Guided Pathways
Charge
Guided Pathways create clear paths to education and employment using “educational pathways.” Educational Pathways (EP) are broad areas of interest, under which multiple majors are clustered. In- and out-of-class supports align with EPs, and include redesigning webpages and student communications, academic advising, new student orientation, and first-year activities including EP-specific seminars, job shadowing, and internships. COCC’s Guided Pathways work will also include engaging students in career- and goal-identification activities and creation of “trailhead courses,” courses that motivate students about their career goals and serve as an introduction to that career.
COCC’s eight Education Pathways are groupings of disciplines and programs that provide students a way to explore and navigate what courses to take for their specific career and/or transfer goals. The pathways are organized based on where students may have shared interests or common core classes. Organizing our programs in this way allows us to provide the structure and support to better help students confirm and/or clarify their career goals and choose the most appropriate path. Students can be exploratory within a path as well as change from one path to another, and in the Guided Pathways framework, they will have the support of an assigned advisor to make those types of decisions.
COCC’s Education Pathways were developed through a collaborative process, beginning with a work group consisting of faculty, administrators, classified staff, and students in 2021-22 who developed the pathways we use today through research, exploration of other college’s pathways, and feedback from COCC stakeholders. Since that initial work, the Education Pathways have been further refined through ongoing work as we prepare for our Fall 2026 launch of our Guided Pathways model.
