Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages
This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.
In a globally competitive world of work, students need the skills and knowledge that employers demand and the ability to continue to learn across their lifetimes. At the same time, employers and communities need a healthy pipeline of skilled talent and a workforce that sustains the economic viability of companies and the prosperity of cities, states and regions.
Unfortunately, most American high school students, on both college and career pathways, are not receiving an education that delivers high-quality preparation for either path after graduation, and work-based learning in particular isn’t making the grade. Multiple surveys in recent years show that a large majority of business executives and hiring managers believe there is a significant gap between the skills they need and those that workers possess.
In our own state of North Carolina, we see the business impact of the choices made in the state’s education system. Once tops in the nation for business, North Carolina was recently dethroned by its neighbor to the north, Virginia. Experts and media outlets point to Virginia’s elite education system as making the difference.
It’s past time to address this challenge, provide students with real entry to high-quality careers and give them meaningful opportunities for financial security through collaboration between education and business leaders, both in the Tarheel State and nationwide.
In Guilford County, North Carolina, future-focused partnerships between local industry and public schools are pushing in that direction, getting more students into career pathways in high-demand fields. The effort is offering young people a chance to gain the qualifications they need to successfully participate in the growing number of careers that require expertise in areas such as advanced manufacturing, cloud computing and AI, and logistics, both locally and nationally.
In 2018, Guilford County Schools and local employers convened a blue-ribbon task force that included representatives of industry, nonprofits and colleges to identify the high-growth sectors for our region. Through a comprehensive local employment and skills needs assessment, this coalition created a vision and game plan for career-connected education.
Today, six Signature Career Academies offer state-of-the-industry learning environments that equip students with skills and credentials in artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, biotechnology, global logistics and supply chain management, and more.
