Some courses include students from all pathways, and the curriculum covers broad employability skills, though students are strongly encouraged to conduct projects that directly relate to their individual pathway. There are also pathway-specific courses that constitute the core curriculum for the pathway, are limited to pathway students only, and incorporate the pathway s technical content and career information. Students also participate in work-based learning experiences based on the career pathway. Some schools adopt a pathway structure but keep conventional departments and traditional classes with teachers gearing assignments to pathway interests of students. Other schools replace conventional departments with pathways, and students take specific course sequence through pathway.
Students also participate in work-based learning experiences based on the career pathway.
This requires intense teacher collaboration, integration of academic and vocational content, and learning organized around projects and internships. Regardless of the structure chosen, developing pathways often requires significant changes in schedules to accommodate new forms of learning and opportunities to connect with employers and other community members through work-based learning and classroom experiences. This may involve longer time blocks during the day or breaking up course curricula into different time blocks over a semester or year. Larger blocks of time are also beneficial to teachers, providing time to work on curricula, team teaching strategies, and new instructional techniques. All students are prepared for success in the world of work, and possess broad, transferable academic, employability, and occupational skills.