Twin Valley Middle/High School Small Business Tour at the Cotton Mill
Above: Students visit the Bratt Cave
Erin Lovett-Sherman’s Pipelines and Pathways class from Twin Valley Middle/High School visited small businesses in the Cotton Mill building for the second year in a row. Students visited Old Timey Pianos, Swiss Precision, The Bratt Cave, and True North Granola to learn more about small business ownership in several sectors including the arts, fitness, food and precision manufacturing. They also visited the Brattleboro Food Coop for a delicious lunch, followed by a tour of their front and back of house departments. Students were excited to learn that jobs other than the front-facing positions such as cashier and deli existed within the company and that many of them are union jobs. They learned about the accounting department, the in-house graphic design department, human resources, and the Coop’s own nutrition education department. They rounded out the day by meeting with BDCC’s Small Business Solutions and Transitions Manager, Anthony Toscano, to learn about how students can tap into our resources if they want to create a business plan.
Job site tours like this are one of the ways that BDCC’s Pipelines and Pathways Program partners with local school faculty to deliver career education, and bring those lessons to life. P3 includes classroom modules, professional development and support for local educators, and major events like the Reality Fair and Fearless Futures.
Students at Old Timey Piano
Students Visiting with Swiss Precision
About Pipelines & Pathways
BDCC’s Pipelines and Pathways Program (P3) provides career education within the four southeastern Vermont public high schools and the Windham Regional Career Center. P3 helps students develop their personalized learning plans (PLP) by providing work-based learning experiences that increase their knowledge of career opportunities and achieve their postsecondary goals. Students develop soft skills, financial literacy, knowledge about economic sectors and skills that are in-demand through hands-on informational interviews, 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 originally 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, at the end of that pilot phase, 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, the West River Education District, and the Windham Southwest Supervisory Union, in supporting P3 across southeastern Vermont. Portions of the program also receive support through the Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC) program of the Northern Border Regional Commission.
