The CAPS Model of career-focused education through designed work-based learning experiences began in 2009 with the creation of Blue Valley School District’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) in Overland Park, Kansas.  CAPS is a nationally recognized, innovative high school program where students fast forward into their future and are fully immersed in a professional culture, solving real world problems, using industry standard tools and are mentored by actual employers.

CAPS innovations replaces the 100-year old model of throwing students over the wall to their next post-secondary experience and ultimately their careers.  It integrates high school, college and industry into a single community to provide a set of experiences unmatched in other programs.

CAPS is an example of how business, post-secondary institutions and high school educators can partner to produce personalized learning experiences that educate the workforce of tomorrow, especially in high skill, high demand jobs.

Instead of traditional forms of instruction, the CAPS Model provides students experiences where they can discover their strengths and passions while exploring potential careers.

The CAPS Network is a gathering of like-minded institutions across the world focused on the use of Profession-Based Learning to prepare their students for both career and post-secondary next steps.  The members of the network collaborate on new innovations and share best practices through events and conversations.

The journey from education to employment has become more complex.  The forces of globalization and technology to include the growing deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) have created new stresses and opportunities in the world economy.

These forces are having a significant impact—ranging from job creation to job displacement and from heightened labor productivity to widening skills gaps. Students will need to be prepared for these disruptions in both their technical and essential skills.

CAPS prepares students not just for the jobs as they are today but for the jobs of the future by developing their ability to respond to change and uncertainty.

Traditional CTE and other career-based education models are powerful approaches that provide market-driven content for a number of careers paths.  Jobs are specialized and have unique terms and processes.  These traditional models organize educational resources along these distinct professions and deliver important content.

Many CAPS Network affiliates integrate CAPS into these existing programs to compliment the knowledge gained through that curriculum with the context of applying that knowledge to real situations with real industry partners.

Profession-Based Learning, as defined and practiced by CAPS Network affiliates, is the highest form of experiential learning. It is a set of real experiences designed with industry partner engagement that not only leverages technical content but provides real context for that knowledge through authentic client-connected projects and internships.

Within these Profession-Based Learning experiences, students can utilize the essential or durable skills such as collaboration and critical thinking.

Each affiliate program in the network selects and develops those professional strands and sets of experiences that meet the needs of the students and the community. Examples of CAPS strands offered across our network include: animal health; bioscience; data analytics; engineering; food and agriculture; global business; healthcare and medicine; innovation; law and public service; logistics; media; teacher education; and technology.

The CAPS model does not offer a set curriculum for each discipline but instead helps members develop their own customized offerings to meet the needs of their students and the community. CAPS values a set of authentic, professional experiences for students over an exclusive focus on content delivery.

No. The CAPS Network welcomes partnerships with profession-based learning initiatives regardless of school type. CAPS Network currently includes public, private and charter institutions. We look to see the level of commitment to design a program using the Five Core Values of the CAPS model and to participate in network functions.

Employers are struggling to find team members with the essential and durable skills necessary to hit the ground running and be adaptive to the needs of the 21^st century workplace. Additionally, research shows that a clear mismatch exists between the skills employers seek and the skillsets of both current workers and new entrants to the workforce.

Industry has recognized that passively waiting on each new crop of graduates is not a winning strategy. All organizations must become actively engaged to provide for the needs of business as well as the greater community.

Essential skills – also referred to as professional skills or durable skills – reflect a set of abilities that are required no matter how the technical aspects of a job changes.  The technical skills associated with jobs, those that are unique to the discipline, are changing at an unprecedented rate.  Critical thinking, collaboration and teamwork are skills that prepare students to adapt and adjust to future changes.

While Profession-Based Learning provides students the opportunity to learn and practice these skills, greater emphasis is placed on designing situations where students must leverage durable skills to achieve success.

Each CAPS program will leverage the post-secondary assets that are in proximity to its location and/or leverage on-line options that are available and accredited.  Additionally, post-secondary partners can be resources for the design of the curriculum. Most programs affiliated with CAPS Network offer students dual or concurrent credit with post-secondary institutions upon completion of CAPS courses.

While each institution has different admission standards, showing the ability to complete real-world interdisciplinary projects is proving to differentiate CAPS students on college, university, and scholarship applications.

CAPS Network allows a K-12 school or district to leverage a robust ecosystem of innovative educators who are currently connecting students to professionals through a shared framework. Affiliating with CAPS Network provides a number of immediate benefits to administrators, teachers, and students, including, but not limited to:

• Entry to exclusive member-only events, including video chats and cross-program student experiences;

• Support from the CAPS Network executive team, including onboarding guidance and resource navigation;

• Access to the CAPS Colab – our proprietary online collaboration engine that includes both connections to other members, as well as a CAPS resource repository;

• Website access and promotion; and

• Ability to leverage national industry and post-secondary partnerships via CAPS Network.

CAPS Network feels like a family. Together, we share best and next practices, troubleshoot challenges, and celebrate our successes.

Take our self-assessment of your ability and willingness to devote resources and build a CAPS program. After exploring our website, we would welcome you to contact us for a conversation to explore your vision and how well it aligns to the purpose and core values of CAPS. You can send us a message from the Contact Us page, or call us at 913-239-5900.