FOR ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
FOR ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
Every year, we host a Career Expo for high school freshmen and sophomores, as well as a Discover STEM Careers Day for middle school students. These interactive and highly engaging events give New Orleans students a glimpse into exciting career possibilities in growing and profitable industries, with a focus on digital media/IT, healthcare, and skilled crafts. Both events are interactive, engaging displays of job opportunities in growing and profitable industries
We want our students prepared for future economic prosperity, especially through the following skill clusters: Business Services, Digital Media/IT, Health Services, and Skilled Crafts.
Follow these sample career maps to determine what it will take to earn credentials, gain real-world work experience and ultimately become employed in one of our skill cluster industries.
Employers, if you have experts and leaders with these skills at your organizations, students need your guidance to make well-informed decisions to break into careers of their choice. Become a partner.
In partnership with Junior Achievement of New Orleans, YouthForce NOLA has organized a network of businesses committed to exposing students to the career possibilities around them.
Through the Employer Hub, we offer a series of events and experiences that connect the skills students learn in CTE and traditional classes to real life work experiences. This includes job site visits where students receive up-close, hands-on learning opportunities like welding, helping construct Mardi Gras floats, or practicing CPR.
In conjunction with Junior Achievement and Delgado Community College, we have orchestrated the YouthForce NOLA Career Expo and Delgado Discover STEM Careers Day -- events that expose middle school students to hands-on work-based learning experiences all in one place. This allows middle school students to learn more about their own skills and interests and better informs them on which high schools offer the pathways that align with their skills/interests.
Career exposure, awareness, and integration into schools are paramount for helping students make decisions about their professional futures. We believe that application through work-based learning is where students really have the opportunity to grow and internalize both hard and soft skills. To provide students with the strongest work-based learning opportunities possible, we created YouthForce Internships (YFI).
YFI is a summer-long program that involves 60 hours of paid professional training and 90 hours of a paid internship. During the training stage of YFI, our students are taught a variety of soft skill and career development topics, ranging from interview skills to professional attire, that sharpen and strengthen their foundations as job applicants.
Students are then placed at an internship with an employer from one of our skill clusters: business services, digital media/IT, health services, and skilled crafts. At their internship, students learn more about potential careers, gain valuable work experience, internalize soft skills, and network with people in a fast-growing, high-wage industry.
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