Adirondack Business to School
Initiative
The BOCES Career and Technical Program
The Warren-Saratoga-Washington-Hamilton-Essex
BOCES Career and
Technical Program is looking for a few new partners. They need
volunteers from the region's private sector for the following:
- Internships/Work-based Site
- Guest Speaker
- Equipment Donation
- Corporation Collaboration
Career Exploration Program (CEP): Seniors from
component high schools explore careers of their choice with
local mentors. They receive one half-credit for every 54 hours
worked and are evaluated quarterly by the mentor and
coordinator. They may complete career explorations during or
after school, or on vacation time.
Individual Internships: Career & Technical
Education (CTE) students work during school time for an employer
for school credit. The students are evaluated quarterly by their
employer and graded by the CTE Teacher. The length of the
internship is agreed upon by both the CTE teacher and employer.
Employer Benefits: The BOCES Internship programs offer
employers/mentors the opportunity to train potential employees
and to influence educational trends. In addition, private sector
partners help to influence today's youth and to teach them the
soft-skills that are so essential to life-long employment and
career success. Unpaid interns are covered under the BOCES
liability insurance.
For more details, we invite our members to contact:
Eric Lis or Laura
Mattson
School-to-Work Coordinators
Southern Adirondack Education Center
1051 Dix Avenue
Hudson Falls, NY 12839
746-3445 or 746-3443
fax
746-3441
ACC's Career Services
The Adirondack Community College's (ACC) Career Services
Office provides a range of options to local employers interested
in identifying prospects to fill local job openings. Employers
can obtain a "Job Order Form" to list positions in the
office for up to one month by contacting Tim Lahey by email or
telephone at 743-2268.
In addition, employers can post and manage jobs online at the
following website: www.collegecentral.com/sunyacc.
Click on "Employers" and then click on "Register
Now." You can make up your own Access ID. Once the college
confirms that your employer information has been posted, the
college will assign a password and notify you by email so that
you can go back in and enter the details of your job.
ABSP History and Purpose
The
Adirondack Business to School Partnership was created in 2003. Their objective is to
develop
a coordinated strategy between businesses and schools that
provides a genuine connection for students to improve their
employability and strengthen the regional workforce.
The intent is
twofold: to meet the employment needs of businesses and organizations
and to generate and strengthen a workforce from regional
schools.
This
strategy will result in more stable employment opportunities for
area students and residents while at the same time provide a
workforce to support the maintenance and growth of the region.
To identify the best
approach to address this challenge, a group of regional business
and education leaders formed the
Adirondack
Business to School Partnership. They hired the consulting firm of
Teri Goodall & Associates, LLC
out of Binghamton, NY, to investigate
and study the regional workforce
environment; explore the research on similar
workforce endeavors; identify
current school activities
that prepare students for work; identify regional employment
trends; and develop a plan for the future.
A representative sample of business, governmental and
professional people, educational leaders, and students were
surveyed and interviewed to analyze current business endeavors
and school system involvement. Best practices and processes in operation in other areas
of the country were identified as potential for the future.
To
learn more about the business, educator and student survey
results, you can use Adobe Acrobat to read the following
reports:
.
Educators:
www.adirondackchamber.org/educator-survey-04.pdf.
Students:
www.adirondackchamber.org/student-survey-04.pdf.
Key
Findings
Teri Goodall
& Associates, LLC identified a number of
issues for the
Partnership
to address. Among
the more critical were the following:
The labor pool does not
meet the growing business needs across regional businesses.
Over 70% of the survey respondents identified the
greatest needs in positions that only require a high school or
GED education. However,
over 65% also found difficulty in filling positions requiring
experienced employees, and those with advanced or college
degrees.
Positions
that were reported as most difficult to fill were in the areas
of clerical (aides, clerks/secretarial and customer service) and
production/ manufacturing.
Employers
identified the following variables as problematic in hiring and
retaining new employees: lack of work ethic, lack of desire,
attitude, commitment, geographic location, and low pay. In
addition, the inadequate preparation of new employees in “soft
skills” was identified as one of the largest problems.
While
68% of survey respondents feel that the area does generate a
significant number of part-time opportunities for high school
students, only 18% of the seniors surveyed indicated that they
would seek work locally after graduation.
While
some local businesses include school districts in their
recruitment efforts, this is not the norm.
In fact, another significant finding of the study is the
need for schools and businesses to collaborate to provide
awareness for students about the employment opportunities
available. The
Report provides numerous methods and processes to accomplish
this.
The final report of Teri Goodall &
Associates, LLC provided the Partnership with a number
of specific recommendations, along with various methods and
processes for accomplishment. First and foremost is for
Partnership members to study
the Report, and to create a Strategic Plan.
Providing
for
all of the recommendations in this Summary would be
challenging. However, to provide a sampling
of the recommendations, a few are shared here. For example,
for
businesses,
we recommend the following:
allow students to visit and shadow employees; sponsor
teacher in-service programs; provide company speakers for all
different age groups; encourage employees to talk about their
work with their own children.
For
schools: implement the NYS Career Development and Occupational Studies
Learning Standards; invite local business people into the
classroom(s) to speak to students and teachers; sponsor Junior Achievement
programs;
with local businesses
create
formal career experiences, including apprenticeships, mentoring,
internships, and job shadowing.
For the communities: provide
business / school public service opportunities; support the
local BOCES; promote the Adirondack Community College; promote
the Glens Falls area as a good place to work and raise a family;
plan promotional activities for parents and children at area
businesses.
Achievement of these and the many other
recommendations
will require leadership. It is strongly recommended that this
Plan contain the creation of
a
Partnership Coordinator position to provide leadership for the
continuing Plan implementation in the coming years. The
Coordinator would be responsible for guiding the development of
goals, activities, and time frames; for identifying and pursuing
funding resources; and for monitoring, revisiting and revising
this Plan as needed to be sure that targeted survey
recommendations are being addressed in a timely fashion.
Communication to Partnership Members should be provided
on a regularly scheduled basis through published progress
reports, and with regularly scheduled meetings.
The Coordinator would also be responsible to develop
sub-committees to
review
and implement the recommendations from the Report’s
information and findings. These sub-committees could be created from members of the
local business and education communities. The Coordinator would
create a monitoring and evaluative process to keep the
sub-committees on task and target as they review and implement
the Survey Recommendations.
The Coordinator would work with
the sub-committees to achieve the following:
to ensure continuation of existing efforts with state
agencies to improve employment skills; to support BOCES
occupational programs; to continue and enhance the business and
school partnership in programs such as Junior Achievement and
the Cornell University Youth and Work Program; and to identify
and promote programs where businesses take the opportunity to
encourage area students to consider working locally.
To attain the desired results, it is critical that
the
Adirondack Business to School Partnership become sustainable. Each Partnership Member must be diligent in support of this
process and the Partnership.
Financial resources should be solicited from state and
federal funding sources for workforce development programs, and
from the same local businesses who would also be beneficiaries
of these endeavors. Active
efforts should be made to seek Partnership funding from
foundation and grant sources.
All
individuals
and businesses interested in regional workforce development are encouraged to contact the
Adirondack
Business to School Partnership for access to the Report
findings
and recommendations, and to volunteer resources to improve
workforce development across the region.
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