Career Pathways are clusters of occupations or careers grouped together because the people in them share similar interests, strengths and skills.  A Career Pathways program offers students an Educational Development Plan based on their personal interests, talents, abilities and desired level of education.  It treats each student as an individual, and encourages all students to achieve their personal and career goals.  A Career Pathway offers students a way to discover the relevance of their selected school courses to actual occupations, and allows flexibility and informed choices in the career decision-making process. 

Parents, counselors, and teachers work along with the students as they progress through school.  In the Sturgis Public Schools, students begin their Pathway approach in the eighth grade as they look at personal interests, talents and abilities and begin to gather information and document their skills in a portfolio.  They also do a preliminary EDP.  They do extensive career research, job shadow, visit a college, learn about high school programs and listen to many career speakers.  At the end of eighth grade, students are asked to choose a Career Pathway and build their Educational Development Plan (EDP).  There are six Career Pathways to choose from, and since they are quite broad, most careers will fit into one of them. 

 Choose the Career Pathway above to view a sample pathway.