Our last event was a great event!
BB2C Community Meeting/Business Advisory Council
Our last community networking event for a while was held March 12, at the Career Center. It turned out great even though the schools found out they were being shut down for 3 weeks about 2 hours before it started!
To my surprise, 40 people were in attendance, which included 5 students, 17 educators, 7 business representatives, and 11 community representatives.
The evening began with a student panel, which consisted of students from area high schools that answered questions about local employment options. Student panelists were: Destiny Rone, Frontier; Anastasia Nicholas, Marietta; Victoria Gaston, Williamstown; John Nicely, Williamstown; and Olivia Moretto, Frontier. We captured the panel discussion on Facebook live for those that were not able to attend. You can access the video here. They did a great job and had a lot to say about local employment options.
These meetings always include small group discussions about the topic at hand, which also included the students. Everyone was given a sheet with employment data collected by Ohio Means Jobs for the 4-county area from all of 2019. The questions driving the discussions for the evening were as follows:
List initial reactions and perceptions of the data provided. What other resources are used by people in the group for job openings?
Where do you think the Washington County Portrait of a Graduate competencies fit with this data?
What educational programs or career pathways are needed for what is listed in the data?
What could be done to improve the data for all age groups? What data is missing?
People were surprised by the data included on the sheet, but understood that the data only included those positions posted on Ohio Means Jobs. To find out more about the thoughts of those that participated, you can access the small group discussion notes here on a BB2C webpage. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.
BB2C wants to thank all of those that were able to attend the event, especially considering what is going on in our world right now. Video conferencing and working from home have become the new norm. Check back with us to find out how we will continue to impact the gap between education and employment in our new virtual environment.
Stay safe and healthy!!