Foundations Course at WRCC is Vital!
Nicole Awwad leads the Career Foundations course at the Windham Regional Career Center. This class is designed to give younger students a deeper dive into identifying their passions and aptitudes, then connecting them to real life experiences that will clarify their postsecondary goals. Providing courses like this at each of the Windham County high schools is a major P3 goal and P3 partners with every school, including WRCC, to add or enhance career learning.
This semester, P3 organized worksite tours at GS Precision and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. Foundations students prepared by researching the companies in advance, developing questions, and participating in verbal and non-verbal communication workshops that focused on first impressions and developing a professional reputation. Tours were so successful that we plan to incorporate several more in next semester’s class line-up. Organizing these tours involves preparing the students, but also working with employers to help them successfully communicate with students about the workplace and occupations in a manner that is developmentally appropriate.
Having career ed classes occur earlier in a student’s educational career (grades 7 – 10) is part of a holistic approach that career educators recognize as best practices. Nonetheless, it’s uncomommon in schools across the state and throughout the country. Typically, schools only begin to guide students toward career and college goals in their junior (and most often) senior year.
Classes like Foundations allow students to have career-related experiences and reflect on how they align with their personal values and life goals at an earlier age. In this way, aproaching a student’s senior year feels less like triage and reduces student (and parent) anxiety about their future. It allows them to enter their senior year with a greater sense of confidence and intention. P3 will work with Foundations toward creating a model that our other partner schools can adopt in the future to expand career education for middle schoolers. Some of the key advantages of starting early include laying a foundation that enables later career ed to go deeper, and reaching students before they have to start making choices about high school courses and pathways.
About Pipelines & Pathways
BDCC’s Pipelines and Pathways Program (P3) provides career education within the five southeastern Vermont public high schools. P3 helps students develop their personalized learning plans (PLP) through learning experiences to develop knowledge about career opportunities, and achieve their goals after graduation. Students develop soft skills, financial literacy, knowledge about economic sectors and skills in-demand through hands-on activities, work-based learning, and mentorships. Pipelines & Pathways is a BDCC Workforce Center of Excellence program based on SeVEDS strategies to increase the size and quality of the region’s workforce. For more information please visit https://brattleborodevelopment.com/engaging-with-high-school-students/
P3 was launched as a five year pilot, thanks to historic investment from the Vermont Community Foundation and McClure Foundation, the Vermont Training Program, WCEDP Vermont Yankee closure funds, and municipal contributions to SeVEDS. In 2023 P3 reached a major program milestone by commitments from the private sector. M&T Bank, whose support was matched by local employers G.S. Precision and C&S Wholesale Grocers joins funding partners McClure Foundation, the George W. Mergens Foundation, the Windham Regional Career Center and the West River Education District in supporting P3 across southeastern Vermont.
