Emerging Practices with Promise
Submitted By: Steve Hobbs, Gateway Adult Education Network
Consortium hires job developer to focus on partnerships and placements
- Type of Practice: Partnerships & Collaboration
- Targeted Population: CTE Student
- Program Area(s): Career Technical Education
- Consortia Involved:
Gateway Adult Education Network: Chowchilla Union High School District, Delhi Unified School District, Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified School District, Gustine Unified School District, Hilmar Union High School District, LeGrand Union High School District, Los Banos Unified High School District, Mariposa County Unified School District, Merced Community College District, Merced Union High School District/Merced Adult School
The Challenge
Members of the Gateway Adult Education Network each had relationships with businesses within the community but not in a formal way, which made it difficult to gain traction in its effort to establish internship opportunities for adult learners or to place them in jobs. The school offered courses that prepared students for certification exams in solar installation, medical administrative assistant and Microsoft and the consortium wanted to provide students in these courses with workplace experiences during the course of their studies.
The Solution
To address the challenge, the consortium decided to hire a full-time Job Development & Training Technician to focus on developing business relationships and establishing partnerships within the community, as a first step. The job developer took his position with the consortium in July 2017, and he also will be responsible for identifying internship opportunities for students at all the region’s adult schools and helping them find jobs when they are prepared to enter the workforce.
The vision is to, over time, establish the types of strong and longstanding partnerships within the business community that support enhanced CTE instruction – through the addition of meaningful real-world experiences – at adult schools throughout the consortium. Those partnerships also will help to inform the consortium’s decision-making process in that consistent contact with local employers will result in ongoing feedback about industry needs, helping to guide adult school program offerings.
Outcomes
The outcome of this emerging practice is not yet known, with the job developer having come on board in July 2017. However, as a result of having an employee dedicated to this work, the consortium anticipates that more students will be placed in internships related to their field of study and placed in jobs.
The Data
No data is yet available, but the consortium will track the number of partnerships developments and the number of students placed to assess the effectiveness of the position.
