Industry partnerships play a key role in high-quality career technical education.
The Enhancing Career Technical Education through Industry Partnerships modules are designed to provide the viewer with information on the importance of partnerships
how to create meaningful district advisory committees, engage local community, and work based learning as well as market your needs to the community.
The viewer will also learn more about the Visalia Partners in Education
Advisory Committee, which plays a crucial role in the Visalia Unified School District's Career and Technical Education Pathways.
All right, good morning everybody. My name is Bill Davis,
I'm with the Visalia Unified School District and happy to be here with you this morning.
[I] really wanting to start
taking a look at why we do partnerships. We talk about partnerships a lot in education,
especially as we start looking at work based learning and how vital
partnerships our to our work into
making and building those experiences for our students. So we look at why
partnerships? You know the old television show Bosom Buddies,
there was a partnership, but was it the partnership that we're talking about today? Probably not. The partnerships
we're looking at really come together between our industry partners in our schools and help support our work based learning activities. Whether those are
guest speakers, job shadows,
internship opportunities, or mentorships. Those are really the key
to why we need partnerships. And a lot of times [when]
we think about partnerships we want to jump
right to the end of what a partner might want to do for us. And really it is about building that
relationship with our partners and about making sure that they know what we're doing.
And we know what they're able to do, and then we kind of grow as we work through it.
A lot of times those partnerships come from our advisory committees.
And that's really where a lot of our partnerships begin. So as we go through today, we'll talk about how vital
Advisory Committee is and how we can use them to support our programs and then build other partnerships
within a particular industry sector or in particular community. And then lastly, donations.
You know I think the old days a lot of times that was what we we sort of thought about
We want we need this let's call this partner and see if they'll donate it to us now
We really want to step back about less about what we need
material wise and more about what we need in support of those partners in regards to those experiences, so
Again coming into a classroom or hosting a job shadow event those are much more vital
And then project ideas that's another big one. We are in the classroom as teachers and administrators. We're not out in the industry a lot
Teachers that have that industry experience have that opportunity and have that to
To know what is needed, but a lot of us have been out of the classroom for a while
We don't know how the industry maybe has changed so partners can bring
project ideas
ideas to the classroom that maybe we hadn't thought of before and in turn your students can and
Possibly do a very relevant real-world project that then in a partner would take and actually use in their company
Or it may just [be] a project that you do in your classroom and never goes any further
But again our partners help us in so many different ways work based learning
helping with donations helping our
Advisory Committees, and ultimately really helping to support our classes with projects and other great ideas
So what does an educational partnership look like you know we talk about?
Partnerships, a lot educational partnerships really that
educator and business person working together towards a shared goal designed to benefit students while at the same time achieving goals
unique to each partner. I think in education we sometimes think it's a one-sided
relationship. That we are the ones that need and need and need and so sometimes we're afraid to ask. And in reality as we build
those relationships or partners it may start out that way,
but as we move forward, partnership partners will start to see where they're benefiting from this relationship.
For example had an advisory committee a year ago. We had a partner
sitting at the table, and it was about an hour-long meeting. At the end, this partner
just wanted to say hey. I just wanted to share that your students and this pathway are a blessing to me.
As a longtime educator it kind of took me back a little bit. So I asked, What do you mean by that?
And so at the partner explained that the students had been to their business,
and she was just there working, but had an opportunity to speak to him briefly.
Saw them in the company during an industry tour. And then at the world AG expo about four months later
this company had a booth and she was there again, so the students saw her and recognized her. Had an opportunity to reconnect and
stuck their hand out and talked with her and shook hands and
talked about the booth. And then she came in as a guest speaker, and they welcomed her and so,
So happily I guess or so they're so welcoming it. Just really warmed her heart and it made her
appreciate what she's doing, made her appreciate the work she's doing now and as I've shared with a lot of folks companies would spend
thousands of dollars to get consultants to come in for people to help build
enthusiasm and confidence and
self awareness and self appreciation into their employees. And this person got it for free by working with some students.
So I don't think we sometimes realize the power
that students have on on our partners and the experiences how they can affect our employees.
So that's really a huge so as we think about it may start out one-sided
and it may seem like we're asking a lot
but as we go, as you move forward and you start interacting or the partner start interacting with your students in
meaningful work based learning events,
the return on investment really starts to come out.
So elements of a strong partnership collaborating as equals.
They want to be involved, they want to be valued. If we just invite folks or we just call them up and say I just
need you to come and sit at a meeting to sit at a meeting.
Nobody wants to do that. Folks want to feel valued they want to feel as if they are contributing.
They're involved. They may not be able to do everything but they want to be involved where they can even if it's just to recommend
someone else. So folks want to be involved, they want to be considered an equal, not talked down to
and not treated as somebody different, but just as part of the team. Bring them together and ask their questions.
