Dive Brief:
- Middle school students in Alabama will be able to use virtual reality to experience what working in fields like construction and transportation is like thanks to a pilot program from Jefferson State Community College that aims to bridge the gap between education and high-demand careers.
- The two-year pilot program is expected to launch this spring and serve 500 learners across Alabama school districts and nonprofit partners like the Boys and Girls Club. Funded through a $150,000 grant from Catalyze Birmingham, Workforce on Wheels offers heavy equipment and truck driving mobile career exploration simulators.
- Other states have also begun exploring the intersection of technology and career and technical education through projects like Texas' K-8 Mobile Stem Lab and a fabrication lab in Michigan that exposes students to careers in engineering, manufacturing and industrial technology.
Dive Insight:
Workforce on Wheels aims to dismantle some of the stigma around skilled trades.
“These are not ‘less than’ jobs. These are not ‘dirty’ jobs. These are valuable careers,” Leah Bigbee, dean of workforce education at Jefferson State Community College, said.
Bigbee said that at Jefferson State and its workforce partners, it is important to expose young people to various careers they may have not previously considered.
“Unless you know a welder or a truck driver or someone in the construction industry, it's often that you don't know that these are high-demand, high-paying jobs,” Bigbee said.
Some experts believe that waiting to introduce career exploration until high school may be too late. Stephen DeWitt, deputy executive director of the Association for Career and Technical Education, said it is important to get middle school students thinking earlier about careers in a more formalized way, so they can make decisions about the pathways they want to enter. ACTE promotes high-quality CTE programs for youth.
“We always ask 'What it is you want to be when you're younger,' but we don't always include the breadth of the many different careers that are out there for students,” DeWitt said.
DeWitt added that introducing career exploration at the middle school level grants students more time to research and find a good fit for them instead of scrambling in 9th grade.
Jefferson State utilizes the simulators not just for its college courses but also provides professional training to outside companies. Offering the Workforce on Wheels program for younger students had been a desire of the college's for the past few years, according to Bigbee, but because federal financial aid does not apply for non-degree programs, there wasn't a way to fund it.
The program's effectiveness will be evaluated through learning survey outcomes, Bigbee said. She added that the program also intends to track the long-term impact by following whether the students end up in their chosen field.
The college chose to focus on the construction and transportation industries because they are two fields currently facing a talent shortage. Expanding to other industries in the future, Bigbee said, is dependent on the institution’s industry partners.
Bigbee said she is most excited about seeing that lightbulb moment with students as they discover if these industries interest them.
“We know that not everyone is going to go into the construction industry or the trucking industry, but what a great way to get people, get students exposed, and get their brains thinking about just the diversity of careers,” Bigbee said.
Dive Awards
