Montana Ready - April Compass

The Montana Ready Regional Career Coaches continue great work in K-12 education across Big Sky Country. Here are just a few things we’ve been up to and what we have in the works in the coming months.

MONTANA READY COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
In April, we will continue our Montana Ready Community of Practice (CoP) sessions. These sessions will be held virtually and the focus is the need to collaborate and discuss resources sharing to support career connected learning. The intent of the CoP is to create a platform for the Regional Career Coaches and educators to discuss best practices in developing and expanding all four tiers of work-based learning opportunities. The next five months will focus on:

• January-Career Awareness
• February-Career Exploration
• March-Career Training
• April-Career Launch
• May-Recap and Career Pathways in General

Join us April 9^th for this great discussion on Career LAUNCH! Learn how to help your students make the appropriate plans to launch their careers, college, and community life. We really want PARENTS to attend these events as well! For more information, please contact Kelsey Brown, North-Central Regional Career Coach, at kelsey.brown@mt.gov .

 

MONTANA READY CAREER FAIR EVENT – April 18^th in Lewistown

We are hosting a hands-on Career Fair in Lewistown for 7-12 grade students. We’ve partnered with Build Montana for their PopUp event to help students learn about the many different opportunities and career pathways for their future. Not only are we focused on the 5 areas of CTE, but we also are hosting PARENT WORKSHOPS so parents can learn valuable information to help their children plan for their future. For more information contact Montana Ready Coordinator, Mary Heller at mary.heller@mt.gov or Central Montana Regional Career Coach, Jillian Bellah at jillian.bellah@mt.gov

 

SOME GREAT DATA

From November to February, the nine Regional Career Coaches were able to survey 104 K-12 schools in their regions to learn more about what is happening. Here are some interesting tidbits of information gathered from these 104 schools who participated in the survey:

• 52 schools actively use a Career Navigation System (CNS) to help students plan in career pathways
  • The CNS most commonly used is the Department of Labor MCIS program
  • The grade levels for the most used are 9^th-12^th grade (which tells us more work needs to be done at our lower grades so younger students can get in the habit of career planning)
• 58 schools participate in Dual Enrollment with post-secondary education systems
• 1,535 students from these schools participate in some form of Work Based Learning (WBL) activity
  • Most of the WBL activities are in Career Awareness (mostly attending Career Fair events)
  • Every WBL activity is within the Career and Technical Education (CTE) arena
• 104 schools work directly with the OPI for help in career pathway development
  • 14 schools work with Department of Labor but 88 of the schools had never heard of the Business Engagement Specialists at DLI
• 64 schools assist students with leadership and employability skill training
  • 61 schools contributed the training to one or more Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO) participation

 

MONTANA READY NEWSLETTER

Sign up to receive our Montana Ready Newsletter! For more information, please contact Kelsey Brown, North-Central Regional Career Coach, at kelsey.brown@mt.gov  or Four-Rivers Regional Career Coach, Celeste (Andrea) Miller, at andrea.miller@mt.gov .

 

HELP FOR ALL K-12 SCHOOLS

The Regional Career Coaches have been the OPI’s boots on the ground. As Montana moves towards more proficiency-based, transformational, and work-based learning we know our schools need the tools to conduct these changes successfully. Whether you are understaffed, underfunded, or simply need help understanding the ins and outs of this education shift, please reach out to us. We are here to help guide you on a strategic plan so your district is prepared. Please contact Montana Ready Coordinator, Mary Heller, for more information at mary.heller@mt.gov