The fifth Governor’s Institute on Career Education and Work drew 88 teachers and school district administrators to Pennsylvania College of Technology in June.
The institute, which is funded by a $101,520 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and facilitated by the college’s Outreach for K-12 Office, helps the state’s school districts implement state-mandated career education and work standards into their curricula.
“Implementing the Career Education and Work standards is essential in showing students how the work they do in school is relevant to careers,” said Don C. Adams, assistant superintendent of the Williamsport Area School District. “Student engagement in learning soars when school work is connected to future employment opportunities.”
The goals of the state standards are to help students understand themselves, understand the work world around them, understand how to get a job and keep it, and to teach them basic skills to create a job if they can’t find one they want. All school districts in Pennsylvania are required to implement the standards, which were enacted by the state Department of Education in 2006.
Jeannette F. Carter, director of Outreach for K-12, said the institute’s staff taught participants to build a plan to implement the Career Education and Work standards in their home districts and taught strategies to help individual students learn the process of making choices that will be right for them. A keynote address was offered by Todd Erdley, CEO and president of Videon Central.
“Through the Governor’s Institute, our team did comprehensive short and long-term planning that will guide us in implementing the Career Education and Work standards,” Adams said. “Our short-range plan includes several ideas that we will begin implementing this year K through 12. The long-range plan focuses on course restructuring, curriculum development, and revising of high school advisories and graduation projects to engage students in thinking deeply about their future careers.”
Central Columbia School District was represented at the institute for the second time, further developing its plans to implement the Career Education and Work standards with support from several grants the school district has received.
“We are rolling out Career Pathways in the 2009-10 school year, and this institute gave us a wonderful opportunity to finalize our plans,” said John Kurelja, curriculum coordinator for the Central Columbia School District. “We have looked comprehensively at how we can make our students’ experience more rigorous and relevant and have altered our curriculum in all areas to facilitate this.”
To learn more about services offered to school districts through the Outreach for K-12 Office at Penn College, visit http://www.pct.edu/k12/ online, send e-mail to CareerEd@pct.edu, or call (570) 320-8003.
For general information about Penn College, visit http://www.pct.edu/, send e-mail to admissions@pct.edu, or call (800) 367-9222.