A platform for career preparation

All of our kids need to be ready for a career after graduation.

The Challenges

At the state level, only 52% of kids are prepared for a career. And Bret Harte is in that range. When I talk to people when knocking on doors or in Meet and Greet events, they universally nod their heads when I say that only half of kids are career ready. How I hear this is that our young people have been dealt a number of challenges that have made the future more uncertain: Covid and social media which have altered their education and social experience significantly, and now the uncertainty of the AI era is hitting us.

The Good News

The school has taken some initiatives to address these, and we need to support, protect and grow them where possible. Some of these are the trade school pathways that are getting more popular, and through the increasing ability to get college credits through dual enrollment, which can save families thousands of dollars if they go the college path.

And the second piece the school is undertaking is continuing to build character in students through experiences where they get exposure to teamwork and leadership skills. These are the skills that will make them successful in the workplace and cannot be taken away by an algorithm. They can get this through team sports and clubs, but also the trade school pathways like Ag/FFA that do a lot of this as well. So anything that gets the kids to interact and work together, we need to identify and support.