Kansas Career Pipeline Provides Connection to Cutting-Edge Jobs
Published Aug 17, 2009
Andy Solter witnessed the wonder of it in Wichita: When students from low-income families saw their coursework converge with concrete jobs, lightbulbs blazed on and performance soared.
Now, Solter and his Kansas Career Pipeline staff witness lightbulb moments statewide – 30,000 career assessments the first school year – as the Internet-based learning community creates training profiles to take Kansans from their first what-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up moment to retirement.
The pipeline and its resources are accessible by logging onto www.kansascareerpipeline.org.
Businesses are boarding the pipeline, too. In June 2008, they began pre-qualifying job applicants, posting videos and creating scholarship and internship opportunities on the Web site.
“No. 1, it gives them an immediate recruiting tool to start posting their jobs,” says Karen Cox, marketing director for the private, not-for-profit pipeline. “Secondly, and this is the part that’s extremely exciting, we’re connecting them with their future workforce.”
Interaction begins as early as fifth grade, when students begin probing careers online. They take assessments of their career leanings in seventh grade.
Solter formed the pipeline after a federally funded career program for students in lower-income families ended at Wichita Public Schools. He huddled with the Kansas Department of Education, the Kansas Board of Regents and the Kansas Department of Commerce to see if an online model could connect the business community with future employees.
After initial state funding, the pipeline’s $1.5 million 2008-09 budget will increasingly rely on annual business sponsorships from $50 to $30,000.
“There may be other states which are beginning to do this,” Solter says. “If so, I salute them, because it really is a critical part of helping kids find things they’re interested in.”
Story by Gary Perilloux
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