• District partners with CBICC, others to help create career readiness plan

    crsThe Bellefonte Area School District is part of a collaborative effort with the CBICC and other educational partners to promote the CentreREADY initiative that encourages workforce education and career readiness. It’s a branch of the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County created to help foster a successful workforce for local students and businesses in the area.

    “It’s aligned to career readiness plans within our district,” Bellefonte Area Superintendent Michelle Saylor said at a school board meeting on Sept. 11. “It encourages students to reach a very high standard of career readiness making sure they have the critical skills to be successful beyond our walls in business and industry, locally and beyond.”

    Bellefonte Area School District hopes to have graduates who meet the criteria in the Class of 2019. Eligible students involved in the program will graduate with a seal of career readiness after meeting criteria in six areas: work ethic, tactfulness and manners, teamwork, communication skills, critical thinking and problem solving, and understanding supervision and the world of work.

    “More importantly, business and industry in Centre County recognize these successful candidates as priority hires in (the) recruiting and hiring process so that’s a huge incentive to our students,” Saylor added.

    Other partners in the campaign include Bald Eagle, Penns Valley, Philipsbug-Osceola and State College area school districts; Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology, South Hills School of Business, PA CareerLink and more. The county commissioners also announced Sept. 12 as CentreREADY Day.

    According to a report from the CBICC, CentreREADY represents a community response to local workforce needs, better matching Centre County employers with employees who possess the desired core skills and competencies needed to fuel a 21st century workforce. Information went on to say that the campaign was established after finding core skills and technical skills were often cited as lacking in the local workforce.

    “The CBICC was resolved to respond to the workforce needs of employers here, to find ways in which the community could begin to address the issue,” CBICC President and CEO Vern Squier said in a prepared statement.

    *By Brit Milazzo, public relations director, BASD.Photo provided by CBICC and used with permission.