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TO: Mayor Thomas J. Weisner
FROM: Rick Guzman, Assistant Chief of Staff
Carie Anne Ergo, Chief Management Officer
DATE: October 2, 2015
SUBJECT:
A Resolution approving a Professional Services Agreement with Dr. Kathryn Birkett in support of Aurora's Pathways to Prosperity initiative.
PURPOSE:
Dr. Birkett's has been contracted to assist in the development of a business plan for the establishment of a Technical Training Center in Aurora. The City seeks approval to continue these services through 2017.
BACKGROUND:
In 2011, the Pathways to Prosperity Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education released a report, Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century. The report challenged this nation's excessive focus on the four-year college pathway. The report presented the need to create additional pathways that combine rigorous academics with strong technical education to equip the majority of young people with the skills and credentials to succeed in our increasingly challenging labor market.
In 2012, a group of committed Aurora leaders in business and education along with
State of Illinois partners engaged Jobs for the Future and the Harvard Graduate School of Education to assess our community's readiness and help to pursue opportunities for collective action.
In 2013, the group shared its recently completed research on the Aurora region's assets and challenges. This report identified that jobs in the Aurora area are most abundant in the health care and manufacturing industries, as well as in information technology (IT). It recommended that Aurora focus on creating new educational Pathways for students by combining rigorous academics with strong technical education to equip young people with the skills and credentials to succeed in these areas. The report identified the possibility of a future technical center to facilitate Pathways focused education in Aurora.
In 2014,...
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