Wednesday, April 14, 2021
In the year of COVID, job shadows have gone virtual but, far from being a problem, virtual job spotlights are providing a window on the world of work to more students than ever before. The format remains largely unchanged. Presenters still talk about how they got into a particular career, their courses and co-curriculars in high school, and the impact of their postsecondary education.
“Participants can ask specific questions regarding pros and cons of a career, learn about related careers that they may not have known about or considered, and see the link between high school and success after graduation,” says Marcia Waldron-Kuhn, CESA 7 Readiness Specialist, whose Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) has been offering virtual job spotlights since October.
She credits Nikki Kiss, Executive Director of INSPIRE Sheboygan County, for her pioneering work in this area. INSPIRE Sheboygan County’s virtual library is free to all schools within the county and, for a small fee, is available to those outside the county as well.
Today’s virtual job spotlights reach many students and are often recorded so students can watch them anytime. Education and community groups may partner to create a library of videos. For example, CESAs 7, 8, and 9; Ahnapee Youth Apprenticeship Consortium; Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC); UW-Green Bay; and the NEW Manufacturing Alliance have partnered to offer weekly Virtual Career Spotlights. These are recorded.
All partners have access to the recordings. Lynn Aprill, CESA 8’s Director of Education for Economic Development, has taken the lead on the project and has repackaged the videos for CESA 8’s own Virtual Job Spotlights webpage. “We now have ALL of these videos that students and teachers can use moving forward,” she says. “We've had parents tell us they were watching with their students when the students were learning virtually.”
“The ability to share resources across the state means no one has to ‘reinvent the wheel,’” says Kayla Correll, CTE Coordinator and ACP Coordinator for CESA 1, which has also created a virtual repository of videos for students to explore local colleges and career pathways. More than 40,000 students have registered to access the Virtual Career Symposium. Their final video release this school year is scheduled for May 19.
Other CESAs also embraced the virtual job spotlight format early. CESA 6, for example, offered 22 “Virtual Career Conversations” in the first semester. According to Jamie Brown, Consultant, College and Career Readiness Center, CESA 6, “85 percent of students who attended reported [on surveys] that the Virtual Career Conversations were a helpful activity in their career research process.” They are partnering with Inspire Wisconsin and INSPIRE Sheboygan County to offer more this semester.
CESA 12 has a Virtual Career Series with two guest speakers in each session. They also have launched a Cool Careers Day on April 22 for students K-5, featuring speakers from the Hoover Dam, Federal Aviation Administration, and two more speakers to be named. Students will have four virtual visits with plenty of time in between for activities and play.
Ready to hop on the virtual job spotlight bandwagon? Then you’ll want to use the Virtual Job Spotlight Guide written by CESA 4 and Arcadia School District. The benefits are amazing.
“Virtual Job Spotlights remove barriers to transportation, health conditions, and school schedules,” says Jessie Sloan, CESA 4 Student Services Director. “And they connect local businesses to local students and school district Academic Career Plans. They also can showcase new jobs being created due to the current health pandemic.”
Photo by Jana Sabeth on Unsplash