Blackstone Valley School-To-Career Partnership
The Blackstone Valley Education Foundation in concert with Workforce Central of Central Massachusetts and with funds from the Commonwealth, convenes Career Coordinators from each of the Blackstone Valley High Schools to enhance the school experience and strengthen workforce development knowledge among these select educators.
10 Member towns identify a school to career coordinator who participates in monthly Education Foundation meetings. Each month they learn more about career development, opportunity for internships, constructing work and learning agreements, and identifying best practices to guide their students from school to career satisfaction. This activity is funded by Workforce Central of Central Massachusetts with funds from the Commonwealth. The Foundation acts as the School to Career Partnership convener and administrator.
The Education Foundation hosts an annual Regional Career Fair, providing 900 Blackstone Valley high school sophomores an opportunity to talk informally with more than 75 representatives from a wide range of careers and professions. They also attend a panel program where they hear about career pathways and opportunities from professionals in the worlds of business and finance, health care, manufacturing, and STEM (science, engineering, mathematics, and technology). Students prepare for this experience by taking an online career interest survey and engage in follow up discussions and career planning in their schools. Often they pursue job shadows and internships as a results of the experiences they had at the career fair. The Education Foundation provides support to the schools with job shadows for students wishing to observe a work day in a variety of settings. Every year, several hundred students research careers that interest them, select one they would like to know more about, connect with a host employer, and spend a day in that workplace ‘shadowing’ a worker. Internships may follow this further piece of career exploration.
Contact: Julie Salmon, Program Coordinator at jsalmon@blackstonevalley.org or 508.234.9090 x101
Press Release: Blackstone Valley Education Foundation holds regional career exploration event
Blackstone Valley Internship and Externship Development
Taking advantage of the unique relationship between the Chamber of Commerce and the Education Foundation, the Foundation staff is responsible for developing internship position at local businesses for Member Town students. Participating students learn through paid and unpaid work hours the value of their academic preparation, they refine their career goals, and they define their next steps in career readiness.
Using this same opportunity, externships are developed for Member Town teachers who benefit from spending a few days to a week or more during the summertime working at paid or unpaid positions in area business, industry, non-profits, health facilities, etc. Their experience in these work settings impact the relevance of the curriculum they teach in their respective schools.
Internship and Externship placements (click for more info)
Contact: Julie Salmon, Program Coordinator at jsalmon@blackstonevalley.org or 508.234.9090 x101
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Notary Services offered free to members and for a small fee to nonmembers
