Giving students in Planning District 16 an edge when it comes to work-based learning and hands-on experience was the topic of the day at the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce’s Workforce Now forum.
School executives from Caroline, King George, Stafford, and Spotsylvania counties, plus Fredericksburg City Public Schools, joined a panel discussion Tuesday on how each school division can provide its students with career readiness programs, partnerships with area businesses and opportunities to build job skills through internships and externships.
Dr. Antoinette Jenkins, director of the Rappahannock Work and Learn Collaborative at the University of Mary Washington, served as moderator, asking panelists questions on how business and education leaders can strengthen partnerships and develop and retain a future workforce.
Antoinette Jenkins served as emcee. (Photo by April Milupi)
The first topic was ensuring that high school students who don’t go to college can still get a work-based learning experience before they graduate.
King George County Schools Superintendent Jesse Boyd cited civic readiness as a focus for his district. He shared the example of agriculture students working with Friends of the Rappahannock to plant loblolly pine trees at Farley Vale Farm.
“It was an opportunity for many, many of our students to get a work-based learning experience and also to do a service project in the community and help that farm towards eliminating erosion in their community,” Boyd said. “It was a very wonderful experience.”
“Work-based learning is really for all students, not just for students who are going to college,” said Clint Mitchell, superintendent for Spotsylvania County Public Schools. “And I want to make sure that we provide the opportunity for all kids…We have a career readiness paraprofessional at each of our high schools.”
Mitchell also mentioned Xello, an online platform for K-12 students to explore careers and build skills, and the Ready-S.E.T.-Go program, a 40-hour externship program for high schoolers to experience a job firsthand.
Marcie Rice with Stafford Schools addresses the audience. (Photo by April Milupi)
Stafford County is also utilizing the Ready-S.E.T.-Go program, said Marcie Rice, Stafford County Public Schools’ Executive Director of High School Leadership.
“We have two work-based learning coordinators who work very closely with our school administrative teams and teachers to look for opportunities outside of those traditional pathways,” Rice said.
Later, Rice offered examples of work-based programs with cybersecurity defense contractors SIM Ventions in the Cyber4+ dual-enrollment program at Colonial Forge High School and students at Brooke Point High School’s Community Health and Medical Professions Center who are learning real skills that then translate into internships and careers after graduation.
“It’s all about making sure that our partnerships are supporting a curriculum to help students experience the interests that they have, and to solidify those choices they’re making in terms of their career pathways or to maybe move them into a different direction,” she said.
Boyd pointed out that one of the best examples of the partnership between King George businesses and county schools was a product of the Fredericksburg Chamber’s Intern Expo. Terri Rinko, the school division’s work-based learning and career readiness leader, made a connection with local business CMC Rebar.
Marci Catlett, Jesse Boyd, and Marcie Rice. (Photo by April Milupi)
“She really set up a relationship between the schools and them,” Boyd said. “We scheduled field trips and got students out there to see how the business operated. Then they said they had a spot for an intern and wanted us to recommend someone. This was a paid internship for a high school student for an entire semester.”
Boyd said the intern worked part of the day at the company and then spent part of the time at the high school.
“That experience probably changed that student’s life,” he said. “It just goes to show you the great things that are birthed through many of the relationships we’re building now.”
Fredericksburg Superintendent Marci Catlett said FCPS has been building a similar relationship with Mary Washington Healthcare and now offers a certified nursing assistant program with plans to expand programming in the future.
In Caroline County, a partnership with Habitat for Humanity not only gives students experience with building homes but is also turning into a project with tangible rewards for teachers.
“This example is reflective of how a seed, when nurtured, can really grow and blossom into something much larger,” said Caroline County Schools Superintendent Sarah Calveric. “Students building homes is not a new idea, but it was new to Caroline a handful of years ago and provided that relevant, real-world experience for our building and trade students.”
She further explained that thanks to more partnerships, those students held their own against larger school districts in competitions and earned national recognition. Those accolades led the school division to gain a partnership with Virginia Central Housing to offer inexpensive housing to teachers in the county, who then can be eligible for a Habitat program to build their own home.
“From that small partnership of building a home, which gave students opportunities, we now have this amazing brand-new recruitment/retention effort that is just underway,” Calveric said. “I’m excited to see what happens.”
