Educators learn more about careers

Ask an elementary school student what they want to be when they grow up, and, Saucon Valley Elementary school counselor Amanda Hicks said, they’re likely to say one of six things: police officer, doctor, veterinarian, teacher, in the military or professional athlete.

Hicks and about 15 other Saucon Valley teachers and counselors this week learned more about the variety of careers their students can have in the Lehigh Valley. They toured workplaces in the area, from St. Luke’s University Health Network, Victaulic, Blue Eagle Logistics, Computer Aid and the Steel Club through a state grant. They also visited CareerLink in Allentown and the Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School.

The roughly $40,000 grant comes during a nationwide push for schools to make sure students are career-ready when they graduate. In Pennsylvania, a new metric was added to districts’ report cards to reflect how well districts are preparing students for post-graduation activities.

Saucon Valley High School Principal Tamara Gary said she hopes that by exposing the educators, and children, to new job opportunities, students will be able to choose an educational path that will help them find a career, rather than going to college, graduating with debt, and having to go back to school to gain even more skills.

“It’s about making smart choices,” she said. “It’s more about the long-term plan of ‘what do I want to do and how do I get there?’”

Teachers and counselors learned that employers value soft skills like communication and collaboration, can pay for an employee’s education and may allow employees to rotate through different jobs.

They also offer jobs in a variety of fields that wouldn’t immediately come to mind, they said. Not just doctors and nurses work at St. Luke’s, but people in finance, human resources and lab technicians.

Several leaders at Victaulic spoke with the Saucon Valley educators.

“Victaulic has a vital opportunity to actively help shape the future of tomorrow’s STEM and manufacturing professionals,” said Tim Martin, Victaulic director of Lehigh Valley operations, in a statement. “By connecting with teachers and faculty of Lehigh Valley schools, we are able to promote viable career paths and engage students in their formative years. This is critical to our workforce development efforts as we continue to combat labor shortages.”

David Spirk, the owner of the Steel Club and president of the commercial construction company Spirk Brothers, told teachers what he looks for in employees: hard work and persistence.

“If I could find everybody who’s like me, I would hire them,” he told them Friday. “I work hard and I want to do better, I want to do more.”

The educators have been thinking about how to translate what they learned into the classroom. Eighth grade social studies teacher Jason Stern plans to add more presentations so students can interact more and hone their communications skills.

“I feel a lot better about my teaching now because the kids talk a lot and work collaboratively a lot,” said Genia Miller, who teaches public speaking, language arts and other courses. “Those soft skills weren’t really recognized, and now we’re hearing these skills are really important.”

She initially had reservations about pushing kids into jobs, essentially pigeon-holing them into a single career.

But after this week she’s learned that graduates can rotate through different jobs at the same company, and the company sometimes pays to further an employee’s education.

“What’s happening is they’re giving them the experience to help find what they like,” she said.