WorkReady – A Year in Review
When we launched WorkReady in 2017, the Springfield Chamber, our community partners at the Springfield School District, and City of Springfield had high expectations and a bold vision for what this initiative could be. Three years into this work, and the community impacts we have seen so far have exceeded our expectations. As part of our 2019 year in review, we’d like to share some 2019 WorkReady milestones.
January
In January of this year, at our Annual Awards and Installation Banquet, we were proud to announce to our Chamber membership the recipient of the Springfield Chamber’s Career and Technical Education Fund Award. In 2019, our #WorkReady Impact Investors, and business volunteers on the education committee, chose to award Thurston High School $5000 for their Natural Resources Pathway.
During the Springfield State of the City address, our Chamber was thrilled to receive the Mayor’s Special Recognition Award for our #WorkReady initiative and for our efforts of introducing Springfield students to avenues of meaningful career development.
February
Springfield Chamber President/CEO Vonnie Mikkelsen received the 2019 ACT Workforce Champion Award for her launch and development of the #WorkReady initiative, in partnership with the Springfield School District and the City of Springfield. The ACT College and Career Readiness Champions are individuals across the country who support ACT’s mission of education and workplace success. ACT State Councils – comprised of education and workforce professionals from all 50 states – serve as the selection committee and select one Champion per category for each participating state.
We also held our first LunchVox of the year, focused on internships and apprenticeships. This panel featured business experts including Avril Watt, with Johnson Crushers International (Chair of our Education Committee, and Letty Maldonado, with Reynolds Electric. Accompanying them were recent interns they’d hosted, including Alaina Chalette and Talon Search. Alaina, a sophomore at A3 in Springfield spent her J-Term internship with JCI. Talon, a recent high school graduate, had participated in the Elevate Lane County internship program with Reynolds Electric, and was hired shortly after his graduation as an apprentice.
March
In March, we held our High School Career Connect for 600 juniors and seniors. A record 60 organizations attended to speak with students about potential job and placement opportunities. Organizations placed over 50 students into job shadow, internship, and job opportunities.
April
In April, Springfield Chamber Director of Development and Talent Initiatives Paige Sharpe completed the ACCE Education and Talent Development Division Fellowship in April of 2019. The fifth cohort of this fellowship included 20 Chamber professionals from across the U.S.; all focused on workforce and talent development initiatives in their own communities.
On April 17th, the Chamber hosted Middle School Career Day for all 800 8th graders in the Springfield School District. We were joined by over 30 businesses and CTE classes with whom students were able to discuss future career and education pathways. Each middle school student also participated in a mock interview with one of our nearly 30 volunteers. For students who preferred, volunteers were able to conduct their interviews in Spanish.
July
The Springfield Chamber joined the Oregon Department of Education’s workgroup around CTE Career Awareness and Exposure. This goals of this workgroup are to develop overall recommendations for how to improve career awareness and career advising activities in Oregon, develop recommendations for how to specifically use the Perkins V state plan to improve career awareness and expose students to career information earlier, develop suggestions for state technical assistance and professional development related to career advising and expanding career advising to middle grades, and to develop a recommendation around use of Perkins funds for the middle grades.
October
On Friday, October 4th, the Springfield Chamber and our regional partners in workforce, education, and economic development, celebrated National Manufacturing Day! Manufacturing Day is a celebration of modern-day manufacturing, meant to inspire the next generation of manufacturers. Here in Lane County, regional partners including Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership (OMEP), Connected Lane County, Lane Workforce Partnership, Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, came together to offer over 150 students from around Lane County an opportunity to tour food production, wood products, and advanced manufacturing facilities.
November
This November, 150 high school freshman and sophomores as well as 42 industry experts, joined us at Lane Community College for Career Exploration. During Career Exploration, students toured one of the 8 Career and Technical Education departments offered at LCC, followed by small roundtable discussions with industry experts in their field of interest.
December
This December, our CTE Fund Award Committee convened to select another recipient from Springfield Public Schools. This will be announced to the membership on January 17th, 2020 at our 70th Annual Awards and Installation Banquet.
