Area picked for career initiative

Charleston has been chosen to be part of a small network of communities designed to strengthen the connection between students' education and preparation for the work force.

Lowcountry business, education and chamber of commerce leaders have been working for the last two years toward Charleston's acceptance into the Ford Motor Co. Fund's Next Generation Learning Community; and Charleston has been formally invited to participate in the partnership network. Charleston is among about a dozen communities nationwide that have been chosen to participate.

Allen Wutzdorff, executive director of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce's Education Foundation, said the Next Generation Learning Communities is a resource network that will help evaluate the Lowcountry's needs and pair it with a community that has addressed those issues. The goal is to ensure students are prepared for local jobs, and the best way to do that is by creating a master plan for high schools' career academies, he said. Career academies are small learning communities that offer a career theme, such as health or engineering. Hundreds of students can participate in the academy, and a team of teachers is designated to work with those students.

The plan is for schools to equip students with the knowledge and skills required by regional employers, and companies will work with schools to help develop their future workers, Wutzdorff said. The community's four school districts -- Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester 2 and Dorchester 4 -- are taking part in this effort.

The state's Education and Economic Development Act set up a system, Personal Pathways to Success, aimed at better preparing students for the future. It requires schools to offer clusters of courses organized around different occupations, and students must declare a major in one or more cluster. Career academies include the components of the personal pathway system but take it to the next level, and the desired long-term result will be lower dropout rates, more students engaged in learning and a better prepared workforce, Wutzdorff said.

About 200 business and education leaders gathered Wednesday at the 14th annual Business Education Summit hosted by the Education Foundation to talk more about ways the region can build its pipeline for its future employees. Rick Delano is working with Ford Motor Co. to develop the Next Generation Learning Community initiative, and he served as the summit's keynote speaker. He described the generational characteristics of current students and their parents as well as what they will be looking for from schools.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.