Colorado Career Advisor Training Grant Program

Purpose

The purpose of the Colorado Career Advisor Training Grant Program is to provide training for career advising professionals across sectors, so that Colorado can magnify the impact and develop needed career advising capacity.

Approximately $972,000 is available for the 2023-24 Colorado Career Advisor Training Grant through June 30, 2025.

Objectives

• Objective 1: Complete a comprehensive landscape review of career advising resources across sectors, including but not limited to professional development, training, conferences, state organizations, websites, etc. (K-12, higher education, workforce, school counselors, community-based organizations, youth organizations, and state agencies). Deliver a summary report with recommendations, which may include suggested tools, to encompass these available resources. Grantee: The Attainment Network
   
• Objective 2: Plan at least four regional in-person and two virtual forums to collect inclusive stakeholder feedback for a statewide ICAP/career pathways platform aligned with recommendation #5 in the 1215 Task Force Final Report. Grantees: Bellwether and Business Education Alliance
   
• Objective 3: Draft an Individual Career and Academic Plan (ICAP) framework as a career advising framework for the state, including how ICAP can be broadened to include adults (where the academic element could be credentials). Inclusive stakeholder feedback required. Grantees: Bellwether and YAASPA
   
• Objective 4: Develop recommendations for the creation of a Colorado Career Advisor Credential aligned with national criteria in career advising, including an endorsement for licensed educators, or recommendations for a pathway towards acquiring an existing national career credential for career advisors in the state. Grantee: YAASPA
   
• Objective 5: Coordinate a statewide career advising conference, based on 500+ attendees from across all advising sectors, that includes the results of Objectives 1-4. Session proposals should, at a minimum, be focused on:
  • Cross-training advising sectors;
  • Updates on regional training collaboratives such as the regional talent summits in HB24-1365;
  • Inclusion of student and job-seeker voices;
  • Increasing awareness of in-demand, high-growth careers in the state;
  • Other career training opportunities and resources. 
    Grantee: Business Education Alliance
     
• Maintenance of free online tool: Basic maintenance of Colorado Career Advising tool from round I. Grantee: Indigo Education Company​​

Overview

In 2019, as an education leadership council initiative, Colorado developed a first-in-the-nation model, the Colorado Career Conversations Training project, to train career advisors across systems. As a result of COVID-19, funding for this project was interrupted.

Program evaluations from the initial implementation concluded that the Colorado Career Conversations Training project resulted in a statewide expansion of highly trained career advisors focused on high-need sectors of the economy and built increased capacity for a more consistent and sustainable approach to career advising in Colorado as a model for the nation.

As a result, in the 2022 session, the Colorado General Assembly has passed Senate Bill 22-165 to continue the Colorado Career Advising Training Grant Program. The program intends to provide training for career advising professionals across sectors, so that Colorado can magnify the impact and develop needed career advising capacity. These training strategies reduce duplication in the system, support career advisors in honing and deepening their skills and ensure evidence-based practices and data driven decision are supported by using labor market information within Colorado’s career advising processes.

Contact

Michelle Romero 
E-mail: romero_m@cde.state.co.us