Boosting job prospects

VALPARAISO | Am there, doing that.

Who better to tell middle schoolers about vocational training for select careers than current voc-ed students who can make that claim?

That's the thinking behind a pair of visits high school students from the Porter County Career and Technical Center paid to Benjamin Franklin Middle School eighth-graders last week.

Career Center students walked the middle school students through Choices, a career inventory software program designed to help teens identify career fields that might be a good fit.

The outreach was aimed at letting middle school students know what is available at the Career Center and how to fit vocational courses into their schedules, if that's what they choose, said Kelli Ellis, the center's student support coordinator.

Not many middle school students know about the Career Center offerings, Franklin guidance counselor Tammy Hofer said.

In addition to familiarizing them with that resource, the interaction is meant to start students thinking about the types of training they will need for careers that interest them.

Informing students of vocational options is meant to make high school work for them, Ellis said.

"I didn't know about vocational until sophomore year," Washington Township High School senior Samantha Allen said as she helped eighth-grader Andrew Mears with the career inventory.

Allen had to work to get her grades where they needed to be. If she had known about Career Center courses earlier, she would have tried harder during freshman year, said Allen, who studies computer-assisted design at the center.

Although guidance counselors at Franklin have had professionals from the Career Center and area colleges speak to their students for several years, this is the first time they have involved high school students.

The mentoring visits with three Franklin classes are part of a process that will feature a career fair at Franklin this week.

In a follow-up, Franklin students will travel to the Career Center for a tour in January, the month when eighth-graders start their high school scheduling.

With future job markets likely to be very competitive, any help given now can only benefit students, Ellis said. It's not too early for kids to be thinking about a career, she said.