Who Is This For?

The Pathways suite of tools is designed for anyone who works in ISL. If you’re seeking a clearer sense of what you know—and what you still need to learn—the tools can help you assess your current ISL competencies and identify areas for development.

There are many ways that you can engage with Pathways. The steps below describe one possible route through the suite of tools.

• REVIEW: First, take time to review the categories and competencies within the Framework’s four domains: General Expertise, Job-Specific Expertise, Operations, and Audiences & Impact. You may find it helpful to do this with a friend or colleague. Don’t worry, it’s not necessary to review the entire Framework in one sitting. You may find it useful to review one domain at a time.
• REFLECT: Now that you have an overview of the Framework competencies, you may want to use the Self-Assessment to identify your areas of strength and areas where you wish to grow. Remember, you do not need to work through the entire Self-Assessment in one session. Again, you may find it helpful to complete the Self-Assessment with a friend or colleague.
• PLAN: After you’ve completed the Self-Assessment, you can use the Learning Plan to determine the areas you want to develop and to consider steps for professional growth. 

The Pathways suite of tools is designed for anyone who works in ISL. While individuals can use the tools to explore their own competencies, informal learning organizations with a STEM mission or cultural organizations with some STEM programming can use the tools to plan staff development, shape staffing strategies, refine job descriptions, and more. Remember, Pathways is not a performance evaluation tool, but a way for individuals to assess their competencies and identify ways to grow as ISL professionals.

The list below includes a range of engagement opportunities for supervisors, managers, human resources professionals, and others who want to help staff understand and develop their ISL competencies.

• INDIVIDUALLY: You can encourage and provide time for individual staff members to use the Pathways suite of tools to understand and develop their own competencies individually (see section above for more ideas).
• TEAM-BASED: You can organize a professional learning series where staff members meet in a group to work through the Pathways suite of tools together. Through conversation with others, individuals can better understand the tools and their own competencies. Supervisors and managers can then shape and support ongoing professional development for all staff by applying insights from team-based work and helping individuals build their skills, knowledge, and capabilities over time.
• ORGANIZATION-WIDE: Organizations can use the Pathways suite of tools to identify the skills, knowledge, and capabilities desired for job descriptions or devising organizational staffing plans. The tools can also be used to identify strengths or gaps and prioritize professional development.

The Pathways suite of tools is designed for anyone who works in ISL. While individuals can use Pathways to explore their own competencies, academic programs whose students aim to work in these organizations can leverage the tools to support student learning and career development. As faculty, advisers, and academic staff, you can use the strategies below to help students understand and develop their own ISL competencies.

• ONE-ON-ONE: Advisers can use the tools in individual advising appointments to help students identify their skills, knowledge, and capabilities. These one-on-one conversations can prompt advisers and students to discuss the most appropriate course work, thesis work, or mentorships and other extra-curricular experiences to pursue.
• COURSEWORK: Faculty can incorporate Pathways as the main element of a career exploration course. Working individually and in small groups, the class can use the tools to examine their skills, knowledge, and capabilities as part of future career planning. Additionally, faculty can use Pathways to consider curriculum and course content.
• INTERNSHIPS: Students or internship coordinators can use Pathways to shape internship activities and expectations around learning goals.

The Pathways suite of tools is designed for anyone who works in ISL. While individuals can use Pathways to explore their own competencies, professional associations and networks can use the suite of tools to help member individuals and organizations better understand and develop the competencies that build ISL expertise. The opportunities below describe just a few ways that your association could engage with Pathways and reach members.

• WORKSHOPS: You can organize in-person or virtual professional learning experiences that provide focused time for individual members to use the Pathways suite of tools to understand their competencies and identify professional learning experiences to advance their skills, knowledge, and capabilities. These could take the form of half-day or daylong workshops or concurrent sessions at conferences, or be offered virtually as a member benefit. Consider targeted sessions for supervisors and managers that support their ability to lead to professional learning experiences for staff at their organizations.
• RESOURCES: You can develop new supplementary materials that help your members develop competencies with particular importance to your association or network. This might take the form of blogs, articles, new toolkits, or trainings.