Bringing Working Professionals to the Classroom, Virtually
“With teachers being so overworked, we often miss the chance to teach essential employability skills” -High School Tech Academy Lead, Richmond CA
A significant challenge facing educators across the country is how to best prepare their students to be Career Ready. “Career Readiness” is a term now ingrained in standards and routinely spoken about within the realm of education; however, students still find themselves entering the world of work unprepared and unfamiliar. Whether it’s time, available career resources, access to working professionals, or opportunities to bring authentic career-oriented experiences to the classroom or education program, providing students with meaningful conversations around their futures and their career paths can be extremely difficult.
CareerVillage.org offers a solution for every student and every educator in accessing the world of work both inside and outside of the classroom.
Why CareerVillage.org Works for Educators
CareerVillage.org bridges the professional accessibility gap, giving students immediate access to thousands of working professionals who are eager to share their expertise and give guidance. It’s all done through Q&A. Students visit CareerVillage.org, post questions they have about their future, and Professionals answer questions relevant to their skill sets as their schedules permit.
CareerVillage.org works for educators (teachers, counselors, program managers, academic coaches, etc.) because it is fast, convenient, flexible, and entirely free. Educators can use CareerVillage.org with students as a quick 15-minute activity to supplement a lesson or after school activity, as well as use CareerVillage to frame an entire class period using our free career readiness lesson plans and resources (all aligned to Common Core and ASCA standards). Registered Educators on CareerVillage receive access to an Educator Dashboard that enables them to onboard their students and track their activity and progress on the site over time.
CareerVillage creates a career oriented and future-focused dialogue amongst students and educators. In addition to discussing the advice they have personally received, students are able to proactively explore and utilize the impactful advice that already lives on CareerVillage with all content being 100% public and searchable.
Using CareerVillage with students is an effective way to supplement activities already taking place throughout the year. Jessica Watts, a High School science teacher in Oakland explains:
“I use CareerVillage to supplement my course curriculum. CareerVillage gives students the amazing opportunity to get a look at the work being done relevant to the topics our class is working on. It allows students to apply our classroom to the professional world of work.”
Countless students have benefited from a Career Day at school or a classroom presentation from an industry professional. During these positive interactions, students have the rare opportunity to engage with real working professionals, and even picture what their life might look like if they followed a similar career path. CareerVillage.org makes this kind of invaluable impact happen year-round.
According to one student using CareerVillage:
“The thing that sets CareerVillage apart from other places is the quality of the advice and who you get it from…the response not only gave me a ton of advice, but the volunteer also gave a list of goals and steps I could take to help me improve myself. Now with CareerVillage, I can ask any question about school or my future career and know that I will get solid advice from people who have actually experienced what I am asking about and care about helping out”(High School Junior, Las Lomas High School)
CareerVillage and Educators in 2018
To date, CareerVillage.org has impacted more than 2.5 million young people. More than 18,000 students visit CareerVillage.org every week to prepare for the world of work and seek information from more than 15,000 professionals volunteering their time to support them on their journey.
This year we’re focused on engaging more educators with the CareerVillage platform to use with their students both in and outside of the classroom. Though educators have been a part of the CareerVillage community since our beginning (with early support from organizations such as KIPP, Summit Public Schools, Boys and Girls Club, and iMentor), we feel it is critical to our community’s success to have a strong educator presence on the platform.
We can’t wait to talk with, listen to, and support all educators looking to enhance career readiness and access to working professionals for their students. If you or know of an educator work with students that would benefit from personalized career advice on CareerVillage.org, please reach out to Bryant Gomer, Education Manager, at Bryant@CareerVillage.org
