STEPPING UP

Last week was Apprenticeship Week in North Carolina. It reminds us how important our work is in the Twin Counties and how work-based learning is an integral component of creating a skilled talent pipeline. I challenge our Board Of Directors and committee members to help spread that message and ask our employers to jump on board with STEP.

As COVID continues to alter our daily lives, STEP has created new ways to provide activities and support through #workHERE. We must look at this "stumbling block" as an opportunity to examine not only how we are preparing our K-14 students for local careers but also how companies need to proceed with internal and customized training. COVID has changed nearly every aspect of our day, particularly work life. How can we partner together to create new solutions for the "new future of work"?

STEP has hosted a series of Virtual Lunch & Learns focused on local companies, careers and skills needed to make a livable wage. The first in the series was Women in Engineering, followed by Careers in Power & Energy. Next, up, Healthcare Careers in the Twin Counties on November 18th.

#workHERE mini-grants are funded through the generosity of our local industry partners and the ZSR Community Fund. The purpose of the #workHERE mini-grants is to test ideas, expand promising efforts or achieve greater impact through STEAM with a career/company focus and future pathway connection.

The #workHERE initiative is a regional effort to close the information gap by expanding career awareness within the Twin Counties through work-based learning experiences and creating seamless pathways that lead to employment.

Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis to educators for worthy projects that show the promise of benefiting students and improving educational performance. Grants will be awarded to applicants that can demonstrate that grant funds will provide a tangible, positive impact on their students.

Email STEP Executive Director, Pam Gould steptwincounties@gmail.com or visit the STEP website, www.step-partnership.org for an application.