Moultrie Tech Assists with Opening of Career Cruisin' Cafe
New resource for Colquitt County High School students helps them learn more about career opportunities like those available through a technical education
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Chairman Trudie Hill of the Colquitt County Board of Education cuts the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce grand opening ribbon on Colquitt County High School’s Career Cruisin’ Café on October 25 th. Moultrie Technical College faculty and staff members lent their support and resources to help make the Café happen and to educate high school students on their career options, particularly those options attained in the Technical College System of Georgia. |
Program links students with career choices
MOULTRIE — Thursday was the dawning of a new era for Colquitt County Schools students — the era of empowerment.
The Career Cruisin’ Cafe, a new section in the Colquitt County High School (CCHS) media center, is giving students the power to sort through the world of work in a way that leads the student step-by-step to a career suited to their likes and abilities. With resources in hand, online and through a DVD library, students are given a better chance at their pursuit of happiness.
One element of the various and versatile research tools offered by Career Cruisin’ Cafe is an online career matchmaker program that asks 116 questions to match about 40 careers with a student’s current skills. That was very appealing to CCHS juniors Chelsie Henderson and Paige Walton.
“I’ve been scared lately,” Henderson said. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do and how I was going to find out what I was supposed to do, but that one day that I did it I thought, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of stuff I can do.’”
Interestingly, the top careers that came back in when they entered in their skills and interests were careers that they thought suited them very well, some they each have already considered, they said.
A year and a half away from graduation, Walton and Henderson said they are feeling the pressure. This new research tool makes the whole process less overwhelming, they said. One aspect of the research tools that they especially liked was the match of students to scholarships, which includes links to applications. This, they said, will be encouraging to many students who have already figured themselves out of line for a secondary education.
“They don’t think they can afford college, but this site helps them see that they can,” Walton said. “Type in what skills you have, and it comes up with the different scholarships.”
Steve Hankla, director of CCHS Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE), and Career Cruisin’ Cafe Coordinator Gail Thompson cut the ribbon at a grand opening of the center with an obvious air of accomplishment.
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road can take you there,” Hankla said.
The dropout rate in the U.S. is disheartening. Only 67 out of 100 students graduate. Of those, only 37 go to college and only 28 make it to the second year, he said. And only 18 will finish a two-year degree in three years or a four-year degree in six years.
“We need to help more students find their way, and that’s what the Career Cruisin’ Cafe is all about,” he said.
“All education is career education. It doesn’t matter if it’s K-12 or if you’re reading to your grandchild,” Thompson said.
As a precursor to the high school level, Hankla has introduced PeachState Pathways, Georgia’s tool to determine what classes students might wish to take in high school and perhaps later in technical college or a university to complement their long-term goals. Four presentations have been conducted this year and eight are planned for next year. Information about careers and associated earnings potential is available through Pathways. CCHS provides juniors and seniors with folders that feature checklists to prepare students for college, technical education or military service.
In a nutshell, students using Career Cruisin’ Cafe can sort careers by education requirements — whether it be simply a high school diploma or a doctorate degree from a university — and which educational institutions can provide a student with that education. They can virtually tour campuses at post secondary institutions. They can learn more about careers, including day-in-a-life accounts by people who are already in that profession who voice the pros and cons of a career.
Students can find out how which jobs are in the most demand in Georgia or how many jobs in a chosen career are available now in the state as well as how many are predicted in the future.
In addition to Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship and Grant Program, the Cafe website offers matches with students to a long list of scholarships and links to downloading applications. There’s a place on the website to coach in resume writing and to portfolio students’ works of writing, art, music or other accomplishments. They can send whatever personal information they want to prospective educational institutions or prospective employers. The program will follow students five years after they complete high school, he said, so that students can continue to have access to their information, he said.
Already, 400 juniors and their parents have been introduced to the Career Cruisin’ Cafe, and more will learn how to use it to their advantage, Hankla said.
“It’s very important to like what you do, because you’re going to be spending 60,000 to 80,000 hours for the rest of your life doing it,” he said.
