Southwest Prep Gets to Work
Job Development Programs
by Randy Adkins
Our district's mission is to provide graduates who will be good workers and good citizens able to provide for their families and contribute to the community, the school has instituted new programs to achieve these goals. Interpersonal communication and other “soft” skills are taught as part of a character education program. Work skills are forged through participation in Career Preparation which gives students with jobs or who are willing to work or volunteer experience in a real workplace and the opportunity to earn money and build their personal networks.
The Tryout Program is an extension of Career Preparation for
students 17 and older that allows employers to hire students and
give them a tryout in a position before they place them on their
payroll. After a one week orientation period, the school will pay
the student the Federal Youth Minimum Wage for 90 calendar days of
satisfactory employment at no cost to the employer. After
satisfactory completion of this tryout, the employer would agree
bring the student worker on their regular payroll. A similar
program, the School-to-Work Program offers 16 year olds a chance to
work with non-profit organizations in a mutually beneficial
relationship which provides work skills while serving the
community.
Truly benefiting local businesses while serving students is a
worthy goal and Southwest Prep is actively looking for partners in
direct educational pipelines. In other words, educational programs
within our campuses that train specifically for jobs and lead
directly to those jobs upon satisfactory completion. Employers need
skilled workers and educational institutions mean well, but a more
direct relationship is the key to successfully providing workers
who walk out of high school with a diploma AND the specific skills
needed to obtain high-potential jobs. These partnerships take
effort to develop but once created serve a real need especially in
times of higher than average unemployment. These forward-thinking
and proactive approaches prevent dropout and increase student
engagement and achievement. Regardless of a student’s ability or
academic aspirations, the truth is that they must have job skills
to be successful. Even students who will one day become engineers,
doctors, lawyers or other “white collar” workers will benefit from
these programs. Southwest Preparatory School has the students but
they need to find partners who are committed to working toward a
successful job pipeline program.
Southwest Prep is proactively creating opportunities for students
to learn real-world skills. A pilot program at its Northeast Campus
on Austin Highway is aptly named the “Service Team.” What started
as an idea to get students involved in helping local businesses
stay graffiti-free has become a program to start a school-based
business which will not only build goodwill in the community but
will teach students entrepreneurial skills and show them how a
small business runs. Students will be involved in every part of the
process and will rotate through the various functions of the
business. The entrepreneurial spirit is a powerful force that
drives change in every human endeavor and applies to every academic
and career aspiration. Mentors, donors and other corporate sponsors
are needed to support the program and provide learning
opportunities.
My personal mission is to do everything I can to offer as many different experiences and opportunities for our students as possible and I look forward to this year as a time of change and positive action.
It is the policy of Southwest Preparatory School District not to discriminate on the basis of age, race, religion, color, national origin, sex or handicap in its programs, services or activities as required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.
