The Warren County School District is working with the Career Street program to connect educators and students with area employers, business owners and organizations.

There’s just one thing missing – enough employers and organizations.

“Participation has been minimal up to this point, which is why we are making even larger efforts to recruit more employer participation,” Career Street Director Jennifer Pontzer said. “The administration at the Warren County School District has determined this program is a useful tool for their educators, but we need more employer connections not only in the city, but throughout the entire county.”

Pontzer noted there are currently only 12 organizations based in Warren County involved and a few others from outside the county willing to promote careers in the county.

Companies or entities in the county currently participating include Betts, Northwest, United Refining, Targeted Pet Treats, Whirley, Ellwood and the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College, among others.

“Career Street is open to connecting with any employer or organization that is willing to offer career exploration experiences to the students in Warren County School District,” Pontzer said. “The idea is to support career exploration by offering a variety of experiences in a variety of fields. Whether a student is considering entering the workforce when they graduate, or plans to pursue additional training or education, we want them to have opportunities to learn as much as possible about their career of interest, so they can make an informed decision about their future.”

Career Street was created and launched in Erie County in the Spring of 2014. Since then, there have been more than 48,000 student career exploration experiences, according to Pontzer.

“We’d like to see these opportunities grow in Warren County, as well,” she said.

Mary Bula with Erie Together said she facilitated strategic planning with the WCCBI, the Council of Governments and also worked with the Be Well Collaborative at the YMCA.

She told the Council of Governments this week that those discussions repeatedly hit on the need “to have stronger connections between employers with young people, expose them to companies we have in Warren County, jobs we have available for them.”

Bula said the program will give employers the ability to shape the potential workforce and give students “connections to additional caring adults.”

“We want to make sure we are engaging employers across Warren County,” she said.

Employers interested in participating can create a profile on the program’s website, www.careerstreeterie.org, by clicking on “register.” They can identify themself as an employer or organization and click “create your organization,” then a template opens to be filled out. They can then create a user login and password and click “submit.” The application is then sent to Pontzer for approval. Once approved, participants are notified and asked to log in to their account where they can click “experiences” to list what type of experiences they want to offer, such as speaking engagements in classrooms, worksite tours, participation in career fairs and other options.

At that point, the participant is listed on the website for educators to contact and request any of the experiences they offer.

“I am always happy to assist,” Pontzer said. “If someone is interested, but would like more information or guidance, they are welcome to reach out to me. I am available for demonstrations if there are entities that would like me to present Career Street to their group/gatherings. I am also available for one-on-one connections. The best way to reach me is either by email at jpontzer@careerstreeterie.org or phone at 814-572-0419.”

Educators have their own filterable logins they can use to search for available experiences.

“For example, if an educator wants to have someone from Warren come to their classroom to talk about careers in manufacturing, they would log into Career Street and search the experiences using the ‘speaker,’ ‘manufacturing’ and ‘Warren County’ filters,” Pontzer explained. “Every Warren County employer that participates with Career Street offering a ‘speaker’ experience will be seen. The educator can then select which speaker they would like and click on a tab that automatically sends an email to that employer. This email contains the educator’s contact information and references the specific experience. The employer then contacts the educator to discuss the details and logistics of the experience. If an educator is planning a specific event, such as a career day, in addition to searching the Career Street website for employers indicating their interest in this type of experience, they can also reach out to me for direct assistance.”

“The WCSD will be working directly with Career Street to assist us with forming a tighter relationship with our businesses and organizations within Warren County,” district Director of Curriculum Instruction & Assessment Eric Mineweaser said. “Career Street’s website has a wide variety of resources and experiences that our students and staff can utilize from our businesses directly in our county. I’m excited to be moving forward with Career Street. This could be a great opportunity for Warren County.”

The purpose of the program, Bula stressed – is not to get kids hired but, rather, to serve as a career exploration tool.

She told the COG that the program is consistent with elements of the county’s comprehensive plan that call for work in the workforce development and job training space.

“This is a workforce development program,” she said.