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Stanly Community College has been awarded grant funding from the Alcoa Foundation for
a broad digital initiative titled “Digital Pathways Tool for Career Exploration and Planning.”

“There is a need for colleges, local education agencies and other workforce development partners to do a better job providing students with information about career fields, education requirements, and realistic earning and job placement data,” said Jeff Parsons, vice president of academic affairs/chief academic officer for Stanly Community College. “While several resources exist, they are disconnected from each other, presenting a challenge for students and displaced workers, especially in rural communities, as they seek to determine the best path forward to support themselves and their families. Stanly Community College is very grateful for the Alcoa funding that will help SCC develop a more comprehensive and interactive digital pathways tool. This tool will integrate with a newly designed website to guide students through their educational journey and career plans.”

SCC participates in the American Association of Community Colleges’ Pathways Project and has produced program pathway documents for its traditional students. These documents provide recommended course sequences for full-time and part-time students, limited job growth and wage data, and suggest milestones students should try to meet as they progress through the programs.

More recently, the College participated in the Aspen Institute’s Workforce Guided Pathways National Symposium that emphasized the need to focus on career success for students and not just retention and graduation rates.
That, together with work associated with the Federal Perkins V Grant, revealed a need for a more comprehensive pathways project to guide students.

For more information about the Digital Pathways Tool for Career Exploration and Planning initiative, contact Jeania Martin, executive director, SCC Foundation, at 704-991-0370 or jmartin8295@stanly.edu.