School District Connecting With Business Owners

Partnerships between the school district and local businesses are critical, according to Superintendent Dr. Kelly Pew.

The Business Education Alliance formed last year, Pew told members of the Pickens County Legislative Delegation Wednesday

“We are preparing our kids for college or careers once they leave us,” Pew said.

She said district officials want students to be prepared for “whatever jobs are available.”

“What our businesses have told us is they've got jobs, there's jobs out there,” Pew said. “We've got to make sure we've got a skilled workforce.”

The Business Education Alliance meets monthly, Pew said.

“We share with them, and they also share with us things that we need to be doing within our school system,” she said.

Jeromy Arnett with United Tool and Mold shared experiences from interviewing applicants for the company's newly-created School-to-Registered-Apprenticeship program at a recent meeting.

“What he told us was one of the things we know we've got to work through with our kids is 'How do you interview?'” Pew said. “Some of the students weren't prepared necessarily to talk about their skill set. They didn't do necessarily good job of promoting themselves. Having that relationship with businesses to get feedback from them on how we can prepare our students better is certainly one of our goals.”

The school district is working with AlliancePickens on the WorkReady Communities initiative.

“That's going to allow us to give our students the WorkKeys assessment,” Pew said.

The district requires WorkKeys for its non-certified positions, she said.

The WorkReady Communities program will allow the school district to give students the WorkKeys assessment, free of charge,” Pew said.

The district hopes to give seniors and juniors the assessment this year.

“So that all of our students who are graduating will have taken that WorkKeys assessment,” Pew said.

“In future years, we'll give that to our juniors, because that's one grade level of students that do not have state assessments,” Pew said. “Then, if they want to improve their WorkKeys score, they'll have their senior year to do that. So when students leave us, they'll have a high school diploma, but they'll also have a WorkKeys assessment that will show an employer or a college at what level they really are, as it relates to WorkKeys.”

She said Dr. Brian Swords is trying to have the COMPASS exam, the placement test at Tri-County Tech, be exchanged for a WorkKeys assessment.

“That will really help us if that can happen, because

She said the WorkReady Communities effort will help the school district and its graduates impact area economic development.

“As Ray Farley is out trying to recruit businesses to the School District of Pickens County, he can show businesses where our kids are, what type of skilled workforce do we currently have in the school district,” Pew said. “We're really excited about that opportunity.”

Teachers themselves will be going out into the workforce this summer, Pew said.

“We think that's important,” Pew said. “Most of our teachers – I'm one of them - went to public school, went to college, then went back to public school to be a teacher, never being out in the workforce.”

Teachers will go to different businesses and talk with owners and employees, then gather at Southern Wesleyan University to “talk about what they learned, what they can take back to the classroom.”

She said the district is working with SWU to provide teachers who participate in the optional program with graduate credit.

Rep. Phil Owens, Chairman of the House Education Committee, said “the soft skills are business owners are really looking at.”

“How do you interview? What is your appearance? How do you present yourself?” Owens said. “The WorkKeys assessment, business communities are demanding that now. They want to see that. Again, Pickens County is ahead in that regard.