Junior Achievement Offers Digital Career Book For Students, Employers
September 14, 2022 at 10:33 p.m.
Junior Achievement Offers Digital Career Book For Students, Employers
By David [email protected]
Wednesday, the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Warsaw Area Career Center (WACC) for Junior Achievement’s Digital Here to Career program and Digital Career Book.
Mike O’Connor, Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana Board vice president, said, “We are celebrating the partnership between Junior Achievement and the Warsaw Area Career Center, specifically, and the Warsaw School District in general.”
Junior Achievement is introducing a new program that links local students to local employers called Digital Here to Career.
“We are becoming the conduit between employers and the school system. In previous times, the career center would have to pursue employers to find homes for students interested in specific careers, and now that will be all automated with an online tool that does that,” O’Connor said.
Students will be able to find internships or jobs while they’re still in school or help to plan their career after graduation with the Digital Career Book.
The website is at https://www.juniorachievement.org/web/junior-achievement-of-northern-indiana.
“We’re talking about summer jobs that might lead to internships and co-ops and then paid apprenticeships after that, and we are putting an emphasis on local employers that are willing to invest in our students, so we’re looking for those that also will have tuition reimbursement or may have corporate training that is significant,” O’Connor said. “And our online tool allows students to sort by those employers who have current job openings, have openings in internships, apprenticeships and are willing to pay for their further education.”
He said Junior Achievement believes the school districts will start using the Digital Career Book as early as fourth or fifth grade.
“It’s then an exploratory tool just for kids to learn about different careers, so by the time they get to be of working age - let’s say sophomores - they may have used this six, seven times throughout their career,” O’Connor said.
The emphasis with the career centers is going to be on high school junior and seniors.
The Digital Career Book can be accessed by anyone, O’Connor said. It’s hosted by Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana so it’s an active link they provide.
“Anyone can go on and create a log-in and a password. So if you were looking for a career change, you could go in and research it,” O’Connor said. “It contains 16 clusters of careers. For instance, health care, manufacturing, construction trades. And then over 700 individual careers are highlighted within those clusters.”
Explaining how the Digital Career Book works, he said a student goes on the website, creates their identity and takes a questionnaire that takes about 10 minutes. It asks a series of like and dislike questions about work.
“It uses a well-established psychological algorithm to then suggest careers to you. And then, once you’re looking at a career - let’s say it says, ‘you should be a nurse’ - you can go in and watch videos of what nurses do, you can get connected to various trade associations and then you can click a button and say, ‘show me what schools near me provide nursing training,’ and it’ll bring up Grace, it’ll bring up St. Mary’s, Ivy Tech. It’ll show how much each of those costs and then you can connect directly to them if you would like to get more information. And then you click on employers and it’ll show you which employers employ nurses nationwide, which ones are currently hiring, which ones will pay for your education and so forth,” O’Connor explained.
He said Junior Achievement’s goal is that no family ever takes on debt to go to college to study something that can’t be monetized.
This is the first year for the Digital Career Book so O’Connor said they’re trying to get local employers to sign up and come into it. There’s a $600-per-year fee for employers, but completely free to taxpayers and the school districts because of the fee to the employers who are looking to build their workforce, he said.
“This was a beta test only in Fort Wayne last year. This year, it’s the whole country. So there will literally be millions of students who are using it; hundreds of thousands of employers in the database,” O’Connor said.
Some of the local employers who have already signed up to be a part of the Digital Career Book include Zimmer Biomet, Tecomet, Precision Medical Technologies, Warsaw Coil, Miller’s Merry Manor and Pike Lumber Company of Akron.
“It grows every day. That’s the thing,” O’Connor said.
Ben Barkey, WACC director and principal, said, “I think the exciting part is, is that community piece where it connects kids and their interests to community partners. It connects them to people in our community that have these occupations to help kids that match with what they say their interests are.”
Most times, he said, those platforms are national, global or very general. “Here to Career is very targeted for our kids in our community, and that’s what makes this software program so special. Not only does it connect them to those kids, but also to universities if it’s something beyond going into the workforce,” Barkey said. “So it’s just great to have JA be that conduit that hasn’t existed in the past. So to have a local partnership with them, to connect our kids locally, is really huge. And they’re really compassionate about it, too, which really helps.”
He said the Digital Career Book will be integrated into classrooms in the WACC.
Lori Tilden-Geiger, Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation director of marketing, public relations and grant writing, has sat on the Junior Achievement Board for about 15 years.
She said the Digital Career Book “is the connector between our students and the local workforce and even local colleges and trade schools. So when students take that work inventory survey, it shows their strengths, it shows areas they might want to look into and then it shows them what it would take for training, the cost of the training, if their possible employer would cover training or tuition reimbursements. It’s a great connector between our students who are really the future workforce and our businesses.”
Tilden-Geiger said connecting those two makes the local economy stronger and fills jobs easier.
“It’s just a win-win. It makes our community and our school stronger,” she said.
Every Tippecanoe Valley High School student this year will be required to take the survey in the Digital Career Book, but they can go back as many times as they want to it. After they get through the high school, Valley will start offering it to the lower grades.
“It’s exciting,” she stated.
Courtney Whetstone, development director for Junior Achievement, said the mission of Junior Achievement overall is “to inspire youth.” It teaches three pillars - entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness. Junior Achievement starts in kindergarten and goes all the way to 12th-grade economics.
