Career Day guides students toward employment choices
It’s never too early to start molding a top-notch workforce, says West Elementary School counselor Judy Anderson. In an effort to do so, she organized her school’s Career Day earlier this week.
“We’ve been doing this for the past seven or eight years as a way to let the students know what kind of jobs are out there and what kind of training is needed for them,” said Anderson. “Mainly, we want to motivate and encourage them to get some sort of higher education.”
Career Day, which took place all Tuesday morning, featured 15 speakers representing a variety of occupations. They spoke to the school’s approximately 300 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders.
The speakers, who included a software engineer, a highway patrolman, a nurseryman, a dental lab technician and a corrections officer, all made sure to stress the importance of education. By hearing and questioning the speakers the students, Anderson said, learned first hand that nearly all jobs require some kind of post-secondary education, be it a four-year degree, two-year degree, vocational certificate or on-the-job training.
And while it will be close to 10 years before many of the students begin their post-secondary education or enter the workforce, the students, for the most part, seemed to be very interested in the presentations.
“I’m really surprised at how well the kids are thinking about their future at this age,” said West principal Troy Jones. “I’m impressed.”
Said Anderson, “We are so very appreciative of all of our speakers who gave of their time to speak and help inform the children.”