About

Next Career Pathways is an Itasca Area Schools Collaborative (IASC) program. IASC was formed in 2005 as a joint collaborative of seven school districts—Nashwauk-Keewatin, Greenway, Grand Rapids and Bigfork, Deer River, Floodwood, Hill City, and Northland Remer—and Itasca Community College. IASC serves over 8,000 students in the Itasca area. The mission of IASC is to collaborate to most efficiently and effectively to educate all learners and to be the trusted provider of education, promoting economic opportunity and lifelong learning in the Itasca area.

The IASC Career Pathways project began in 2016 thanks to a generous School Collaborative grant from the Minnesota Department of Iron Resources andRehabilitation. This grant began the design of the collaborative Healthcare and Manufacturing Career Pathways between Nashwauk-Keewatin, Greenway, and Grand Rapids High Schools, and Itasca Community College. In Fall 2019, the program expanded with funding support from The Blandin Foundation and now includes all eight high schools of IASC. In 2020, IASC approved the addition of five new career pathways: Construction, Natural Resources, Education, Business, and Computer Science. The program includes over seventy educators across IASC and Northeastern Minnesota Higher Education District (NHED) college employees and many community agency and business and industry partners. IASC Next Career Pathways is student-centered workforce development.