Back to School – Preparing Students for Life & Career Pathways
Ask any of our 500 plus Chamber members what their biggest issue is these days and they’ll likely tell you it’s the attraction and acquisition of talent. Recruiting, training and retaining employees is a huge cost of doing business in today’s climate. With near record unemployment lows in our region and Beaver County specifically, it is getting harder and harder to find people to fill the current number of job openings. We’ve spoken of this before, but unless we start to grow the population of Beaver County more aggressively, it will only become more difficult to find employees and expand economic prosperity to the benefit of all our residents.
One way to grow the availability of our future workforce needs, and prepare our youth for successful lives, is by providing them with a wide array of career path options. The Chamber Government Affairs Education & Workforce Development Subcommittee, along with several of our member partners, are working to change the paradigm of how to prepare our youth for as many diverse career options as possible.
Organizations like Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania are continuing to invest in our youth through efforts like their soon to open BizTown. JA BizTown is a fully interactive, mock community which mimics the western Pennsylvania economy. Students in 4th through 6th grade will visit JA BizTown in South Fayette Township after completing 12 lessons of in class curriculum based on financial literacy, community and economy, workforce readiness, and business management. During the curriculum, students learn how to complete a check, write a resume, interview for a job, and how to be a good citizen, in addition to many other very important skills.
At the simulation, students work individually and with their business for four and a half hours to complete a set of individualized job tasks. Throughout the day citizens of BizTown get paid twice, have to make speeches to the town, lead staff meetings, act as consumers and producers, vote on serious issues, and do many other things that each of us do every day. JA BizTown provides students with the life skills necessary to be a productive member of an economy and a fun and engaging place to practice those skills. JA’s goal is that students leave BizTown with a better understanding of the world around them.
Other partners in this effort to prepare our youth, like the Community College of Beaver County, are also investing heavily in our high school students by making a focused career-oriented education (and earning college credits), much easier. CCBC’s High School Academy program, which was the recent recipient of the Carnegie Science Center’s Leadership in STEM Education Award, provides pathways to high-demand career fields for high school students from across Western Pennsylvania. Launched in 2015 with its signature Aviation Academy, the program has grown to house five academies and to serve close to 200 students from nearly 40 school districts throughout the region.
Through a nationally distinctive and innovative dual enrollment model, high school juniors and seniors explore careers in Aviation, Health, STEM, Criminal Justice, and Construction receive hands-on instruction from college faculty, and acquire critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Students who devote two years of study to the program will graduate high school with one year of credits toward CCBC’s associate degree programs or programs at other colleges and universities.
For the past five years the Chamber has also facilitated an event now known as Pathways. It is a middle school program aimed at presenting students an opportunity to explore STEM related career pathways associated with the building trades, construction, apprenticeships, process technology, and other science, technology, engineering, and math-oriented occupations. Last year all 14 Beaver County public school districts with middle school programs participated in the event.
This October 17th we expect well over a thousand Beaver County middle school students from all of the public, private and parochial schools participate in the program at CCBC’s Athletics & Event Center. There will be dozens of labor, industry and education representatives interacting with the students to show them their various career paths and type of work they do in their industry. There will also be programs on robotics and artificial intelligence.
The more students are able to see and understand their full range of options, the better informed they will be when making decisions that best fit their educational, financial and personal needs for life after high school. Our Energy & Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (EAMP) members are more than happy to introduce them to these options. We are grateful for their investment in our youth and hopefully a new generation of future business and industry employees and leaders.
This important community update is brought to you by Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, 1st Consultants, Strassburger, McKenna, Gutnick & Gefsky, Ambridge Regional Chamber of Commerce, Skerlec Contracting, and NovaCare!
