Career Clusters and Pathways | Minnesota State CAREERwise (2024)

FAQs

What are career clusters and career pathways? ›

The National Career Clusters® Framework provides 16 job groupings with similar skill sets, interests, abilities, and activities. The clusters contain sub-groupings called career pathways. There are 79 career pathways in the National Career Cluster Framework.

Currently, there are 16 Career Clusters in the National Career Clusters Framework, representing 79 Career Pathways to help learners navigate their way to greater success in college and career.

FCCLA prepares members for careers through its four Career Pathways: Human Services, Hospitality and Tourism, Education and Training, and Visual Arts and Design.

What are Career Pathways? A Career Pathway outlines the positions, salary, and training required to advance in an industry.

There are four types of career paths—knowledge-based, skill-based, entrepreneur-based, and freelance. Every kind of career path caters to a specific set of qualifications that help you perform your job.

A career path is a list of steps to take in your professional life for progressing into different or more advanced roles at work. It's a series of jobs and experiences that help employees reach their ultimate career objectives and future goals.

National Career Clusters are defined as a grouping of occupations according to common knowledge and skills.

Pathway Description: People who work in the Environmental Service Systems pathway are involved in water and air pollution control, recycling, waste disposal and public health issues.

How do I choose a career cluster? ›

Career clusters are groups of related types of work. They give you an easy way to explore different kinds of jobs within one broad category. Start with one of the clusters—like health care or construction—to learn what it involves, current trends, and the different careers it offers.

Chapter projects focus on a variety of youth concerns, including teen pregnancy, parenting, family relationships, substance abuse, peer pressure, environment, nutrition and fitness, teen violence, and career exploration.

The three “R's” to Membership is:

Recruit. Retain. Recognize.

Students Taking Action with Recognition (STAR) Events are Competitive Events in which members compete at the regional/district, state, and national levels. Students are recognized for proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual projects, leadership skills, and career preparation.

Career Clusters identify the knowledge and skills needed to follow a career pathway toward career goals. Career clusters also provide the framework for exploring many occupational options that are available. Career clusters are broken down and divided into different pathways.

The Finance Career Cluster prepares students for careers in financial and investment planning, banking, insurance and business financial management. Finance career opportunities are available in every sector of the economy and require skill in organization, time management, customer service and communication.

From extracting oil and harnessing the wind, to supervising a power plant or maintaining power lines, a great variety of career options is available in the energy industry.