The path from high school to career can be a long and winding road. In fact, many roads tend to zig and zag their way through time.
To help this, career pathways have been developed to help students transition between different levels of education, into jobs and back again as they gain more skills and move up their career ladder to better, higher-paying positions. They are partnership between your area high school, adult schools, and community colleges. Pathways can be a way for you to not only understand college-level material, but to receive college credit for high school classes.
Once in college, a pathway can be the route you take from one level of a career to the next. It can include work experience you get through on-the-job trainings and internships. It should include looking at the entire field of jobs in an area of study to see which direction and steps you can take to reach your ultimate goal.
Read more about pathways and how to jump start an education and career at these sites: