October 2003

Featured stories from this issue:

Cover Story: Career programs under construction

Program lets students take college courses and earn credit

Umoja blends counseling, academics, real-world experience

What are the jobs of the future?

Boston pioneers school partnership

From the Editors

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Research

Updates

Comings & Goings

Eye on Education

Career programs under construction
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“These kids are getting exposure at an early age,” says Bonnie Keyes, program director of the Illinois Manufacturing Foundation, which helped Juarez develop its entrepreneurship programs. “They’ve got something real to put on their resume.”

With help from the Illinois Institute for Entrepreneurship Education, the education-to-careers office is revamping its business curriculum to include more instruction about creating a business from scratch. “Most of the teachers have been teaching some kind of business planning, but up to now there has been no mandate that they implement the business plan and see if it works,” says Zira Smith, director of teacher training for the Institute.

Outside partners are also working with schools to fill gaps in career education and counseling. Chicago Women in Trades exposes middle and high school girls to nontraditional occupations, and often finds girls have had little counseling about their futures.

“We provide college information and general career counseling to make up the slack,” says Melissa Barbier, director of girls’ programs.

One model is the partnership between Manley High and Umoja Student Development Corp., which seamlessly integrates college and career awareness, says Barbier. (See related article.)

Meanwhile, Wine-Banks is making connections with the business community, and is recruiting industry leaders to serve on a new career education advisory board.

Experts support the idea of industry leaders making program recommendations, but add that they also need to get their hands dirty. One example of how this works comes from Boston, where the nonprofit Boston Private Industry Council assigns one career specialist to every high school to help students land internships and set goals. (See related article.)

CPS eyes grassroots models

Other career education models are cropping up in CPS small high schools and charters. Gage Park High is home to a small school that focuses on manufacturing technology. A trade group, Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council, is looking to open a charter school next fall where students would be exposed to at least 16 different trades over four years of high school. The group is exploring sites and recruiting a committee of labor leaders and contractors to serve on its board, says President Michael O’Neill.

With an eye on grassroots models, Wine-Banks has a number of initiatives on the drawing board, including:

• Improving career education and awareness in earlier grades. “I’d like to see career exploration start in grade school,” she says.
  
  
• Identifying students’ interests earlier. “Kids pick their high schools, and sometimes they don’t have the program they want,” she notes.
  
  
• Tracking students who graduate from high school. CPS is developing a partnership with the National Student Clearinghouse to determine which colleges its graduates attend. Wine-Banks anticipates the system will produce its first report next year.
  
  
• Expanding opportunities for career education students to earn industry-recognized credentials by the time they graduate. Some CPS career programs—nursing, computer networking and cosmetology, for instance—already offer such credentials. But no credential exists in other industries, such as business. “Anything that doesn’t already exist is trickier,” she notes.
  

Last year, Prosser High’s machine shop became the first in the city to become accredited by the National Institute for Metalworking Skills. Students who wish to take the Institute’s certification exams are not required to complete an accredited program, but doing so gives them a leg up, says Executive Director Stephen Mandes. Most programs with this credential are found in postsecondary training programs and colleges.

Prosser’s Latifah Pierce is hoping to earn it. If the lathe part she’s fashioning is approved by a committee of industry experts, and she passes a written test, she will earn one of seven entry-level certifications for machinists. “It’s challenging,” she says, “but as long as you work hard for it, you can do it.”

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Click on the thumbnail for a full-size image.

Prosser machine shop

Jill Wine-Banks

Chart: Career academies at a glance

Chart: Industry categories

Sidebar: Student internships

Cover photo: Adelade Akisanya, a 2003 graduate of Manley High School, got practical experience in the construction trades through the Umoja Student Development Corp., a nonprofit agency based at Manley that leads students into college and careers. Akisanya is now enrolled at Columbia College.

Catalyst: Independent coverage of Chicago school reform since 1989.