They may not understand all the educational jargon,
but bring them together try to cut out some of the acronyms that we use in education and focus directly on what the work is
ahead and a lot of times that's what they want. They want to be involved they want to feel connected
you want to have a shared interest a common shared interest in the work that you're doing.
Hopefully your partners are interested in
partnering with you. If they're not, they probably won't be at the table anyway.
But if they have a particular interest and maybe that's not the direction you're going and may be challenging at times.
But figuring those pieces out and figuring out how they come together will be really key. So having that shared interest is key.
Partners bring something to the table of course, they do they have the experience, they have the companies, they have the employees, they have the
the physical structures that you're going to tour possibly and
potentially job shadow and maybe do internships in with your students, so it is critical
that they have something they bring something to the table.
But then you bring something to the table, too, you have the students
and that's what they are there to work with. So there is a shared interest both are bringing something to the table.
And then how we're going to measure what are our outcomes. So as we look at to our partners,
knowing what you're trying to achieve, sharing your goals. If it's you want out of 30 students,
you want 10 of them to have a job shadow experience, then that's your goal. And what is, you know,
what is your outcome going to be?
Are you trying to build a specific experience for your students, or is it just whatever
happens happens. So those are the things that your partners can help you build and plan.
They can also help you avoid going down a path of a bad experience. If you know what the outcome is and you've articulated
that with your partner, and they're aware of it,
then a lot of times your experience will be a lot more successful for the student and the partner. Because it's very clear
expectations just like a classroom. Just like you would do a lesson. What is your expectation same thing for our partners in work based learning?
So I use this example a lot, and I think it's very
apropos to where we are now in education. For years
we started out at the top kind of identifying the problem, so we would get together as teachers and figure out. Here's a challenge
Here's a situation. Here's something we need to deal with and then in our own little group
we would say, Well, we need to get some partners together or maybe I need to buy this piece of equipment, or I need
something from this person.
And then we would go find the person and it was really kind of after the fact that the person was actually the solution.
Not really part of the solution,
they were the solution and that works at times, but when you really are building a partnership
it's about building it with your folks.
And so we've really kind of tried to flip this thing on its head and really find your partners and so that's where you have
possibly an advisory committee already in place and so as
situations come up or challenges with curriculum or maybe changes in equipment or administration. How do you deal with those?
And how do you deal with them with your partners, not in a separate meeting, not by yourself?
And then come tell the partners what you want them to do, but bring it up with them and talk about prime example.
We had an advisory committee a few years ago, very early in this very young advisory committee.
But the teacher said, I really would like eight guest speakers. And so eight guest speakers seemed
manageable. So she brought it to the advisory committee.
She could have done it all in her own and tried to organize it,
but she said you know what, let me bring this to them and get their input.
Really not a problem, more of an opportunity and so we brought it to the advisory
she said I would like eight. Well one of the folks in the
advisory said a it's going to be really hard. I don't think we can do that.
The chair on the other hand said 8 seems kind of small. I think we could do 12.
What do you guys think and so around the table everybody started talking and unfortunately one lady was
sort of left out of the conversation and she eventually came around to it, but by bringing the partners to the table
We could have had maybe no guest speakers, but in the end we wanted eight we got twelve
committed and in actuality they ended up with 15 during the year because the partners were so engaged.
And it was sort of an ongoing conversation throughout the year well, how many are we, how many we had so far?
Hey, we reached her twelve. We still have a couple more months,
do we have more opportunities?
And we brought more in. So it's bringing the partners around the table to help find that solution,
find the answer and then move forward and design the solution and do it.
And so we really need to think about this with our advisory
committees and our partners, when we meet with them is, what is that problem and instead of having the answer already to go,
let them think about it. Let them work on it because they have a whole different mindset than you do sometimes.
Field of Dreams, great movie the whole premise that movie and everybody talks about it still today is if you build it they will come.
I equate that to our advisory committees. If you build a strong advisory committee that has a purpose has a goal and has people
actively involved, they will come. They will come every time you meet. They will be engaged.
They will be excited to be there. So building and maintain a meaningful advisory committee is crucial.
So what does that look like? So why first off. Why do we even have advisory committees? Who's in there?
What do they do?
How do you engage them we get them to the meeting, but then how do we ask those questions?
And then what our outcomes are for our advisory. And so as Arsenio Hall always used to say, Things that make you go
hmm, and that's one of those things that makes us all go hmm. Because for years we've done advisory committees
sometimes successfully and sometimes maybe not so successfully. So if you look at legislation
and things like Carl Perkins and little thing called the Ed code and the new CTE incentive grant, it says you have to have an
Advisory Committee, it's part of our work.
And as I work with teachers,
across my district and across the state I find some are very
passionate very excited about their advisory committees, and some are a little less
excited and not quite sure how to tackle that monster.
And so as we look at Advisory committees, know it's something that it's expected and it's expected for a reason because that is that industry connection.
As teachers we can very easily lose track of our industry or lose touch with our industry by being
consumed with all the educational jargon and initiatives that are coming at us all the time.
And some we can very easily lose track of our industry.
And that's why advisory committees are so crucial and so vital to our work.
So who's in there, and where do we find them? So we look a lot of times for industry leaders,
and I like to call them the movers and shakers.
It's great to have an employee of a company, but if you can have somebody higher up maybe a general manager
if it's a large company
maybe not the owner, but somebody just below that or if it's a small company possibly owner.
We in our district have a very
active automotive advisory, we have four automotive programs in our district. And so we work with a large
company that has multiple dealerships.
But we also work with independent dealer's shops and so sometimes we're working with a manager.
Sometimes we're working with the owner.
But those are the folks that can get your your message out and can make things happen within
their own company. So movers and shakers are great even just in a particular industry it may not even be tied to a particular
company, just in industry community leaders. It's great to have folks from the city. City managers
high-ranking officials in the city.
Folks from your college if you have a local college that can work with you.
Those kind of folks are great.
Retired a lot of times. We think well, they're retired
So maybe we don't want to want to invite them to an advisory committee, but sometimes and retired folks are great because they have
possibly still connection to their business or to their industry, but they're not tied down with a job.
So they're a little more flexible. So that's a great opportunity as well.
Association executive directors: so Farm Bureau, we work with our economic development corporation here in Visalia. Chamber of Commerce
those kind of organizations if you've builders associations.
Those types of organizations we also have a Hispanic Chamber here.
And I tell you, that we work closely with. So those sorts of organizations
those are great places as I said Chamber of Commerce, your workforce investment board.
Do you have somebody from your workforce investment board that sits on maybe not your individual advisory committees,
by industry sectors, that may be an overall district advisory.
But those are great people to have access to and a lot of your workforce investment boards have
Industry sector committees, and so especially for those key sectors in your region.
So having one of those folks sit on an industry advisory may be very helpful. As we said economic development hospitals.
We have a hospital here in Visalia, Kaweah Delta.
We have folks from that hospital that sit on our committees.
And are very active city administration. As I mentioned utilities. We've had folks from Cal water and
the gas company, Edison. Those are great folks to have and of course government agencies if possible.
So really it's it's kind of a wide gamut. We really don't tell anybody - not
that we don't ever say, don't invite somebody to an advisory,
but we we encourage you to aim for these types of folks if possible because it really does
again those movers and shakers that can help you get things going.
Roles of an advisory: You know there's been multiple publications out there. What advisories do, Help determine which CtE programs,
What's going to be offered in your district that assists teachers with work based learning,
Service guest speakers, review curriculum facilities, the list goes on and you can see it there.
It really is limited to your to your imagination and to what you're trying to do in your program. It may be
one meeting may be talking about the curriculum, next meeting you may be talking about work based learning.
You may have a cycle where in the fall you look at curriculum,
And then changes are made throughout the year, and then we review it again in the fall. Maybe a particular meeting is facilities.
Maybe every meeting you're talking about the need for guest speakers and work based learning activities in your program.
So whatever it may be it's really not limited.
It could be a one-time situation where we have an opportunity opportunity to do something, a one-time event.
How do we do that and your advisory can help you with that?
You know, I remember in the past teaching a class,
we wanted to take a group of students to Sacramento for an AG government class and
we talked about it and then within the advisory a couple members got together and they helped us plan it.
They helped us lay out the day. They got us
meetings with some very high-ranking folks in agriculture and at the capitol and around Sacramento.
And it turned out to be a great experience. We never had the
conversation again, we didn't do the trip again.
But we did it with that one group of students because of a particular situation, and then we never did it again.
So you're going to have those kind of one-and-done
opportunities with your advisory. So again keep it open and
always be thinking about how you can be working with your partners, how you can include them in your work.
So how do we engage: as we said you know reviewing curriculum is key, if you're a program that has a
facility whether it's a shop or a farm or
something even your classrooms, taking around and having them review that you know, sometimes partners will realize hey you have you have higher or
newer programs than I do or you have better equipment than I do or maybe you don't have good the best equipment,
you may want to look at how we can help you get this or that. So revealing
Facilities is huge.
Reviewing data: sometimes partners don't appreciate school data when we look at ELA and math rates,
but they do care about it and and those that are really engaged will want to know
why are students doing
maybe poorly or why are they doing well in these particulars, so reviewing data is is key. Don't exclude them from school
related data or school related activities or business.
But we just don't want to make that everything that they do, but letting them know where your students are, how are your students
matching up against other students in the school.
And the pathway or academy experience that you're providing is having these benefits.
Those are great conversations to have obviously reviewing curriculum. And then the last one really is working with work based learning.
How do we how can they help you with work based learning? Have a plan,
have a list of things as I said before.
They wanted eight guest speakers, that's something you bring to an advisory.
And you say we would like to have eight guest speakers. Can you support us in that work?
