Times Observe photo by Brian Ferry

The Warren County School District is focusing on career planning.

At the district’s advisory council meeting on Wednesday, Supervisor of Secondary Education Eric Mineweaser said, “Not everybody has to go to a four-year college.”

And those who do need four years of college should have an idea of what they are getting into.

“As a district, we need to take a look at that in depth,” he said. “We’re looking for a different lens from the outside. That’s what we need from an advisory council.”

It is difficult for a student to pursue in a career they have never been exposed to. And, if a student doesn’t know about the career he or she may eventually pursue, it is difficult to properly prepare.

“Kids don’t know what they don’t know,” Mineweaser said.

The district is working to present some career awareness activities to even its youngest students, career exploration at the middle levels, and “by ninth grade, a career pathway — so they really have a keen idea,” Mineweaser said. “We need input on what else we can do.”

The group is composed of district administrators and teachers, parents, business and organization leaders, and educators from outside the district.

It’s not all new. “The career standards have been around,” Mineweaser said. “We just haven’t been doing much with them.”

The district is not making this move on its own.

The Every Student Succeeds Act present college and career readiness as one of its primary requirements.

“We have to report out to the state what we’re doing in grades five, eight, and eleven,” Mineweaser said. “We tell them the percentage of students that have met those requirements.”

Each student in the district now has a college and career readiness folder. Mineweaser showed an example to the advisory council members. There is a 13-page document inside that outlines some career activities for each grade level, the time frame for those to be accomplished, and some other details.

In school, some advisory periods are set aside for college and career planning. Counselors can also talk with students about their futures.

Some of the suggestions from the advisory council were to:

¯ help students prepare a secondary plan in case their first choice doesn’t work out;

¯ provide more internships and job shadowing experiences to help students avoid changing majors or fields;

¯ make sure students are aware that there are alternatives to four years of college;

¯ communicate with parents to ensure that they are aware of alternatives;

¯ make sure students are aware of the economic impacts of post-secondary education — positive and negative;

¯ provide more virtual classes to expose students to more electives;

¯ provide information or visits to job fairs and similar events in larger communities with a greater variety of job fields;

¯ let students know about the jobs they might want — how many jobs there are available, how many students are working toward those jobs, what the trends are, and how much they might be paid;

¯ let students know what kinds of jobs are available locally;

¯ publicize online resources — pacareerlink and pacareerzone, for example — that can help students understand the options and their own interests;

¯ provide advocates for students, especially those with disabilities and those who are economically disadvantaged; and

¯ increase communication with parents.