, a memoir and a book about minimalism, Express With Less has morphed into one. Growing up as a teenager in the sixties, Nancy Hoffman had numerous experiences that were minimalistic. You will read about her High School trip to Bogota, Columbia, her summer job at a campground in North Carolina and other unique experiences. As time passed, Nancy strayed from her minimalistic nature and became a gatherer of things. Express With Less lets you follow Nancy's journey with minimalism. She shares with you strategies and tips she has learned along the way.

Vocational Education and Training for a Global Economy investigates the greatly varying ways in which four countries-Singapore, Switzerland, China, and the United States-prepare young people for the twenty-first-century workplace. The book looks first at the highly successful vocational education and training (VET) systems in Singapore and Switzerland, describing them in revealing detail and accounting for the assumptions and social arrangements that account for their unique features. It then turns to the two largest-and arguably the most dynamic-nations in the world, China and the United States, and examines the differing conditions, goals, and arrangements that have affected their respective programs for preparing their citizens for present and future work. At a time when a highly competitive global economy is prompting profound changes in the workplace and in the skills required for professional success, all countries feel a heightened sense of urgency in finding ways to guide and prepare young people for work. As this book makes clear, however, the resulting preparatory systems within these four countries differ dramatically-and for a wide range of economic, cultural, and political reasons. A detailed and incisive look at VET systems in the United States and abroad, Vocational Education and Training for a Global Economy will be indispensable reading for all who are concerned with preparing youth for today’s competitive and demanding modern workplace.

Learning for Careers provides a comprehensive account of the Pathways to Prosperity Network, a national project that offers urgently needed career pathways for young Americans who do not have a four-year college degree. It takes as its starting point the influential 2011 Pathways to Prosperity report, which challenged the prevailing idea that the core mission of high schools was to prepare all students for college. In response, the Pathways Network was founded in 2012 to promote cooperative arrangements between educational and business institutions in order to fashion pathways for young people to acquire twenty-first-century skills and achieve professional success.This book traces the evolution of the Pathways Network over the past five years, focusing on the efforts of a diverse set of states and regions to build systems that span high school and the first two years of postsecondary education. States such as Delaware and Tennessee have been highly effective in establishing systems designed to equip students with credentials valued in the contemporary labor market. At the same time, the authors acknowledge the technical, political, and cultural challenges in redesigning career-focused education to produce satisfactory outcomes for young people throughout the country.Learning for Careers offers a way forward for the millions of young people and employers that face a rapidly evolving and ever more competitive globalized workplace. This book will be essential reading for all who have a stake in educational and economic opportunity in the United States.

Learning for Careers provides a comprehensive account of the Pathways to Prosperity Network, a national project that offers urgently needed career pathways for young Americans who do not have a four-year college degree. It takes as its starting point the influential 2011 Pathways to Prosperity report, which challenged the prevailing idea that the core mission of high schools was to prepare all students for college. In response, the Pathways Network was founded in 2012 to promote cooperative arrangements between educational and business institutions in order to fashion pathways for young people to acquire twenty-first-century skills and achieve professional success.This book traces the evolution of the Pathways Network over the past five years, focusing on the efforts of a diverse set of states and regions to build systems that span high school and the first two years of postsecondary education. States such as Delaware and Tennessee have been highly effective in establishing systems designed to equip students with credentials valued in the contemporary labor market. At the same time, the authors acknowledge the technical, political, and cultural challenges in redesigning career-focused education to produce satisfactory outcomes for young people throughout the country.Learning for Careers offers a way forward for the millions of young people and employers that face a rapidly evolving and ever more competitive globalized workplace. This book will be essential reading for all who have a stake in educational and economic opportunity in the United States.

Which non-American education systems best prepare young people for fulfilling jobs and successful adult lives? And what can the United States—where far too many young people currently enter adulthood without adequate preparation for the twenty-first-century job market—learn, adopt, and adapt from these other systems?In Schooling in the Workplace, Nancy Hoffman addresses these questions head on, arguing that “the smartest and quickest route to a wide variety of occupations for the majority of young people in the successful countries—not a default for failing students—is a vocational program that integrates work and learning.” As she notes, the programs that successfully integrate work and learning all share a fundamental commitment to helping young people find successful careers: “The purpose is not ‘college for all,’ as in the United States today, but rather to provide the education and training young people need to prepare for a career or calling.”Schooling in the Workplace explores the vocational education programs in a wide range of countries, focusing in rich and useful detail on six in particular: Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland. Framing these discussions, however, is a persistent focus on American circumstances and challenges. Far more than a survey of six “foreign” programs, this is a book prompted by and organized around the policy and practical challenges facing the United States.