They'll say yeah, we support you and then most of them will say,
What does support mean and then that's where you say, Well, we kind of need help,
we have some folks that be interested in this, we think some of you might be great guest speakers and it may not work for
everybody. And so how
how they support may look differently. Some may say I'll come in and speak or
Hey I can send somebody or I know a guy who knows a guy that old story.
But you get to a point where they begin to understand
what what you need, and how they can help.
So where do we find them: We talked about that already a little bit
but start if you're looking for partners to help with
particular things like job shadows or guest speakers like we said your advisory committee is a great place to start.
Reach out to your business organizations if you need a
electrical engineer, maybe you reach out to another partner that does construction.
I bet they probably know an electrical engineer. Your own district is great because a lot of times like in our district
we're fairly large. We'll do something,
we'll need a guest speaker but our, and we don't know who to ask, our district probably works with somebody in one of those fields.
Industry associations, as we've said again .Alumni parents and so on.
Again that circle of that sphere of influence.
You know who are those really close people and then who do I start tapping or who do I reach out to at this level,
That level, next level again.
Not all of your partners are always going to be advisory members.
Sometimes you'll have great partners and they may not be on an advisory committee.
That's not where they can serve at this point, but they're great. They're a great guest speaker or they host a really awesome
relevant job shadow experience or they can help with an industry tour. So not everybody is going to be an
Advisory Committee member, some of them may just be a partner in a particular activity.
So those are great folks to have but never never close the door on an opportunity or a potential partner.
You never know and they don't know because a lot of times.
They don't know how they can help, so sometimes just explaining
telling your story about your district and what you're trying to do or your pathway or academy and what you're trying to do.
Just sharing that story a lot of times will
help folks find a place where they can fit if they really want to be a part of it.
Remember, as I said your advisory doesn't have to do it all
But ask them for additional partners, ask your advisory for those how those folks
they have business associates, they have vendors, they have folks they sell to, they have folks they buy from, they have friends from a
Kiwanis or a Rotary group they know, they know people because that's what they do and most
business folks really do know how to network and they do it well. In education.
we don't sometimes network very well, so have them reach out. Another big one is we sometimes think of
organizations in one dimension so for example a hospital. We say well, it's healthcare, but what goes into healthcare?
There's nutritional services, there's HR, Human resources, there's accounting. There's business management. There's
engineering and construction and maintenance,
On and on and on so there's a ton of different
industries represented in that one company, and we sometimes forget that there are other
facets of that organization. So for example Keweah Delta here we have students that do
work in the health side and they do rehabilitation work with our rehab folks. They do nursing, etc.,
experiences, but then they also have folks that work with
information technology people, we have students that are going to start working with our nutritional, the nutritional services folks.
And your school district is very similar if you think about your district, you have budget, you have finance, you have facilities, you have nutrition,
maintenance of transportation and those are all folks that you can tap to
help you out with experiences or be a guest speaker. And working for an educational institution
doesn't mean you're in
teaching. It might mean you're in transportation, or you're a diesel mechanic, but you still work in education,
And that's another facet that students don't always realize.
So once you have your organization, you have your advisory, you have your partners,
how do you engage them? A lot of times we work so hard or we're so worried about getting our committee or our
Board together we forget. What is the work that they're going to do? So just as teachers we don't want to go to a meeting
and sit and listen to somebody talk about something we really don't need to do, partners don't have that kind of time.
They're very busy, they have jobs obviously, they have responsibilities, their companies and their families. So being very
clear with what you're looking for is going to be key. So as we engage
first thing is you have to share your vision. And that really is is a challenge for some folks.
But stepping back and really figuring out what is the vision? What are you trying to create? And you have to think big.
You have to think of what's the best thing that could possibly happen
with this group. What could we accomplish? Not all the challenges and things that can't happen,
but what could we do if everything came together and all the stars align? What could we accomplish?
So that's the big thing, share your vision what you want to accomplish.
How are your partners going to help are they directly
going to do the work if that's the expectation? Are they a part of the work, are they promoting the work?
A lot of times you may never have a partner that steps foot in the classroom, but they're there talking about your work.
They're sharing it at
service club organizations. They're sharing it with other folks or sharing it over dinner and drinks with friends.
And they're talking about it and letting folks know the good work. That's happening in your school and in your program,
so that's key message with the appropriate people,
are you sharing it with the right folks, your vision,
whatever that vision may be? Are you sharing it with your city, if you don't share with your city,
and we sort of had that experience a little bit here in Visalia.
We had shared our vision and done quite a bit
and then we realized we really didn't have the city engaged and realized we were missing out on a key partner. When we brought the
city to the table,
tremendous amount of opportunities have opened up since in a number of different areas, public safety, even engineering our students working within engineering
folks from the City and other firms that work with the city.
Just being around the City manager and
Administration of the City, all of those pieces can be very helpful. So don't forget your city folks in this work.
County government, we just recently opened a law and justice academy at one of our high schools.
And we work very closely with our County courthouse.
