Career Awareness Days

Geauga Growth Partnership leads students about career choices

The Geauga Growth Partnership is introducing students to many career options to consider as they progress through their middle school and high school years, during “Career Awareness Days,” one step in GGP’s youth workforce training continuum.

“I wish these programs had been available to me when I was in school,” said one of the adult volunteers who assisted with group tours to a variety of businesses.

On Oct. 16, GGP led a group of Cardinal Middle School students to visit Covia Holdings’ Best Sand plant in Chardon Township, University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center, and to Tarkett North America in Middlefield.

During their visits, the students (as well as teachers and volunteers) were amazed to learn the many kinds of jobs that exist within one company.

“It takes more than doctors and nurses to run a hospital,” said Nate Peters, firefighter and EMT presenting at UH Geauga Medical Center.

There are jobs in accounting, administration, human resources, engineering, food services and more. University Hospitals even has jobs for musicians in their music therapy department, he said.

Covia Holdings, formed in 2018 through a merger between Fairmount Santrol and Unimin, employs more than 3,000 people in their 50-plus plants across North America.

“We employ men and women with high school diplomas through doctorate degrees, and there are opportunities for those who want to advance,” said Ian Freeman, quality manager.

While Freeman and Process Engineer Abby Pfaff spoke to half the students in the conference room, the other half were treated to a bus tour into “the pit” by Joe Dahlhausen, Turf Plant operator.

Tarkett, located in Middlefield, is part of an International corporation and industry leader in flooring worldwide, for home and commercial use. Cardinal students handling some of the flooring materials were quick to recognize “this looks like our new gym floor!”

These students and businesses are a drop in the training bucket for the many who are benefiting from Geauga Growth Partnership’s robust Youth Workforce Training Program.

“We will be taking more than 600 eighth-graders to visit businesses this fall,” says GGP President Tracy Jemison.

By the end of the school year, GGP will host nearly 20 training days and the High School Internship Program for an estimated 1,400 middle and high school students from every Geauga County public, private and parochial school. The goal is to connect students to Geauga County businesses and careers.

Beginning in this month, GGP will be training seniors in high school, juniors in January and sophomores in the spring of the 2018-19 school year. The goal is to “prepare tomorrow’s workforce today” by offering a training continuum that is appropriate for each grade level.

Geauga Growth Partnership has been building the Youth Workforce Development Program since the pilot High School Internship Program in 2012 and has progressively added and refined training to address the need for soft skills and other gaps reported by employers.