Leveling up in Shelby County Schools: Chamber encourages career prep for high school students

The Keeping it Real program in Shelby County Schools is all about sharing awareness — an awareness that might not yet be on the radar for high school students. 

The Shelby Chamber of Commerce’s program for ninth graders opens up students’ eyes to the near-future challenges of adulthood, Jackson Pruett said, so they are able to learn why it’s important to invest in their future early on. 

Pruett, vice president of business development and support at the chamber, said for the last five years, workforce development has been a top priority through the ShelbyOne Next Level Up initiative. The program was the creation of the Greater Shelby Chamber of Commerce and is continued now under the merged Shelby Chamber.

As they continue to grow the programs, they are able to identify needs and unique opportunities for students like apprenticeships and internships. 

“It’s very important to serve the business community in Shelby County by way of preparing our students and our citizens for the jobs we have open, because we have a really successful economy and a lot of open jobs,” he said. “We want to be proactive in preparing those high schoolers, starting at ninth grade, for the jobs that they will be filling one day and all those opportunities.”

As part of the initiative, the chamber brings a business-driven, workforce development approach through a partnership between businesses, communities, school and training partners to ensure that Shelby County companies can recruit and retain the employees and managers they need. 

Pruett said the initiative allows the chamber to encourage students to prepare themselves as they get closer to the age of independence. 

They begin with Keeping It Real, a program for the ninth graders that serves as an introduction to thinking about their future careers and what they want to do when they get out of high school. 

Keeping It Real is a two-day program that the chamber brings to public and private schools in the Shelby County area between September and March, depending on what time frame works best for the school. 

It works in conjunction with the career prep classes already in play at the high schools, and Pruett said their presentation covers the importance of “soft skills,” which are skills learned in high school like work ethic, time management and communication. They also talk about money and how they plan to pay for their lives after high school. 

“Our hope for the program is students can see the value in going after additional training and pursuing a high-wage, high-opportunity job,” Pruett said, in whatever way best fits them. “It’s a way we can connect with ninth-graders and meet them where they are.”

What makes this program memorable for students, he said, is the interactive portion during the second day. 

Each student is given a fake scenario and identity containing different variables like income, job, number of children or spouse. Then, parent and chamber volunteers man booths where the kids come by and fill out their worksheet on how they will manage their budget and live their life based on the variables they were given. 

“We really want to encourage them to think about the decisions they make at the ninth, 10th-grade stages of their life have long-term impacts,” Pruett said. 

Booths include education, second job, utilities, finances, housing, transportation, groceries, clothing and “fun money.” Local professionals from banks, law firms, realty companies and other careers volunteer their time to speak of their field of expertise to help the students navigate through “the real world,” Pruett said.

The next year, in 10th grade, the students participate in Connect 2 Careers, an interactive career fair. As 11th graders, they take part in Communication Matters, which prepares them for job interviews, resume building and other ways to showcase their talent. As students get ready to graduate, they are able to learn more about local companies and their apprenticeships through Shelby County’s 58 Inc., which promotes workforce readiness and economic development. 

Melody Whitten, director of development for 58 Inc., said the Chamber and 58 Inc. have been working to build a more comprehensive approach to workforce development. Over time, they have become more involved through the apprenticeship program that connects students to local companies.

“The way our global education system is set up, we’re great at education but we haven’t figured out in the K-12 system yet how to fully integrate career exploration or awareness into that curriculum yet,” Whitten said, adding that students don’t always know their full range of options outside of going to a four-year college. 

Whitten said career options within kids’ family circle are often all they’re aware of. The apprenticeship program started in 2018, when local companies reached out to the organization with a need for machinists. Through the program, students go to school to learn the trade at night and work during the day, with the tuition paid for by the company. 

After the success of the first year, Whitten said, the program has been expanded to include other trades like welding. Pruett said the work the chamber, 58 Inc. and their local partners do is important to students because it gives them awareness and options. 

“Nothing changes someone’s life like a job, so preparing people for the right types of jobs and getting them into the right type of training and getting them the right skills that matter, that just changes people’s lives,” he said, adding that it also improves Shelby County’s economic competitiveness.

Learn more about the programs at shelbychamber.org/about-us/shelbyone-next-level.