There's an administrator from the courthouse that sits on the advisory so students have had an opportunity to see a side of the courthouse
not a lot of folks get to see.
The other part of it is that they've been invited into
special events, and they're not there just to watch they're there as a special guest of the courthouse,
which is a great honor for our students and really
makes them feel important and more engaged in the work they're doing. And as we mentioned economic development
that's key. So again, businesses when they're coming to your community, they look at the
education system, they look at what type of schools you have, what type of programs you offer? Do you have
intermediary organizations? intermediary organizations that can help with work based learning in those pieces.
So, having those
pieces and having those conversations with your economic development folks, helps them promote your your program to other companies and other businesses
and also potential companies that are coming to the area.
And those programs may be that factor that helps pull a company into your community or not. And then lastly as we said business leaders.
You want those people that are
making decisions, those people that are engaged, those people that are at the city council meetings, those people that sit on the economic development
boards. Those are the folks that you want to understand what you're doing because at the end of the day when you need help
they're going to be the ones that are going to share your message
And so keep those things in mind as you're building this vision.
Make a list of those folks. And again a lot of times we may not know who that person is
but it's as easy as a simple web search or to ask somebody about,
you know, a particular organization and who to call, those are key
outcomes. Do you have outcomes for your district? If you do, those are a great
message to share with your partners.
Partners want to know what our students can do. They have a business, they have a bottom line that
they're trying to meet and they want to know that they have a strong work force coming.
They have situations currently with their with their current workforce that they're trying to work through, so
how can we better help them with their business and prepare our students for that for their jobs? And so having
your advisory committees or your partners review your outcomes, are those in line with what you need?
Some cities have done needs assessments through economic development groups
needs assessment for your community. And a lot of them will come back around soft skills career readiness,
not so much on the skilled labor,
That's key but a lot of employers just want those career ready skills by being able to share possibly your outcomes,
whatever they may be.
That's key also, as you're building your outcomes. It's great to to do it as an educational
organization, but it's even better when you can share that process with
business people and get their input because they'll have a different
take on things than we will in education. So sharing your vision is really key. So return on investment,
that's what a lot of companies look for so what is the return on investment to your partner is it?
Advertising when you have a work based learning activity or you do an industry tour does somebody take pictures and write it up
send it to the newspaper? Do you invite the newspaper out?
Do you do a press release when you do an event?
Do you promote it or do you have a web blast?
Or a newsletter or end up in a chamber newsletter? So advertising the ways your partners help
you helps them because then other folks start reading they realize wow. They're not just a good company
they're also partnering with the schools and look what they're doing here. And sometimes that's a deciding factor on
Internal leadership development. A lot of times companies are looking for those next leaders in their company and by mentoring a student or working with
a student one-on-one in a job shadow, a lot of partners can get that initial feel for if that person has that coaching
spirit, they have that skill set, they have that ability and maybe we want to invest in them,
future leadership opportunities within our company. So it's a good sort of a testing ground sometimes for some of our leaders. That's key
potential employees. You have a great young student
come in for a job shadow
and then maybe they intern and then maybe there's summertime work that they can do and you actually hire them or
they graduate and they go away to college, but they come back during the summers and you hire them for the summers to do
Internship work from through colleges. So there's a lot of different opportunities.
We have a wonderful partnership with one of our automotive dealers here in town, the Groppetti automotive group,
and they take students for a year.
We go every other week for about five hours a day and they start out
rotating around to different shops and different aspects of sales and service parts and service.
And then at the semester the students pick one area and they stay there for the entire semester going deeper in that particular area.
So they may work in a service department for six months, every other week for five hours and then at the end of it
students apply for a month-long
internship in a particular dealership. And at the end, we've had students that finish the internship and go on to college.
Two years ago, they had three interns and all three of them were hired full-time to work in the shop.
So it's an opportunity for partners to really get a first-hand look kind of a long-term interview with a
potential student and potential employee.  And then the feel-good factor: As I mentioned earlier an employee for a particular company that felt blessed
You can't value that you can't really put a number on it, but it's such a great
return on investment for your partners. They sometimes forget that
it's fun to see when we do have an industry tour and
everybody will turn their focus to the students they get excited and they clean up or they they get it ready
and they're engaged and they're excited about the kids being there and then the
conversation just carries on for days about how great it was when the kids were here. What a great opportunity we had.
So those things are the feel-good piece of it.
And we have it in our schools and our classes and something good happens with a lesson but a lot of times,
partners don't have those all the time in their companies, and so there's an opportunity to do something and bring that feel good aspect.
So once you've designed your plan and you have a
vision and a direction, how do you get it out to the community, how do you market?
What you're trying to do, whether it's work based learning,
particular program development, whatever that might be, how do you message that community and get them behind you. So there's a couple different ways
that you can do that. For us, what we found was, that our the best way for us is create a team.
