South Bend Chamber using grant to boost career coaching efforts
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The South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce is among more than two dozen organizations sharing in $5 million in funding from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to bolster efforts to connect students and schools with employers and postsecondary education institutions.
The chamber received a $210,000 Intermediary Capacity Building grant, and Kate Lee, executive director of education and workforce, says they want to further their work to support students as they head toward graduation and beyond.
“We want every student to feel like they understand where they’re going, what kind of career they want to pursue, what their gifts are, and how they can put those to work to reach their full potential,” Lee said. “But we also want our local employers to get in front of those students.”
Lee told Inside INdiana Business the real focus of the funding is to support educators in guiding students on their path.
“The graduation pathways keep evolving,” she said. “How do students get the courses that they need, get on the right pathway, complete that pathway, [and] persist through. There’s lots of pieces, and then even so many options with dual credits, and you can graduate from high school with your associates degree. But do you need to, and what are you pursuing? All those choices to help the adults who are supporting the students really be better prepared.”
This summer, the chamber plans to reintroduce its educator externship program, which was launched in 2019 but later paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The summer program sees educators embedded with employers over a four-day period to get a better understanding of what businesses need from their workforce but also give the businesses an understanding of what students are talking about as well.
Lee said the externships also allow educators to identify potential work-based learning options for students while they’re embedded with the employers.
“If a student is in the manufacturing pathway and is interested in a placement for their capstone project, what could they do at this manufacturer that would make sense?” she said. “What what are the jobs within organizations that are appropriate for high school students to do as kind of their entry to learn more about the business and develop their skills?”
The educators, according to Lee, can also get an idea of the types of skills that employers are looking for and develop interactive classroom activities to help develop those skills, which can be utilized as early as elementary school.
“It’s really building that entire ecosystem, getting the employers to get engaged at the level that they can and that they’re comfortable, with the support of educators but also having the employers support the educators. So, it’s a big complex system,” she said.
Lee said the chamber is also developing a Career Coaching Corps, in which educators work with others in local community organizations, as well as Ivy Tech Community College and Indiana University South Bend to discuss how to reach their goals through educational pathways and work-based learning.
“By developing this learning community—I think we’d have 35 individuals who would be a part of the original group coaching fellowship—they will learn about each other but also gain new tools for talking to students and parents about how you navigate the education system.”
Lee noted that this type of work is gaining traction all across the state, and it’s important to ensure that students have the support they need from educators when planning for their future.
“No moment of education is wasted, and we have to remember that it’s imperative for all of us to support our students while they’re trying to figure all that out.”