Career Technology Education/Career Pathways
18
Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hi, I'm going to talk about the Valley High School
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career awareness and development activities available for students.
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Simi Valley High School is located within the Simi Valley
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Unified School District in ventura county California.
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We currently have about 2400 students enrolled and 30 are
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intending live sessions.
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The rest remain virtual for the spring.
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Okay. We have moderate severe support needs students.
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We have mild moderate students and we have a postsecondary
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located on campus.
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We also have a career development center for college.
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We have work ability coordinators and we have work experience
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coordinators on campus for awareness.
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The district uses an audience program.
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It has career clusters, career inventories, um job information a
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couple of days a year or dedicated to this program.
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The students started In 6th grade and it follows them
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online virtually through graduation.
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This is done through their english program, english class whether
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or not there.
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Um in S.
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A. I.
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or Jenna, they both go through the English and usually
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in about 11th or 12th grade, it kind of picks
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up the rigor, picks up a little bit more and
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there's more non Beyonce related material through the college and
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career seminar is required for all students.
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Um even students on a certificate track, we'll take these
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classes, we work on transition activities in this class as
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an inclusion class.
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It has um all kinds of encompassing things about finance
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and independent living skills and Kind of those basic skills
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that you would need to get a job, resume skills,
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interview skills and all freshmen take this or you know,
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if they miss it, will take it in 10th grade
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through the college and career center.
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We also have speakers come, it might be community members,
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former students or college and career type speakers.
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Usually the families will call and bring their kids in.
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Um the parents seem to have the interest and lead
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the interest in these, these evening speakers.
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Last semester we had 12 speakers for career exploration.
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We have ROP, we have pathways where they would have
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a concentration of classes.
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Um We have uh again, the college and Career office
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offers a lot of programs through this for students who
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are interested in college.
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We also have the TPP program, which is the transition
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partnership program, and there's a coordinator on campus and he
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works on 1 to 1 interview skills, resume building.
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Um He will do some community based instruction through job
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to take the students of jobs, and this is kind
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of more geared towards the students that need extra support
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and they're not getting it in their classes for career
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exploration. And that coordinator works with the students until they're
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22, and even if they graduate, they can still get
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that service preparation.
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We have workability rOP job site Um volunteer work for
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the 18-22 year old class and the students leave with
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a portfolio.
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And this is either put together through workability, it has
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resumes, job interest surveys, work samples or it's put together
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through the certificate track in the moderate severe program and
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they can take that with them.
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And it also has their summary of performance.
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We have a wide range of electives for all the
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students. We have academic electives, vocational electives and um the
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kids are available to take these as long as there's
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space available and they sign up on time, they can
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get them.
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Um Two for the rop regional occupational program.
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We have auto shop, game design and robotics.
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Okay. Workability we students are referred through their case manager
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or if they don't have an essay I.
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Class, They can get a a 1-1 referral from their
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teacher. And the workability instructors are on site.
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The students to live with the portfolio with a resume
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and the slp um There seems to be some discrepancy
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about the students wanting to take their portfolio.
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That doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in
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the students wanting to take that when they graduate, they
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kind of want to leave it.
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Um and they want to leave that part in high
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school. So some of the teachers were you know trying
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to interest them and to be motivated and take it
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with them and how can they use this tool as
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they progress and become adults.
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Overall the students do.
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You have these opportunities available through them?
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The Na Beyonce is available through english, either S.
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A. I.
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Or general education.
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So Heart where they take advantage of it is kind
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of up to them.
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The kids that are more self motivated will complete more
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activities. Students that need support will sometimes fall through and
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knock at their non Beyonce activities completed and have those
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kind of gaps in their preparation.
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There seems to be also a gap within the uh
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leadership within the school, not the leadership, but the the
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workability people are working only with the workability.
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Students who referred to work experience are only working with
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the students that are on job sites and receiving units
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credit graduation credits for their employment.
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And the college and Career center is only working with
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students who are very motivated to go to college and
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are asking for help.
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There doesn't seem to be a lot of overlap And
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the students that were receiving 1-1 care in their classroom
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are not that service is not carrying over.
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And a lot of them find difficulty with employment after
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they graduate because they don't know how to go back
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and ask for help.
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So they seem to lose the support that they had
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once they're out in the workplace.
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Um for el cap overall in the district, um students
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with disabilities are performing two or more levels below all
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other students in L.
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A. Math, absenteeism, college and career readiness and graduation for
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goals. The district has put together credit recovery and parent,
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among other things, parent information to make it the communication
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between the district and parents more seamless.
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My recommendations currently would be to kind of provide that
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support that the students are getting in the classroom and
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increase it and have more collaboration so that the electives
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that the kids are taking on stand alone.
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The academics aren't stand alone when the students are receiving
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that support and small group instruction in the classroom.
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It's not carrying over even with the TPP, which is
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a new program which is helpful.
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There's still a lot of kids that we'll go to
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the job site be unhappy and quit and they don't
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really have anything to fall back on, especially the summer
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after graduation.
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So there needs to be some follow up.
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There is some district follow up for the students and
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the modest severe program as far as the transition um
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plan, there isn't really anything to see if the kids
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that get a diploma once they have a diploma, If
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there's any tracking of them, there is options for non
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Beyonce to follow the kids.
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But the college and career coordinator was not aware of
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any students coming back that kind of activity.
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I did learn from interviewing these people within my school
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that there is a lot of opportunities provided the students
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that are self motivated and self starters or have a
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lot of family support.
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Pretty successful.
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Um students that don't have that supported don't make that
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connection in high school can kind of get lost even
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with these opportunities.
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Students with moderate severe disabilities who continue on to the
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18-22 year old program do have job shadowing Community-based instruction
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and volunteer opportunities.
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They don't really get any paid employment until they're 22
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and this can be a problem because some are ready
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to work before then and there's just not a lot
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of coordination to get them into jobs before they turn
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22 overall, the students are available able to participate in
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exploration, awareness and preparation activities.
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Both the Janet and the essay, I threw their english
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class through family support and um asking for help.
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They can find referrals, there doesn't seem to be a
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lot of coordination between these departments and if a kid
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or student is unable to find their way, there's a
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good chance that they will all through the cracks.
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We do have a spanish liaison at our school which
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is helpful and they can coordinate things, meetings with parents
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and this, this is relied upon heavily for culturally diverse
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families. We also have information provided through websites, emails and
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phone calls.
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The problem with this kind of can be that parents
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that are not tech savvy or families that don't have
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technology in the home can miss out on opportunities such
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as college information night clubs, um, award award night.
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So that that's a barrier that the technology is a
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barrier. I think the district would benefit from providing more
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technology training to parents for this information.
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I interviewed the college and career counselor, I interviewed a
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mild, moderate teacher, and I interviewed a coworker of a
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moderate severe teacher, and it does seem to be an
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agreement that there could be more done for students who
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are interested in vocational opportunities, even though the district is
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making a solid effort for awareness, exploration and preparation.