So in Visalia, back probably in 2002, an
organization was formed to support career technical education, and that was called Visalia Partners in Education,
VPIE for short. so VPIE was created back in 2002 to support vocational education.
It was sort of tied to the Chamber of Commerce.
There were activities, business engagement activities where business partners came into schools and did workshops and did
lessons with students about being ready for work, and what does it mean to go to work,
finding jobs, resume building, etc. At the same time there was a financial commitment. So in VPIE,
It was a three hundred thousand dollar
commitment. One hundred and fifty thousand from our business partners of in-kind time and
monetary donations, and then one hundred fifty thousand in general fund
allocation from our school board. So that started in 2002. Well a few years into Visalia Partners in Education
the work grew and grew and
change in leadership at certain organizations, the work started to sort of fall away and eventually in the community side
sort of went away.
The community always supported that the activity sort of ended the conversations became farther and few between.
But at the on the other side, of the education side,
Visalia Unified was still committed to
$150,000 general fund donation.
So you had teachers who may not have been around in 2002 that were getting this VPIE money,
and really had no idea what VPIE meant. And so
four years ago, when I became director for career technical education in Visalia, we had this goal of establishing link learning academies,
revitalizing and supporting our
Career Pathways, and we start thinking. We really need to engage our partners. How do we do that?
So we went back to VPIE. We had a structure that it worked really well. We had a known
a group of folks that had been involved, so we went back to the same folks, some of them retired now, some of them still active
and then we also went to new
members in the community. Younger members in the community that may not have been a part of the first VPIE but were active.
Again those movers and shakers young leaders that we thought would be a great great help.
So we reached out to those folks and invited them to the to be a part of the new VPIE,
Visalia Partners in Education. We extended that invitation out to our Chamber of Commerce, economic development.
We have our Tulare County farm bureau because agriculture is such a key industry here in our area.
We have City of Visalia that sits on the advisory committee. Those are all members that have a voting
position on the committee and so they actually help make decisions.
They vote on pieces. We have a chair Mr. Matt Seals and a co-chair
Mr. Steve Reed and they both
help kind of facilitate the meetings. But we also have other folks, education folks, that sit on it.
So, of course, I sit on the committee. We have board members that sit on the committee, school board members,
and we also have district folks like our superintendent,
possibly our assistant superintendent will attend it,
just depends on on everybody's schedule. But where they're really to listen and learn from our advisory folks and
Visalia Partners in Education is sort of our umbrella
organization or our umbrella advisory committee over all of the other advisory committees in our district.
So they may say we're going to do a particular event and then we share that down into our other
advisories, and then as other things come up from our advisory committees our individual
industry advisories, we bring those to be to the larger Visalia Partners in Education group.
They've helped us in a lot of ways plan events.
We did our kind of launch event this past fall. We called it our Futures Project and at Visalia Unified
our mission is we create futures. That's what we do and so
Visalia Unified in partnership with Visalia Partners in Education launched our Futures Project.
So, looking at engaging our business community in work based learning, whether it's a guest speaker or a job shadow or an internship,
how can our community be a part of our
student's education and help build futures. And so that was really our work and VPIE, our committee was very
active in in that process, helping us plan it out, helping us message it correctly for our business partners.
Again, we're in education
so sometimes we don't necessarily message things the best way. We message things in an educational way,
business partners need something a little cleaner
a little shorter, a little more to the point sometimes. And so they've really been able to help us
do that. They've helped us with production of videos about our
organizations, they help us with donation of food for events. Sometimes people need to eat and we've found when you have a meeting at lunchtime
partners have to have lunch
and so they'll be there just because it fits into their schedule. And so being able to
help support that because a lot of our funding is limited
when it comes to food budgets. And then having those district folks on hand,
it's great to have if you're the director of a particular program,
it's great for you to hear the message, but a lot of times we already know the message.
You know I talked to these folks a lot in different settings,
it's good for your district folks, your board members and district administration to be a part of these conversations whether it's a
principal at a department advisory committee or a
superintendent or assistant superintendent at a district wide advisory committee, to hear the message from your partners is key.
So make sure that those folks are there and that they're able to be a part of the event.
So, for example, here was a
lunch meeting we had just recently.
We recognized ten partners every year. We started this about three years ago. We have a lunch event in conjunction
with our link learning recruitment events, and so we invite partners in the first year was really just to say, Hey
this is what we're doing. Here's our event. Here's our academics.
This is what we're doing year two,
we actually started recognizing outstanding partners.
So those folks that you know took a lead in an advisory committee or really took charge of an event and ran with it.
We recognize those this last year in January, we recognized ten partners. We had a really nice lunch.
We gave them a nice plaque. We're able to
speak to their support and their partnership and really recognize them again as a director of CTE.
I'm a Visalia unified employee and so we're only a piece of the Visalia Partners in Education organization.
We aren't the organization.
