One of the many stories I enjoy hearing from retired teachers is how “back in the day” they applied for a teaching job, and in many cases they were one of a few hundred applicants. How the pendulum has swung the other way, and not just in education, in all industries. The workforce shortage is very real, and is very much felt here in southern Minnesota.
One of the very first committees I joined as BEA Superintendent was the REV Committee - which stands for Rural Entrepreneurial Venture. This committee brainstorms different ways to recruit and support entrepreneurs to come to/stay in the area and thrive with their business. One of the ways in which this committee joined forces with the school and the South Central Service Cooperative/CEDA was by creating a Workforce Coordinator. This person would be tasked with creating opportunities for our BEA students to explore and engage in local opportunities post-high school. While initially started and supported both on an advisory level as well as fiscal level, the goal of this position was to get kick-started with the SCSC support and transition over a few years to being independent and solely part of the school district. While we are now a few years into this position, the opportunities that have been created for our students are likely - in large part - unknown simply to being a newer position.
As such, I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the amazing partnerships, opportunities, and relationships we have created with our local business community, all in an effort to help out the local business economy by showing our students the amazing workforce opportunities we have right here in Faribault County.
Freshmen and sophomores this year will be taking part in what we have coined “Tour of Faribault County”. Brenda Millmann, BEA Community Engagement Coordinator/Workforce Coordinator, will be taking groups of students around to area businesses that match their career pathways to explore the opportunities in the area. Then, later in the Spring, these same businesses will be invited to partake in a Job Fair at our High School where our 8th-12th grade students can apply for jobs as well as explore opportunities that may be available in a year or two after graduation.
For our middle school students, to help kickstart their thinking about life after high school, we have created the “Game of Life” for them to explore. If you’ve ever played this board game, you know that you have options to choose Career or College, types of housing, cost of rent, etc. to experience real world living. Well, during this time, our 6th and 7th graders explore the same decisions as they make their way around to stations staffed by local business partners.
You may have also noticed the Big Ideas trailer that we have now hosted for three years where students get to explore the Skilled Trades through Virtual Reality. What an incredible way for students to experience the trades through hands-on experience while also seeing firsthand that we have these jobs available right here in our area. And new this year, our 8th graders will be getting to explore a similar style mobile learning lab that is focused on the Healthcare industry! Naturally, our hope is that these experiences will spark interest in these careers while also learning that we have some incredible healthcare entities that could be their future employer in our county.
There are many more opportunities that our Workforce Coordinator has created - including coordinating mock interviews for our FACS program, coordinating a trip to Winnebago Manufacturing for a group of students, and lining up a First Responder to speak to our high school classes - just to name a few. We are always looking for additional partnerships to explore to show our students that our local economy has so much to offer them after high school. If you have any interest in partnering with us, please feel free to reach out to
Brenda Millmann at bmillmann@beas.blueearth.k12.mn.us