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    Higher Education Career Advisors Pilot (HECAP)

    The Higher Education Career Advisors Pilot Project (HECAP) involves Workforce Development Areas/Local Workforce Development Boards and community-based organizations partnering with public school districts to assist high school students in choosing careers and the education and training required for those careers.

    Overview

    The Minnesota Legislature has appropriated funds annually since SFY 2016 for the HECAP project. During the SFY 2020 - 2021 biennium, the appropriation is $250,000 per year.

    Chapter 1 of 2015 Special Session Law appropriated $250,000 per year in SFYs 2016 and 2017 for pilot programs in the Workforce Development Areas (WDAs) to combine career and higher education advising. This appropriation followed a successful Higher Education Career Advisors Pilot Project (HECAP) during SFY 2014 - 2015 in four WDAs: Rural Minnesota CEP, Northeast Minnesota, Career Solutions and Hennepin-Carver WDA.

    The HECAP addresses the following goals:

    • Assist high school students in selecting a career of interest to the student and a post-secondary path to prepare for that career;
    • Provide effective career counseling and labor market information to the region’s youth and families in collaboration with school counselors;
    • Build on the work of the Local Workforce Development Boards in identifying strategic industries and high-growth, in-demand occupations;
    • Raise local youth and parent awareness and usage of Minnesota’s workforce development system and engage local workforce, education and economic development partners.
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