It's a partnership and it's an organization of business and industry. And so, for example, our chair obviously does the welcome, our
executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, she helped with the awards, our superintendent did a brief welcome from our
district and thanked folks for their participation in our work. So again
it's really a community, it's not about Visalia Unified doing something, it's about the
Visalia Partners in Education,
running these events. And so as we move forward the
lunch on January 19th was one example. Even the flyer that you see
was designed by our Chamber of Commerce to help as part of their work with VPIE.
So they helped in with building marketing materials.
We have a folder about Visalia Partners in Education that we can give to partners when they when they want to
partner up with us that was designed by one of our
VPIE members from a marketing company. So those folks helped in a number of different ways so that we have a clear clean message,
we have a professional-looking message and
we're doing it in a way that our business community can relate.
Another event I mentioned, the launch event that we did, our Futures Project,
again, this was all student because it was more focused on the Visalia Unified in our programs.
We had student presenters. I'm very happy to say I didn't speak at this event.
Our superintendent was actually introduced by a student and then he introduced some students and they introduced
one of our partners, Dru Quesnoy, from Kaweah Delta who is
just a fantastic partner and has been working with us for almost
15 years now with Visalia Partners in Education
and so she spoke to the group. To be able to speak directly to our partners about the  return
on investment, the benefit of work based learning, the benefit of engaging the schools and partnering with Visalia Unified.
So, having these organizations,
having this type of organization in your community you know ours is by Visalia Partners in Education. You may have something else
have individual industry advisory committees, but sometimes it's good especially if you really want
movement to happen
community-wide, not just within your own district but community wide is to reach broader and sometimes
tt's just reaching out to some of those key folks.
It doesn't have to be a big group of those folks that can kind of help you, think on a bigger scale.
How do I message what I'm trying to do for our students here in our community and
what better way to do that to them to reach out to the community and and more specifically our business community?
Many years ago VPIE was a part of my life, and it was called something totally different.
And I got involved because I had a small business, and I wanted to get involved with getting
education and my business together.
And it was through the Chamber.
We have a fabulous Chamber in Visalia.
And it was through the Chamber that I got involved. And I think that the future of our community lies in our kids, and so
involving my business
with kids was very very important so that I could expose them to what I was doing. And at that time it was a
Bronze art foundry, but it was bringing kids in giving them an experience
they wouldn't have any other way and not ever having that opportunity.
So I think that VPIE
offers kids the opportunity to come in and see the real world at work, the real business world.
We ask kids to go to school, but they need to understand how that's relevant to what they're going to be doing in the future.
I think the mission of VPIE is connecting businesses to the
commodity of kids, so that they can see firsthand
what's available and know the
kind of kids they're looking for for their business. It's a peek at what the opportunities are, who's the
the commodity they can bring into their business
take a little peek at it and see if it's worthwhile. And give these kids the opportunity to see their businesses.
So I think it's bringing the two together.
At Kaweah Delta, we have a MAAP program., which is a Medical Assistance Apprentice Program and
tt is fabulous.
We bring these kids in and they've spent a whole week getting exposed to every aspect of
the healthcare system, whether it's a physical therapy approach, where they get a
little peek at the IT program,
nursing, they get to get
marketing, we went in with our marketing department gave them a little overview of marketing. So they would understand every aspect
of business that's in a hospital. Because for us a hospital is many many businesses under one roof.
So we have brought the kids in now. We have an apprentice program where the kids come in they spend time in the hospital.
They're working on our floors. They're volunteering there.
We had kids come in over the summer who worked in our it program and got to support the IT
guys, they put in all kinds of
electrical pieces that otherwise they would never see the insides of the halls of the hospital unless they walk through the ED.
So kids have always said I want to be a doctor. I want to do this.
How do they know? They watch too much TV.
You know how do they know what's really happening there. So we're able to bring those kids into our business and allow them a real
hands-on a view of what goes on in the business of the hospital. Whether it's in the finance department
or whether it's in the emergency department.
In the medical profession, it's more difficult because of HIPPA compliance, so if you can work through their
human resources, which is exactly what we did. Bill Davis
and I went in and because we're passionate, more pushy and went into the HR
department and said we have an idea and how can we do this? And so what they were able to do is use their
program by which they get nurses to come in on
apprentice programs there. Use that same kind of model to get the kids to be able to come in.
We put the kids through all the processes
we do of our volunteer program so like our guild and all those folks, so if you treat it like a
volunteer program and use those same kind of guidelines,
you can get these kids approved to come in. And you it's a process, it took us a while, but it's really worthwhile.
Because we had kids that years ago we had a young
Candy Striper program and it had gone away, but same thing the kids had the opportunity to come in. So we were able to reestablish
that kind of concept by going back and setting it up this way. You have to be tenacious
because it's really easy for us in the healthcare district to go
I'm sorry we have HIPAA rules so you can't come in.
But there really are lots of ways to bring the kids in. And and it's basically doing being willing to do the paperwork.
