Pathways Program Helps Students, Businesses
APRIL 20, 2010: A statewide Internet-based workforce assessment and development tool is helping South Carolina high school students improve their performance and transition better to college, according to marketer Bill Barlow.
Barlow, who is the state’s spokesman for a program that schools, parents and job seekers to businesses, told Rotarians that the Kuder Connect 2 Business program is positively impacting how students prepare to enter the workforce.
Starting in the eighth grade, every South Carolina student, in coordination with school counselors, uses the C2B Internet tool from the state’s Personal Pathways to Success program to develop an individualized graduation plan. Not only does the program help students target career clusters and plan their high school education, it is flexible enough to change as students’ interests mature.
So far, 97 percent of students in grades 8-10 have an Individualized Graduation Plan, Barlow said. “It’s an ongoing process – a living document that helps students prepare for a post-secondary education.” Among the results of the program:
School performance. For 20 percent of the students involved in the program, there is a demonstrable increase in school performance, Barlow said.
To college. Some 91 percent of students in the program go beyond high school to post-secondary study – quite a difference from the 67 percent of students nationally who move forward to college.
Better picks. The program is believed to help students complete college more quickly as 60 percent don’t change their major, compared to 40 percent nationally.
While students reap big benefits from the C2B program, South Carolina businesses can too, Barlow said. The program seeks to add business partners to its database so that students can learn of career possibilities. Businesses that create profiles on the C2B program also can use it to recruit candidates, get publicity and give back to their communities.
“We are scratching the surface of opportunities for businesses right now,” Barlow said. Learn more online at: http://www.scpathways.org/.
Submitted by: Andy Brack, Keyway Committee