CAREER PATHWAYS FRAMEWORK
Interested Berks County businesses and educational organizations have joined to form the Berks County Career Pathways Alliance. With the strong leadership of the Berks County Intermediate Unit, the Alliance has developed a K-12 framework for career awareness and education. The framework provides a set of standards for the 18 Berks County public school districts to reference, adopt, and adapt as best fits their student population and circumstances. The framework is presented in detail and may be accessed at:
Inside Berks Business
The Inside Berks Business program affords Berks County educators the opportunity to learn on site about a Berks County business or organization. For 20 years the Inside Berks Business program has brought educators into the the workplace each summer to experience first-hand the range of businesses in Berks County and the career and employment opportunities in the work place. The educators participate in their role as every educator a resource for career information for students. Thirty-five (35) educators spent one day each at three (3) of 15 participating for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises, August 2-4, 2022.
HIGHER EDUCATION CAMPUS VISITS
All 18 School Districts Participate in Higher Education Campus Visits:
Over the course of 17 years, 2003-2020, more than 34,000 students from each of the 18 Berks County school districts have visited on the campuses of the five (5) Berks County based colleges and universities for what for most was their first time setting foot on a higher education campus. Due to the COVID pandemic, the program was truncated in 2020 and not held in 2021 but resumed in the spring, 2022.
Our sincere thanks to Albright College, Alvernia University, Kutztown University, Penn State Berks, and the Reading Area Community College for their partnership in this program.
BERKS COUNTY HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Alvernia University has produced a four minute video presenting an overview of Albright College, Alvernia University, Berks Technical Institute, Kutztown University, Penn State Berks, and the Reading Area Community College. Suitable for all secondary grades and for parents. The video introduces students to opportunities for higher education right here in Berks County.
STUDENTS INTERACTING WITH BUSINESS
The program brings ninth graders from across Berks County for an on-site visit in class size groups to participating Berks County businesses to learn first-hand about the culture and expectations of business, the factors that make for a good employee, and career and employment opportunities in Berks County. The program is described in more detail in the 2021 Annual Report (see News and Publications).
Since 2013, more than 27,000 ninth grade students and 1,130 teacher chaperones have visited participating Berks County businesses for a “boots on the ground” experience to learn first-hand about a business, career and employment opportunities, and the soft skills that employers value in a good employee. As elsewhere, COVID continued to cast its shadow in 2021. Nonetheless, seven (7) schools, 1,381 students, and 14 businesses participated the week of November 1-4.
The day typically begins with a student informational lesson. The students then travel in class size groups to a participating Berks County business for a two hour “boots on the ground” presentation about the business, career opportunities, and again, what the business values in a good employee.
The Berks County Intermediate Unit (BCIU) has developed a three lesson study unit, BBEC Virtual trip as a compendium to the Students Interacting with Business program. The study unit also may be used independently of the program.
Access to the study unit is: https://sites.google.com/berksiu.org/bbecbusinesstrip/home
WHAT’S SO COOL ABOUT MANUFACTURING
The Manufacturing Resource Center (MRC) is a nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. MRC is dedicated to creating jobs and economic opportunity in eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh, Northampton, Schuylkill, Berks and Carbon counties.
MRC sponsors, “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing,” a school based program to foster increased student awareness of work and career opportunities in the manufacturing sector, first in Lehigh, Northampton, and Carbon counties and since 2016/2017 also in Berks and Schuylkill counties. Teams of six to eight, seventh and eighth graders, produce edited, three minute video clips at participating Berks and Schuylkill County based manufacturing companies.
The process is a rewarding learning experience for both the students and the businesses. Framed as a competitive process, the program generates enthusiasm, pride, and heightened awareness school wide about employment and career opportunities in the manufacturing arena.
MRC now has a video library of such clips, easily accessed and sorted by interest: www.whatsocool.org. In year six, 2021/2022, thirty four (34) schools and businesses have produced another round of videos, bringing to 174 the number of video clips available to the schools as MRC and the business community celebrate “What So Cool about Manufacturing.”
HIGH SCHOOL INTERNSHIPS
The Berks Business Education Coalition strongly champions high school internship programs. In 2022, sixteen (16) of the 18 Berks County public school districts included internships as part of their senior (and sometimes junior) year curriculum. The programs have grown markedly in the diversity and breadth, all of which recognize for credit student placements within the community or within the school district where they explore possible career direction and gain valuable life skills before graduation.
The 2021 BBEC Annual Report (see publications) highlights the internship concept with students sharing about their experience. And as noted in the Reading School District report by Dr. Jennifer Murray, superintendent, internships can be a valuable avenue for interested students to explore education as a career, addressing the chronic 10 year decline in the number of students pursuing careers in education at the undergraduate level.
In the 2021/2022 school year, 782 students representing 21.4% of the senior year cohort engaged in an internship as part of their senior year studies. Clearly there is demonstrable value and interest in the internship concept. For some students, the experience is life changing. For all of the students, the experience provides valuable insights into the direction they want to take post high school.