GULF COAST CTE

SCENARIO
“Business and schools existed in ivory towers. Business would say, ‘educatiors don’t meet my needs’ and educators would say, ‘business won’t help us.’ It wasn’t until the efforts of the Workforce Board and the local Workforce Development Councils brought parties together to sort through their differences and find ways to addresss both sides of system constraint (real-time need, institutional ability to respond
quickly) that business needs began to be met.          Washington State Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board Skills Panel

HB5

• How can HB5 be used to bridge the gaps between employers needs and employee readiness for a successful transition to a career?
• How will HB5 evolve as planned to prepare students with options?
  
• What new developments do you expect in the next legislative session that will impact education and ultimately business and industry?
• Do employers really want ready-made employees?
  

Certifications

• What value do you put on industry certifications when hiring employees?
• With the vast number of degree, certificates and licensure options available to students, how should students prioritize?
  

Skill Sets & Gaps

• What skill sets do you consider key for new employees to possess?
• How important is it to have the skills prior to employment vs having the ability & willingness to train/learn.
• How do you measure student soft-skill mastery upon graduation?
• Talk to us about how important the challenges of basic comepetencies in Math, Reading Literacy, Foreign Languages, Science and cross-occupational competencies (social) compares to the importance of certified skills in the access & performance of jobs.
  
• How will CTE programs close the gaps to what industry needs of our graduates?
  
• Identify the gaps in skills, training and education in your industry sector.  How will secondary education partner with business and industry?   Identify the workforce needs?
  
• How can a school district your size prepare students for careers that are yet to be defined?
  

How to Partner

• What business-education partnership components are most valuable to you?
• There are numerous ways in which business and industry engages students in workbased learning ie, internships, apprenticeships job shadowing etc. Does your business support this opportunity and if not, what and why is it a challenge.
  
• How can business, industry and education leaders come together to discuss, prepare and develop a 21st century workforce?   And what should  look like schools in order to prepare students for the 21st century jobs?
  

Growth Areas of Employment

• What are the fastest growing occupation areas in your industry?

This came from Candy it is their guidelines for speaker volunteers - how to present to students.