The Hastings Chamber of Commerce and leadership from ISD 200 met with local business owners and representatives on Aug. 13 for the Building Bridges Industry Partner lunch. At the lunch, Chamber of Commerce President Kristy Barse and Superintendent Dr. Tammy Champa spoke to the previous collaboration between the district and the chamber as well as future plans to better prepare students for the workforce.
The Business Education Network (BEN) is a committee of the Chamber of Commerce that works to “plan programing in the schools that teach important soft skills while exposing local career opportunities to students,” according to the Hastings Chamber of Commerce website.
Previously, BEN has worked with the high school in projects like a direct to work panel in 2021 and a program with the junior math department to examine and understand compensation packages. Most recently various employees were brought to an employability skills panel to a 2023 Raider Connect day at the high school.
Raider Connect days are block-scheduled days initially implemented in 2021 as a way for students who were most impacted by remote learning caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic to catch up in their classes.
Raider Connect days were extended beyond 2021 and are planned to continue into the 2024-2025 school year. The high school began to include panels of employees from various fields like STEM and business in order to showcase what careers in those fields might look like to students. The most recent Raider Connect day in 2023 had to do with “employability skills.”
Of the major gaps in employee skills identified by local employers the majority have nothing to do with degrees. The soft skills of communication, punctuality, interview etiquette and adaptability were among those most commonly cited as missing from the workforce from a poll of local businesses by the Chamber of Commerce. The 2023 Raider Connect day panel having to do with employability skills discussed these soft skills both in the context of a job as well as within the high school.
“We need to make it real for them,” said College and Career Coordinator at the Hastings High School Jody Geib.
Discussions on punctuality ranged from how it might affect future coworkers to what may come from showing up to a job late. These future consequences were compared to the effects of tardiness at the high school: extra work for administrative staff, missed lessons and assignments and therefore extra work for teachers, etc. The goal of these dual examples was to show how the same skills used within the high school could directly translate into the work force.
For the students, skills like interviewing, reviewing hiring documents and compensation packages as well as querying employers about job descriptions were commonly mentioned as in need of instruction or practice at these panels and beyond.
Already simply getting students before local businesses has proven useful. Director of Operations at Allina Regina United and River Falls Hospitals Jason Bainbridge spoke to the group about a 2022 change that lowered the hiring age to 16 for certain Allina positions. This change was of particular importance because of how Allina allows job shadowing.
“Once you are an employee, you can job shadow anyone, but if you’re not, you can’t,” said Bainbridge.
This system of job shadowing allows other employees to get a better sense of other positions with Allina and with the lowered hiring age, potentially students can begin job shadowing long before graduation. Allina encourages this internal movement by paying for parts of tuition if employees go back to school.
“Our goal is to get people in the door and then keep them there forever,” said Bainbridge.
These collaborations between businesses and the high school reflect a larger pivot of the high school in recent years moving away from emphasizing college preparation in the form of AP classes to the creation of various pathways for students after graduation from four-year programs to two-year degrees to potentially providing industry certification within schools so that students can move directly into a career.
“It’s a big ask,” said Hastings High School Principal Scott Doran.
This new model, known as “wall to wall pathways,” has been demonstrated by schools like the Shakopee High School and is increasingly the goal rather than solely focusing on college preparation.
“We’ve really made that shift in the last few years,” said Geib.
The goals for BEN moving forward have to do with consistency: consistent programming and collaboration between local business and the high school, consistent business tours for students, and eventually the creation of a database for local businesses so that students have better access to which businesses are looking for summer employees, which businesses provide on the job training, and which businesses have internships.
For more information about the Business Education Network, visit the Hastings Chamber of Commerce website at https://www.hastingsmn.org/impact