“How do we start making high school … more interesting, more exciting, more relevant to young people?” President Barack Obama asked as he delivered remarks today at Bladensburg High School in Prince George’s County, Md.
The “Youth CareerConnect” grant program is awarding a three-school team in Prince George’s County, including Bladensburg, a $7 million Youth CareerConnect grant to do just that.
According to the White House blog, the grant will give students at Bladensburg access to individualized college and career counseling, as well as paid work experiences with employer partners such as Lockheed Martin. “What’s more, students concentrating in health professions will be able to earn industry-recognized certifications in nursing and pharmacy, and biomedical students will be able to earn college credit from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland Baltimore County.”
The grant, which is part of a national competition backed by the US Education and Labor departments, will help about 2,500 students in Prince George’s County to succeed in the high-demand fields of information technology and healthcare. They will also, the White House believes, cause high schools to reinvent themselves in order to prepare students and high schools for the 21st century.
- Total funds granted: $107 million
- Range of each individual grant: $2.2 to $7 million
- Recipients: schools, workforce investment boards, colleges, employer partners
“We challenged America’s high schools,” the president said. “What can you do to make sure your students learn the skills that businesses are looking for in high-demand fields? And we asked high schools to develop partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on real-life applications for the fields of the future — fields like science and technology and engineering and math.
“From preschool for every 4-year-old in America, to higher education for everybody who wants to go, every young person deserves a fair shot,” he concluded. “And I’m going to keep on doing everything I can to make sure you get that shot and to keep America a place where you can make it if you try.”
To learn more about Youth CareerConnect, click here.
Grant winners (recipients)
Bladensburg, et al., $7 million. Through a collaborative effort with community partners, the school will expand the capacity of its Health & Biosciences Academy to better prepare more students for one of the region’s highest growth industries.
Los Angeles Unified School District, $7 million. The district will build out new career academies in six high schools that will focus on healthcare, biotechnology, and other technology-related industries. The program is backed by funding from the Irvine Foundation. The United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the workforce investment system, and the Chamber of Commerce will help provide work-based learning opportunities to students, including 10,000 student summer internships.
New York City Department of Education, a little under $7 million. The grant will fund two new early college high schools similar to IBM PTECH models that offer associate’s degrees while students are still in in high school. The grant will also expand diesel mechanic registered apprenticeship to opportunity youth and create a dental hygienist apprenticeship in partnership with the Consortium for Worker Education and modify 10 career and technical education programs to offer college credit and counseling.
Clinton, S.C., $6.8 million. The district will reshape three high schools to prepare students for skilled jobs in computer science and engineering. Each school will restructure its instructional calendar to expand individual learning time, work with corporate partners to design project-based learning experiences modeled on real-world challenges, and align curricula with Piedmont Technical College and Midlands Technical College so students can earn post-secondary credits and credentials before graduating.
The Metropolitan School District of Pike Township in Indianapolis, $7 million. The district will expand its career academies in advanced manufacturing and logistics, working in partnership with Conexus, an advanced manufacturing collaborative, and “EmployIndy” to provide work-based learning opportunities.
Jobs for the Future, $4.9 million grant. The organization will expand and implement rigorous and engaging career pathway models that take young people from ninth grade through industry credentials and an associate’s degree in high demand fields. The grant will fund pathways in three regions across Massachusetts, focusing on information technology, advanced manufacturing, and health care.
Denver School District, nearly $7 million. The district will create and expand STEM pathways in eight schools. Students will participate in a paid internship or job shadow and complete a capstone project that demonstrates how they applied the skills and knowledge learned in the classroom to their workplace-based learning experience. Denver will also work with workforce investment partners to provide career fairs and summer industry academies.
The editors of the Baltimore Sun remind us high schools used to do both: prepare students for college and prepare students for the workforce. Although the technical demands of jobs today are different from those at the time of the industrial revolution in America, the need for graduates who don’t go to college right away to find work to support their families is just as important today as it was then.
“Mr. Obama’s initiative should serve as a wake-up call to the state’s school districts that it’s not enough to just send the cream of their graduating classes off to college. They’ve also got to do what is necessary to make sure every kid has a chance to succeed even if higher education isn’t in the picture right away. The best way to do that is to develop the kind of programs and partnerships with business that lead to gainful employment the day after graduation,” they write.