What are Career Clusters?
Career Clusters are groupings of occupations and career specialties that are organized under 16 broad industry areas based upon the common set of essential knowledge and skills that students must learn in order to achieve career success.

Essential knowledge and skills can be used by teachers as an organizing tool for curriculum design and instruction. This common set of knowledge and skills prepare students for a full range of occupations and career specialties, with program curricula that integrates technical, academic, and employability knowledge and skills, and special instructional techniques that help students connect what they learn in school to real-world applications.

In health science, there is only one program of study operating at community colleges and universities in New Jersey that lead to multiple career options in postsecondary education. This program of study is called: Health Services/Allied Health/Health Science, General, with a Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) Code 510000.

Curricula developed for the Health Services/Allied Health/Health Science, General must be cross-walked with the Health Science General Knowledge and Skill Statements (New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standard 9.4).

What are career pathways?
Career pathways are sub-groupings of occupations and career specialties in a career cluster. Groups of occupations are organized under career pathways based upon the common set of specialized knowledge and skills specifically related to the career pathway that students must learn in order to achieve career success.

Curricula developed for a program leading to a specialized degree or certification in a career pathway will include the general knowledge and skills of the career cluster, and the specialized knowledge and skills for the career pathway.