2024 CTE Works! Summit

Creating authentic youth work experiences require deep partnership between schools, employers and intermediaries. In 2023, Greater Twin Cities United Way partnered with the Minnesota Chamber Foundation to support 11 local chambers of commerce working closely in their communities to offer supportive and career aligned work experiences for young people to grow their local talent workforce. This session will feature a panel of leaders from Owatonna, Redwood Area Chamber and the Winona Area Chamber of Commerce who will share more about the growth of their programs, how they create authentic employer partnerships and guidance on working with schools.

Greater Twin Cities United Way set out in 2015 to re-shape how our schools prepare students for success. We founded Career Academies to provide more youth a path toward a meaningful career, while ensuring key industries have the skilled workers they need.

With support from the Pathways to Prosperity Network and Jobs for the Future (JFF) out of the Harvard School of Education, we have aligned school districts, colleges and employers behind a powerful vision: to unite public education and employment systems so that all students in Minnesota have pathways to wealth-building and purpose driven careers.

Partnering with school districts, post-secondary partners, employers and workforce intermediaries across Minnesota, Career Academies provides specialized funding, technical assistance and coaching, and a platform for peer-to-peer support focused on building sustainable career pathways alongside local businesses.

Together, we work to ensure students have equitable access to college credits, rigorous and relevant curriculums, and meaningful and supportive work experiences.

Minnesota Chamber Foundation Business Education Network
Career Academies is proud to partner with the Minnesota Chamber Foundation and their Business Education Network (BEN) which is a private-sector solution to employers’ urgent need to find skilled, qualified and ready workers for jobs across our state. The BEN is employer-led, connecting students with high-demand careers in their community and region. Local chambers of commerce are the linchpin to the success of the BEN. They drive these programs and connect area employers with K-12 and higher education leaders.

Future Ready Workforce Fund
A critical part of a successful career pathways strategy is high-quality work experiences for youth that are aligned and stackable within a specific pathway, allowing for youth to advance in one career field or transition to another, increasing pay or experience. Since our work started in 2015, the education field has made significant progress toward offering career pathways aligned work experiences for youth. And yet, currently, our system of internships and youth work experiences are disconnected from career pathways and miss an opportunity for academic and work experiences to be aligned around a student’s individual interests, strengths and career aspirations.

Through the Future Ready Workforce Fund, United Way will catalyze school-business partnerships to fill the gaps that exist in our current educational system toward all students in Minnesota accessing wealth-building, purpose driven careers.

Moderator: GTUCW / MN Chamber
1. Owatonna
The SteeleCo Works program is a collaborative between the Owatonna Chamber, Workforce Development Inc and the United Way of Steele County. The partners are planning to focus on students in grades 10-12 who are unsure what they want to do after high school, all students are part of career pathways at Owatonna and they are continuing to expand this program. In this pilot program, they will extend work experiences/internships into the summer (8 weeks) and provide support to address barriers (transportation). Work experiences will be identified based on the interest of the students and take place in the summer. Typically, this will be in either manufacturing or mechanic work in diesel mechanic industries. Other work experiences will be tailored to individual student interest in veterinarian work, or health care.

2. Redwood Area Chamber & Tourism
Redwood Area Chamber and Tourism is partnering with Redwood Area Schools to expand career and work experiences for high school seniors. Through the 'Cardinal Pathways' program, the school district will offer internships as part of the school day and includes high school credit and a senior year capstone. Students choose from a variety of industries aligned to career pathways: Manufacturing (machining/mechatronics & welding & construction.

After this session, you will be able to:

1. Understand Key Strategies for Building Effective Partnerships: Participants will learn about the essential strategies and best practices for establishing and maintaining successful partnerships between schools, employers, and community organizations/intermediaries to enhance youth work experiences.
2. Identify and Address Common Challenges in Partnership Development: Attendees will be able to recognize common barriers to creating and sustaining partnerships, such as misaligned goals or resource constraints, and develop actionable solutions to overcome these challenges.
3. Design and Implement High-Quality, Collaborative Youth Work Programs: Participants will gain the skills to collaboratively design, implement, and evaluate youth work programs that meet the needs of both young people and employers, ensuring meaningful and impactful experiences for all stakeholders involved.