Online Directory and Comparison Tool

CLASP

Opportunity

Career pathways offer people routes to skilled professions in local industries and support them along the way. The career pathways landscape is booming in California—and as the set of players, investments and activities associated with this approach grows, the need for pathways quality and sustainability does as well.

With support from The James Irvine Foundation, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) assessed more than 50 pathways initiatives against six core elements of pathways quality. CLASP then engaged Williams Group (Wg) to help make this information more accessible and actionable, with the goal of helping all initiatives enhance their understanding and strengthen their activity.

Approach

A quality, sustainable pathways program is in effect a framework with all six elements activated and in play. Wg worked with CLASP to develop a visual model for this framework—when applied to individual pathways, the model illustrates areas of current activity, as well as opportunities for growth and collaboration. Wg also edited detailed profiles describing each initiative’s approach to implementation.

To house these profiles, Wg designed an interactive initiative directory which can be filtered by sector or element. Users can learn about their own initiatives and seek out those with complementary elements. The directory includes a comparison view where users can see many initiatives at a glance and explore potential matches—surfacing opportunities for learning, collaboration and braided funding. These matches can be easily exported to facilitate offline connection.  

Results

Wg supported rollout to the field by creating an introductory presentation and promotional materials, which CLASP continues to use with great success. 

Today, the directory enables common understanding and use of shared language for the essential elements of a quality careers pathway program—in effect, setting a standard for any career pathway. Visitors are using the tool to strengthen their initiative activity, start new partnerships and combine their resources to greater effect. 

Wg also developed a user guide so that CLASP can add new resources to the directory over time—keeping it a vibrant, living resource. 

Launch the Site
SAMPLE COLLATERAL