Last semester, 16 students from Leland & Gray High School and three students from Twin Valley High School earned a Windham Work Ready Credential by completing a semester-long intensive course in vocational preparation. The program was designed and implemented by the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation’s Pipelines and Pathways Program for Twin Valley students and developed in close collaboration with L & G’s Senior Survival Class.
Every senior at L&G uses Senior Survival to help complete their graduation requirements while TV students enroll in a volunteer pilot program. Only students who consistently demonstrated the skills and behaviors required to navigate the professional world were granted eligibility and marched to graduation with teal cords of honor indicating their achievement. Janelle Fisher and Tanya Wheeler of TV and Dylan Greenwood of L&G also received the BDCC’s Windham Work Ready grant to illustrate the responsibility, initiative, professionalism, positivity and resilience it takes to excel in the professional world.
Students began their journey in January with an overview of the growing employment sectors in Windham County, across Vermont, and across the country. In addition to traditional four-year colleges, students learned about alternative paths to post-secondary success, such as: B. Certification programs, community colleges, and tuition reimbursement jobs. Students then explored their passions through interest inventory, research, and goal mapping. During the course, they learned best practices for applying for jobs, writing résumés and preparing for job interviews. They learned professional body language, choice of words and looks (including how to tie a tie), how to effectively resolve conflicts, how to speak to a manager, and how initiative and resilience make the difference between success or failure at work and in life.
During one of the final challenges of the course, the students were brought together for briefings with experts in their area of interest. Working with employers in fields such as healthcare, civil engineering, law enforcement, marketing, software engineering, equine therapy, cosmetics, and electrical engineering, students had the opportunity to ask questions about what it’s really like to be employed in the profession.
Pipelines and Pathways (P3) is a BDCC Workforce Center of Excellence program built on Southeast Vermont Economic Development Strategies to increase the size and quality of the workforce. BDCC is a private, not-for-profit economic development organization that serves as a catalyst for industrial and commercial growth in southeast Vermont and is one of 12 RDCs in all of Vermont.
The course was developed in response to local employers and college recruiters who recognized the need for improved employability and soft skills in their new hires and freshmen. They believe that a greater focus on improving these skills will increase the likelihood that young people will get through their trial period at work or their first year of college. Senior Survival will continue to be a compulsory course at L&G next year, and P3 has used the program’s successes in television to create a creditworthy course for students and juniors in conjunction with their new entrepreneurship program. This holistic approach to education ensures that every senior safely completes their degree with a clear and solid plan for post-secondary success in the years to come.
P3 is funded by the McClure Foundation, the Vermont Training Program, the Vermont Community Foundation, the Windham County Economic Development Program, the Thomas Thompson Trust, the George W. Mergens Foundation, People’s United Bank, Tom Smith & Omega Optical, and the Whitney Blake Company in Bellows Falls.
More information is available at https://brattleborodevelopment.com/workforce/ and www.seveds.com.
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/pipelines-and-pathways-helps-students-chart-path-to-success-community-news/
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