An Up-Close Look at the Workplace
“Why do we have to learn this stuff?” Oh, how many times have teachers heard students ask that question? Back in 1996, a group of nonprofits in Boston figured out the best answer was to show kids how the knowledge they were learning in class was needed and used in the workplace. So they created Job Shadow — an initiative that went national the following year — which lets students spend a day “shadowing” folks in their daily jobs. Each year, thousands of middle- and high-school students and businesses participate. The program kicks off each year on Feb. 2, Groundhog Day, but continues throughout the school year. Here is what a few schools did on opening day:
• About 60 students from the Dothan Technology Center, a pre-engineering academy in Alabama, spent the day at the Southeast Alabama Medical Center, the Dothan Eagle notes. But instead of talking to medical staff, they shadowed plant operations workers, including engineers, technicians and construction workers.
• Twenty-six students from New Bern High School in North Carolina also visited a hospital, the CarolinaEast Medical Center, according to the Sun Journal. But these students did shadow medical staff, including physical therapists, nurses, obstetricians and pharmacists.
• The Lansing State Journal reports that 18 students from Holt High School in Michigan followed employees at AT&T in Lansing. Byron Benn, 16 and a junior, was impressed, telling the paper: “I know now that every job basically needs people that know technology.”
Filed under: K-12 Education News
