Boone County Superintendent Dr. Randy Poe discusses the NKIP NaviGo-Boone County Select Enhanced Operators Pipeline Cohort Group program with (front) Carissa Schutzman, Vice President of Corporate College at Gateway Community and Technical College; Dallas Trinkle, president of Acramold and NKIP chairman; Dr. Jennifer Warford, college and career pathways coach, Conner High School; Tiffany Osborne, Vice President, Workforce, NKY Chamber; and Tim Hanner, founder and president of NaviGo
By Vicki Prichard
NKyTribune Reporter
A new partnership forged by NaviGo College and Prep Services, the Northern Kentucky Industrial Park, Boone County Schools (NKIP) and Gateway Technical and Community College, will connect Boone County high school students with career opportunities in the region as well as the training pathways that are available at Gateway Technical and Community College.
“The Navigo-Boone County Select Enhanced Operators Pipeline Cohort Group has the potential to serve as a model for how employers can engage with students in meaningful ways before students graduate high school, so they can have an influence on choosing and recruiting future employees,” says Tim Hanner, founder and president of NaviGo.
The announcement came Tuesday at the Boone County Schools Board of Education Office in Florence.
Placing talented students with opportunities
The program will place 28 selected students – juniors and/or seniors – into a pipeline so that participating companies such as Safran MBD, Mubea, Zumbiel, Linamar Eagle, Bosch, Zotefoams, Mazak and Armour USA, have the chance to work with the students during the first semester of their senior year.
Hanner says the companies will engage and work with the NaviGo Select students during the program, which could lead to companies choosing to hire and/or sponsor the students if they begin the classes for the program during the spring semester of their senior year — and complete the program by the end of the summer following graduation.
“This gives students who have the desire a head start in enrolling in the Enhanced Operator program,” says Hanner.
As designed, the collaboration between the Boone County high schools, NKIP companies, and Gateway Community and Technical College through NaviGo’s approach to empowering students, can be replicated anywhere and can serve as a model for communities in our area and across the Commonwealth, says Hanner.
Hanner says the dynamic cohort came about as a result of Dallas Trinkle, chairman of NKIP and president of Acramold, and the NKIP team’s work on making connections to high schools.
“When Dallas found out what NaviGo is doing with companies such as Toyota and Duke Energy, we discussed what a program could look like for the companies NKIP represents,” says Hanner.
Keeping good talent equals good economics
Trinkle says keeping talented people in the community is good economics.
“There are so many opportunities here with schools and businesses that they don’t have to leave,” says Trinkle.
He shared a story about a conversation with a mother who was a teacher.
“She said,’Let me see if I understand this — my son can go here, get his education paid for, get a job and probably in ten years he’s making more than I am, with no student loans?’”
Creating new pathways for students
That’s not to say, says Trinkle, that a four-year education is not important, but the point, he says, needs to be carried back to the classroom that there is Gateway, and it’s a two-year degree.
Boone County Schools was selected for the pilot, and Hanner began speaking with Carissa Schutzman, vice president of Corporate College at Gateway Technical and Community College, about the Enhanced Operator program and how they could work together to build a pipeline to the program through a pilot with the Boone County high schools.
“We’re excited about the ramping up of this program, we feel like it’s very much needed with high school students, for them to have this exploration opportunity before they matriculate into a program,” says Schutzman.
The demand for talent
Schutzman pointed out that the Enhanced Operator program came out of the NKIP study from 2012 and identified manufacturing technicians as the number one need in NKY from 2012 to 2022. The study predicted a little more than 2500 openings in that particular area. The companies, she explained, then sat down with them and designed an entire curriculum based on competencies rather than seed time.
The program, Schutzman says, has been recognized by the US Chamber of Commerce as a flagship program for the demand-side model, filling the pipeline for companies in manufacturing.
“So, instead of looking at the supply side —- saying we have 20 kids who want to go into childcare —- it’s looking at this and saying,“Hey, we have 2500 jobs in manufacturing,” so it’s a very demand-side driven model, and that’s kind of a new way of thinking from an educator standpoint,” says Schutzman. “It’s not just,“Hey, let’s sell the students what they want,” it’s more about let’s educate our students and parents so they can see something at the end of that pipeline that makes sense financially.”
Participating companies collaborated with Gateway staff to create a 16-week course that includes instruction in the needed skills, provided in a format that is respectful of the students’ work schedule.
The course is a hybrid, with 70 percent delivered online and 30 percent in person, hands-on lab work.
Students will have the option of moving at their own pace as they satisfy the competencies, and, have an option to “test out” of modules if they have the knowledge and experience to do so.
In addition, the curriculum is primarily “open-source” in that resources are drawn from industry sources, giving students real world learning experiences. Only one textbook is required for the entire program. Coursework includes preparation necessary for the Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification Exam.
Boone County schools college and career coaches will use established criteria to recruit students in the program in the fall of 2016.
“Once you graduate from high school there is this vast offering, so what is it that’s out there? What are we going to prepare our students for?” says Dr. Randy Poe, Superintendent of Boone County Schools.
A “moral obligation” to students
More importantly, he says, with this program, the focus is on preparing students before they graduate and introducing them to opportunities with career counseling and career coaching so that when they do graduate they have opportunities.
Schools, and available slots for both sessions, include seven slots each for Boone County High School, Conner High School, Cooper High School and Ryle High School.
Students participating in the program will meet after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning September 20 through December 1 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Applicant requirements include students who have a strong work ethic; are punctual; possess a positive attitude; are productive team members. Having public speaking skills is a plus. Technical skills include a desire to build and create, i.e. work on cars, repair items at home or work; and have applied math skills. Knowledge of metrics are considered a plus.
Karen Chesser, deputy superintendent of Boone County Schools, sees a moral obligation to giving students direction.
“We feel like it’s our moral imperative that we give every single student career direction and passion,” says Chesser. “That doesn’t mean that we pinpoint them into a very tight pathway, but that we nurture in them the ability to see their strengths, their talents, the things they enjoy, and how that might funnel into a high-pay, high-growth career.”
Chesser says they know there are many opportunities in the region that are going unfilled and they feel like it’s because of a lack of awareness and knowledge — that their students and parents really don’t know about.
“We know that our students have got to be doing hands-on things, with lots of support, in order to be ready for these careers that we don’t even really know exist yet, or what they are,” says Chesser. “So opportunities like Navigo partnering with Gateway and NKIP are going to give our students some of those same types of opportunities that they didn’t have before and help them make decisions about what they want to do, and what they don’t want to do, so they aren’t having college debt or a career they didn’t really want. We’re very excited.”
For more information, and to access the application criteria, visit www.navigoprep.com, or call 859-905-7830.
