"Career Pathways" is a strategy adopted at federal, state and local levels to support workforce transitions from education into and through the careers. Pathways are designed to increase competencies for America's current and emerging workforce. This integrated array of programs and services develops academic, technical and work skills, provides ongoing education and training, and places workers in high-demand, high-opportunity jobs. With the rapid advances in technologies and processes, employers need workers who come prepared with the knowledge and skills necessary in today's high-performance workplace.

In partnership with secondary schools, community colleges, economic development agencies, employers, labor groups and community services. Career Pathways assists workers in learning about career ladders and lattices to progress into and through a career in both vertical movement within a job and lateral movement between related jobs. This information shows prospective workers their career potential beyond entry-level positions within an industry, helps focus workforce development endeavors, demonstrates the inter-connectedness of careers and informs workers of the education, training and skill development required to accomplish their career objectives.

To identify the demand for highly skilled workers, the competencies and training needed, the available workforce, and the skill gaps, the Peninsula Council for Workforce Development and Thomas Nelson Community College formed a strategic Career Pathways Partnership with manufacturers, the public schools, and community Partners.

Under a grant from the Ford Foundation and the Virginia Community Colleges, the collaborative conducted a comprehensive labor market study with SOAR, Inc., a research triangle park firm, that involved two surveys of the major manufacturers and confidential in-depth interviews
with executive and manpower planners at each company.

The Skills to Succeed Inventory is a comprehensive study of the careers in the Manufacturing Sector on the Virginia Peninsula with the 14 top companies. The Inventory resulted in 11 Career Pathway Profiles representing 11,150 jobs in Advanced and Precision Manufacturing Technologies on the Virginia Peninsula 2012-16. The jobs are as follow:

• CNC and Robotics Operators - 350
• Coating Specialists (Surface Prep Technicians) - 1,300
• Electricians - 1,700
• Engineers - 200
• Fabricators (and Sheetmetal Workers) - 950
• Fitters - 1,600
• Machinists - 1,200
• Production and Account Managers - 150
• Pipefitters - 1,850
• Repair Technicians - 150
• Welders - 1,700

The following profiles provide a description of the career, essential skills, classroom training and on-the-job (OJT) providers, application process, current employers, and current career pathways. Employers identified the numbers of job openings in each of the careers at their Peninsula locations in the next five years, and they specified the level of competencies needed in seven skill set areas:

• Technical Skills
• Computation Skills
• Communication Skills
• Technology (computer) Skills
• Workplace Skills
• Professional Skills
• Science Skills

The result of these profiles will be to engage industry and education in a discussion of how to re-engineer and expand current career pathways into these high demand, high opportunity jobs, and how to develop and fund new pathways to meet the expected demand for a highly
qualified technical workforce.

These jobs are in the Skilled Trades and Precision Production Technologies. An additional study is expected to quantify some 1,000 additional higher end job openings coming available for engineering and related technicians in Advanced Manufacturing.