Wednesday, the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Warsaw Area Career Center (WACC) for Junior Achievement’s Digital Here to Career program and Digital Career Book.
Mike O’Connor, Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana Board vice president, said, “We are celebrating the partnership between Junior Achievement and the Warsaw Area Career Center, specifically, and the Warsaw School District in general.”
Junior Achievement is introducing a new program that links local students to local employers called Digital Here to Career.
“We are becoming the conduit between employers and the school system. In previous times, the career center would have to pursue employers to find homes for students interested in specific careers, and now that will be all automated with an online tool that does that,” O’Connor said.
Students will be able to find internships or jobs while they’re still in school or help to plan their career after graduation with the Digital Career Book.
The website is at https://www.juniorachievement.org/web/junior-achievement-of-northern-indiana.
“We’re talking about summer jobs that might lead to internships and co-ops and then paid apprenticeships after that, and we are putting an emphasis on local employers that are willing to invest in our students, so we’re looking for those that also will have tuition reimbursement or may have corporate training that is significant,” O’Connor said. “And our online tool allows students to sort by those employers who have current job openings, have openings in internships, apprenticeships and are willing to pay for their further education.”
He said Junior Achievement believes the school districts will start using the Digital Career Book as early as fourth or fifth grade.
“It’s then an exploratory tool just for kids to learn about different careers, so by the time they get to be of working age - let’s say sophomores - they may have used this six, seven times throughout their career,” O’Connor said.
The emphasis with the career centers is going to be on high school junior and seniors.
The Digital Career Book can be accessed by anyone, O’Connor said. It’s hosted by Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana so it’s an active link they provide.
“Anyone can go on and create a log-in and a password. So if you were looking for a career change, you could go in and research it,” O’Connor said. “It contains 16 clusters of careers. For instance, health care, manufacturing, construction trades. And then over 700 individual careers are highlighted within those clusters.”
Explaining how the Digital Career Book works, he said a student goes on the website, creates their identity and takes a questionnaire that takes about 10 minutes. It asks a series of like and dislike questions about work.
“It uses a well-established psychological algorithm to then suggest careers to you. And then, once you’re looking at a career - let’s say it says, ‘you should be a nurse’ - you can go in and watch videos of what nurses do, you can get connected to various trade associations and then you can click a button and say, ‘show me what schools near me provide nursing training,’ and it’ll bring up Grace, it’ll bring up St. Mary’s, Ivy Tech. It’ll show how much each of those costs and then you can connect directly to them if you would like to get more information. And then you click on employers and it’ll show you which employers employ nurses nationwide, which ones are currently hiring, which ones will pay for your education and so forth,” O’Connor explained.
He said Junior Achievement’s goal is that no family ever takes on debt to go to college to study something that can’t be monetized.
This is the first year for the Digital Career Book so O’Connor said they’re trying to get local employers to sign up and come into it. There’s a $600-per-year fee for employers, but completely free to taxpayers and the school districts because of the fee to the employers who are looking to build their workforce, he said.
“This was a beta test only in Fort Wayne last year. This year, it’s the whole country. So there will literally be millions of students who are using it; hundreds of thousands of employers in the database,” O’Connor said.
Some of the local employers who have already signed up to be a part of the Digital Career Book include Zimmer Biomet, Tecomet, Precision Medical Technologies, Warsaw Coil, Miller’s Merry Manor and Pike Lumber Company of Akron.
“It grows every day. That’s the thing,” O’Connor said.
Ben Barkey, WACC director and principal, said, “I think the exciting part is, is that community piece where it connects kids and their interests to community partners. It connects them to people in our community that have these occupations to help kids that match with what they say their interests are.”
Most times, he said, those platforms are national, global or very general. “Here to Career is very targeted for our kids in our community, and that’s what makes this software program so special. Not only does it connect them to those kids, but also to universities if it’s something beyond going into the workforce,” Barkey said. “So it’s just great to have JA be that conduit that hasn’t existed in the past. So to have a local partnership with them, to connect our kids locally, is really huge. And they’re really compassionate about it, too, which really helps.”
He said the Digital Career Book will be integrated into classrooms in the WACC.
Lori Tilden-Geiger, Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation director of marketing, public relations and grant writing, has sat on the Junior Achievement Board for about 15 years.
She said the Digital Career Book “is the connector between our students and the local workforce and even local colleges and trade schools. So when students take that work inventory survey, it shows their strengths, it shows areas they might want to look into and then it shows them what it would take for training, the cost of the training, if their possible employer would cover training or tuition reimbursements. It’s a great connector between our students who are really the future workforce and our businesses.”
Tilden-Geiger said connecting those two makes the local economy stronger and fills jobs easier.
“It’s just a win-win. It makes our community and our school stronger,” she said.
Every Tippecanoe Valley High School student this year will be required to take the survey in the Digital Career Book, but they can go back as many times as they want to it. After they get through the high school, Valley will start offering it to the lower grades.
“It’s exciting,” she stated.
Courtney Whetstone, development director for Junior Achievement, said the mission of Junior Achievement overall is “to inspire youth.” It teaches three pillars - entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness. Junior Achievement starts in kindergarten and goes all the way to 12th-grade economics.
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