Just like anything, there's a lot of paperwork. We put the kids through an orientation,
just like they were becoming an employee. So they spend a day in orientation. That's part of the commitment they fill out an application.
So they do everything like they were applying for a job, and yet they're going to come in on an intern basis.
Well, I love it because I love seeing the energy of these kids and what they really know. And being able to expose them to
what we're doing.
And I think from a business point of view, the advantage to me, is having the opportunity.
Say you have six kids who really say they, and I'm going to use marketing even though
I'm in the healthcare, because I'm in the marketing department, but I've had a lot of kids come in and intern with me and I
get to say, You know there's a future employee
this person. We had a young gal come in and
she says you know, I really love to do charts and stuff. And I needed an analysis done. I just gave her the work.
She went out and did a whole
Excel analysis, did charts and bar charts and graphs and and came back and presented me
there's the most beautiful report that I would never have generated on my own because I would never have taken that time.
I thought here's a potential young
person that if she put her application in, I'd hire in a moment.
And I've had these kids come back and put in applications, and yes, it's awesome.
So you get to see firsthand,
you know, the cream of the crop. So I think it's great for business, that way also it gives us an opportunity
to know what we need educators to know.
There are so many times that we get complaints from business saying you know these kids. They're not coming in here
educated, the school district isn't doing a good job.
No, I would challenge that and say no we businesses are not doing a good enough job
educating our educators about what we need the kids to come out knowing. So here's our opportunity to say
partner with the schools. Say these are the kinds of things we need these because to do and you know on the other side of
it they'll go, Yeah
but we don't have that equipment and I know in this
community those businesses have stepped up put that
equipment into the schools, so the kids come out trained and ready to go to walk into the workforce.
The Visalia Chamber of Commerce became involved in the Visalia Partners in Education
because what we were hearing from our members, from businesses
is that there really was a gap.
They wanted to create a pipeline of the next wave of employees.
But when they were interviewing those people, when they were bringing them on board,
they lacked the skills that they wanted them to have. And they said, Gosh, I really wish that
educators knew this is happening in my industry or I
could tell these students how to engage with my business better,
I think they'd be better applicants and ultimately better employees. And so for us at the Chamber filling that gap and
creating that pathway
for the employers to educate and influence the way that education is being taught and
to affect their next generation of workers is the reason that we are involved.
VPIE for us and VPIE for other people is a place as a
community to come and have a voice to have a vote and to have influence.
It's an opportunity for us to affect the future and
as business leaders, for us to create an investment that's going to pay dividends, not only for our business
but for our communities for decades to come. So that really is
while we gather for lunch, and we talk about what's happened in the last quarter,
it's really an opportunity for us to dream about the type of community that we want to have,
the type of employees that we want to have and to think strategically about how we get those students to become those employees.
The Chamber's involvement, I think,
it's about creating that
value for members when they join the chamber. They want to have
value for their business and for them, this influence and that ability to affect the leadership and the
work force that they have is important for me.
Personally, one of the things that I really enjoy is when I get to watch a member have an Aha moment.
We had a member who was challenged to have interns and as they were sitting there thinking
there's not a way for me to have interns.
Bill Davis said, There's got to be something that's on your back plate something you've always wanted to do, you just don't have time.
And you thought for a minute said, Well, actually there is there's this project that I've been looking at the way that we've been
contracting services and creating bids.
And the way that we bid and versus the final contract and what the percentage
differences is and that could affect the way that we bid going forward. And Bill says, I think that sounds like an internship project.
And further you could have that internship the year over year
because what this year's interns find might be different than what the next year's interns find and
giving those students that creativity to give the data and to say give me your findings is important.
So for me watching that Aha moment where that employer went, I can do this and that's going to be exciting,
created an internship where there wasn't one, and that's the way that this happens.
Sure, I think one of the things that it's beneficial for students to be involved with
as far as job shadows or mentorship is really to see the classroom come alive.
I've read books,
I've even watched videos, but being there in person changes your perception of things. The same true for our students.
We all have businesses that are unique and different and having those students come and experience that,
there's some pride that you get to share what you get to do. The best businesses though, are open for those student's reflections.
They see things in a way that we don't see we're there every day, this is our business. For many businesses,
this is something they've done for decades and to be able to have that high school students say to them,
Why did you do it this way, or
could you have done it that way?
Those are important questions for business to ask and often we don't have the opportunity to do that and the students provide that.
So initially that feel good that you give to students is important
but I challenge employers all the time to make sure that you're getting out of the students that
perspective that becomes so valuable for business as well.
You know as Chambers we talk a lot about
creating value without involvement.
it's certainly a buzzword in our industry and as we look at ways for us to affect our community workforce development is a
powerful place for us as a Chamber to be. There is no more powerful
workforce development than developing our students and creating that value for our members, without the involvement, is going to a mixer or a ribbon-cutting,
nothing against those things but these are the things that are going to influence their business for generations.
And it's a place that the Chamber should be, connecting and providing those opportunities for our members.
