NC College Tech Prep Conference

I’m back from the NC College Tech Prep Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina, earlier this week. Several of the Career Development Coordinators (you might call them Facilitators or Counselors) from my school system attended as well.

We went to some great presentations and even did a few presentations ourselves.

Here is a synopsis of the Wake County presentations:

• One of our presentations was about Great Xplorations, which is a county-wide career fair for 2,000 of our 8th, 9th, and 10th graders. 150 volunteers from business and postsecondary education set up informative displays and talked to students about careers. This presentation discussed how to put on an event like this and how to adapt this event to other school systems.
• Another presentation was Xtreme Beginnings, which is a career development conference for over 600 10th, 11th, and 12th graders who participate in a job fair hosted by the JobLink Career Center, completed practice job interviews sponsored by the Greater Raleigh-Wake Human Resources Management Association, interacted with career professionals in a round table format representing NC Career Pathways, and learned about postsecondary educational programs to prepare them for careers of the future. Educators prepared students in pre-event activities to ensure effective connections for the students. This presentation illustrated the nuts and bolts of developing this type of event for any geographic area or age level.
• Capitalizing on Career-Focused Volunteerism: How to Design, Recruit & Sustain Business and Education Partnerships was a presentation about creating a collaborative business and education partnership. This session discussed the elements of design, recruitment, and sustainability of this 13-year partnership working to achieve career development and exploration goals for students through the donation of career expertise and life experience. Initiative materials were shared with attendees.
• A Changing World: Helping Students Prepare for Life in a World That We Know Little About explains how young people entering the workforce lack critical skills that are essential for success. This presentation explored these skills that our students’ future employers say are required for success in the 21st Century. It also looked at what we are doing to prepare our students for careers that do not yet exist, in worlds that may not even exist.
• Getting and Using Current Career Data to Help Students Prepare for Careers That Will Be in Demand When They Graduate was a presentation that reinforced that without current career data (labor market information), we might continue to send our students to the wrong schools and prepare them for nonexistent jobs. This session looked at the trends in the job market including the creation of new jobs, jobs with high demand, changes in salaries, and educational requirements for employment. A student-friendly, 36-page booklet was created using the current and projected career data in North Carolina. This presentation showed how the book was created with an emphasis on how to replicate this for any employment region.

PowerPoint files for these presentations and other supporting documents can be found at www.wcpss.net/school_to_career/resources/presentations.

All of these presentations have been submitted for the national ACTE Convention in December. Look for us in Charlotte!

We are fortunate to have a nice College Tech Prep conference in this state. If we don’t keep our elected officials up to date about how Tech Prep programs drive the economy, we might see Tech Prep and all of its benefits go away. Talk up Perkins!

Well, at least that’s the way that I see it. Let me know what you are thinking, and stop by again soon for more of my ramblings.