K-12 Career Awareness Program
The Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council (SAWDC) is
working to create a set of K-12 career awareness initiatives that
aim to reach students at least four times during their school
experience. At present, the initiative plans feature programs that
visit students in kindergarten, fourth grade, and eighth grade. The
programs are being designed for students in the eight counties of
Southwest Alabama: Baldwin, Conecuh, Clarke, Choctaw, Escambia,
Monroe, Mobile, and Washington.
In partnership with the Gulf Coast Exploreum and Science Center, SAWDC
is creating an activities coloring book for kindergarten students
that highlights careers different from those traditionally shown to
elementary students. The careers will also be region-specific and
will emphasize high-demand career opportunities available locally.
The goal of the activities coloring book is to simply begin to
create awareness of opportunities.
In fourth grade, the "Wouldn't it be Cool" (WiBC) presentation
aims to link core school subjects to every day careers through the
utilization of business/industry volunteers. The program taps
volunteers in order to provide a hands-on demonstration for an
entire classroom of students. Volunteer presenters show students an
animated DVD produced by SAWDC, and then follow the DVD with a
tailored hands-on discussion of each presenter's career. The video
shows actual footage of high-need industries in the region and
discusses the importance of core school subjects, such as Reading,
Math, and Science, as they relate to each of the careers. In
its third year, WiBC reaches over 4,500 fourth grade students in
approximately 225 classrooms in Mobile County alone.
Eighth grade has been identified as a critical decision point in
a student's academic career. Students will make choices in eighth
grade that will set them on an academic path throughout high
school. Because of this, SAWDC has focused on two key programs for
eighth graders. The first is entitled "Choices" and is the more
advanced counterpart to "Wouldn't it be Cool". This program also
utilizes industry volunteers to give presentations to students;
however, in the "Choices" program, volunteers discuss the
importance of selecting rigorous academic courses that will result
in a career or postsecondary education. The "Choices" program was
piloted during the 2009-2010 school year. Both the "Choices"
and "Wouldn't it be Cool" programs are managed by the Mobile Area Education
Foundation.
The second eighth grade initiative is the "Worlds of
Opportunity" career expo. The inaugural event was held in September
of 2010 and exposed nearly 9,000 eighth graders to high-demand
careers in the region. The expo focused on hands-on learning
experiences that allowed students to more fully understand the
different aspects of a long list of careers.
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