More than 2,400 students from 28 high schools throughout central Minnesota gathered at Central Lakes College’s Brainerd campus Friday, March 6, to participate in the 13th annual Bridges Career Exploration Day.
The career awareness experience provided students with hands-on activities developed by more than 225 volunteers — representing business and education — and featured more than 150 careers.
The activities are organized into six primary career clusters, an organizational element first developed by the Minnesota Department of Education. Beyond these six clusters, the Bridges event broke careers into additional groups, representing 18 industry areas.
Local businesses and organizations provide nearly 7,000 volunteer hours through committee meetings, set up and event time. Industry professionals offer staff, financial support for prizes or other giveaways, and some develop themed booths to help showcase careers.
Students arrived by bus and dispersed throughout the college campus. Professionals from different companies were available to explain about local careers, their work environment, necessary skill sets, earning potential and the training needed to become employed. Students participate in demonstrations and hands-on activities while talking to business people.
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In the manufacturing area, students were able to learn about the complete manufacturing process while building a miniature replica airplane. There were welding simulators, virtual reality demonstrations and many robots — one even challenged students to a game of tic-tac-toe. After interacting with finance professionals, students could play a “show me the money” game and win prizes.
Some participated in computer-aided landscape design or tasted hydroponically grown vegetables. Website and graphic design stations offered students a chance to sit and create. Education stations offered a glimpse into becoming a teacher or early childhood provider. The front-end loader simulator was also a big hit, as well as participating in a Facebook live video stream of the event and listening to a live baby in uterus, according to a news release. Construction and trades offered opportunities to wire, hammer, drill and more.
After exploring career possibilities, students were served lunch before heading back to their high schools. While en route home, students completed a survey about the experience.
Past survey results showed the top three learning outcomes of the Bridges Career Exploration Day were learning about local jobs/careers; helping focus on which career to pursue; and the benefits of post-secondary education. There were 83% of attending students who reported they were interested and motivated to gain additional skills for a future career, 90% of the students were satisfied or extremely satisfied with the Career Exploration Day event, and 14% of the students learned about career opportunities located in central Minnesota.
Bridges Career Exploration Day has been consistently recognized nationally as a high quality, effective way to introduce students to careers available in the region, the release stated. Many community and state leaders have attended as an invited VIP.
The Bridges Career Exploration Day is just one of the programs of the Bridges Career Academies and Workplace Connection to better integrate work-based learning between schools and businesses. Other bridges programs offering a direct connection to business through career experience activities include business tours, speakers in the classroom and a career video library, as well as the Career Depot, a youth jobs portal with resources on researching and preparing for jobs.
Bridges’ academic enrichment program is called the Career Academies. These integrated courses focus on the knowledge and skills within a specific career field. Each course integrates technical skills and employability skills with real-world business and industry experiences.
The Bridges Career Academies and Workplace Connection is funded in part by the Central Lakes Perkins Consortium and Sourcewell and is supported by the Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce, Central Lakes College, Minnesota State Community and Technical College and participating school districts. Find more information about this event at bridgesconnection.org/ced2020 .
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