The career pathway relates to a professional’s training hours, education, and work experience to a career lattice position. From entry-level to level 9, it will calculate a user’s expertise in the early childhood field.
As an early childhood professional, you can advance the career pathway levels by gaining more professional experience or obtaining additional education credentials, such as a child development associate (CDA) credential or a bachelor’s degree. You may use the career lattice pathway to guide your professional development and growth in the future, as well as assist with marketing yourselves to employers and parents.
The steps below will help you determine how to print your career pathway report.
Instructions:
Step
1
Before printing your career pathway below, you will need to determine what your career lattice level is.
The image below shows how the Career Lattice is designed to be used. (If you would like more in-depth information about the lattice, you may select the image, and it will take you to the Career Lattice document that describes the various uses of the Career Lattice; the Career Lattice itself with instructions for use, and important notes on the Career Lattice.)
Step 1
In the Education column, locate the highest certification or degree you have obtained.
Step 2
In the Annual Professional Development column, be sure you have completed the required number of annual professional development hours within the past 12 months.
Step 3
In the Experience In Early Childhood column, locate your highest level of full-time experience.
Step 4
Find the intersection of your education, annual professional development, and experience — you have found your level on the career lattice!
Step
2
You have two options for using the career pathway tool.
First Option
The first option is the One-Page Form: This option allows you to enter information quickly on one page. You should choose this option if you are familiar with uploading information to websites.
Second Option
The second option is the Guided Walk-through: You may enter information and receive a little extra guidance on a series of webpages. You should choose this option if you need a little more help entering information into your account.
Step
3
The image below is a sample of the 1-page form.
Fill in the information on the page by using the dropdown menus and uploading the corresponding documents.
Step
4
The image below is a sample of one of the guided walk-through pages.
As you can see, it provides additional information to assist you in completing the forms.
Click through each page until complete. Once you have uploaded all of your information, you will be given a printable career pathway report with a self-reported lattice level.
Step
5
The career lattice report will provide a career pathway level as shown across the top of the report and explain why a certain level was received. The highlighted chart below suggests how to move to the next level.
You may receive both a verified and self-reported level, and they may be different based on what records the validator can review and verify as accurate.
In addition, this report will provide information on:
- Possible employment fields that fit your current level of experience and education
- Links to possible scholarship opportunities available, and
- Links to early childhood resource pages
This document was last modified on: August 8, 2023