OISINGTON — Hoisington High School students will begin exploring careers in real-time in the real world instead of only in the classroom through a pilot program in the fall.
The purpose of the program is to provide a real-world connection and offer more engagement to juniors and seniors in high school. It will also explain the purpose of why they are learning the skills they are learning.
HHS Principal Meg Wilson was present at the Hoisington Chamber of Commerce on Thursday morning to explain the program. The students will take the Kansas Career Pipeline Survey assessments which will provide them with insight into their own interests and skills.
"At HHS, we want to provide students with the means to use this information to explore their own unique abilities and interests, choose a career field that motivates them, seek out the education and relevant experience they need and ultimately find a job that is satisfying" said Wilson.
The HHS site council developed three ideas to achieve this goal:
1. They will contact local businesses who will explain the job skills needed to work in their businesses. "There is a wealth of career opportunities in Hoisington," Wilson said. For example, accounting skills and engineering opportunities. These individuals would bring real world experiences into the classroom.
2. A second idea discussed was on-the-job shadowing training where the students could come in 40 minutes per day for two weeks, selecting career interests to observe. The experience would be worth a credit and graded. The student would then build a portfolio.
3. The district would also like to organize an interactive career fair for next fall that would expose the student to a large variety of careers with the local community. Local colleges, businesses, technical schools would set up booth to display the opportunities available. They may possibly invite other schools.
"The choices available to students are now so vast and the methods of learning so broad, it has become more challenging for students to identify what they want to do with their lives much less plan to achieve their career goals," said Wilson.
The school plans to begin the program in the fall.
