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2024 Classroom to Careers 

Believers - Motivators - Innovators - Educators

33 Educators toured local businesses for 7 days in June to find out
how to better prepare their students for future career opportunities.
 

How many times each school year do teachers here the nagging questions from their students, “Why do I have to know this?” and “When will I ever use this again?” 
 
Since 2008, the Shoals Chamber of Commerce has offered the Classroom to Careers workshops to provide exposure and create authentic responses for those teachers to take back to their students – the future workforce of the Shoals. The program has primarily been for currently employed classroom teachers, counselors, and administrators.  In 2019 UNA graduating seniors in the college of education were added to the roster for a one-day intensive, so they too will have an idea of the wide variety of jobs and skills needed, to better guide their students.

Classroom to Careers allows these educators to network with industry leaders, learn about local career opportunities, and gain understanding in how math, science, and other STEM subjects are used in specific jobs, especially in technical careers. This level of exposure will allow them to share real world examples of “why you need to know this.”
 
This summer the class of thirty-three educators from twelve different school systems again visited northwest Alabama businesses and industries for tours to see various technical skills in use and hear from the employers concerning their workforce challenges, the increasing demand for and decreasing supply of technically skilled workers, as well as the career paths and salary ranges to which these skills lead.  The industry tours included TVA Hydro-Electric Plant, Linamar Structures, ProjectXYZ, TASUS, Helen Keller Hospital, Southwire’s 12-for-Life, Shoals Business Incubator, Lockheed Martin (Courtland), Easterseals, Essity, G&G Steel, Marriott Shoals Hotel & Spa, North American Lighting, International Fertilizer Development Corp. (IFDC), Walker Family Farms, the Alabama Robotics Technology Park (Tanner) and United Launch Alliance (Decatur).  In addition, the class visited the career technical programs at Northwest Shoals Community College to see the educational pathways needed to attain the careers they saw during the tours.
 
The program is a fun, albeit exhausting seven days of first-hand, eyes-on, hands-on learning about exciting careers in technical fields, while networking with business leaders. This class of educators teaches, counsels or oversees as administrators over 5,500 students annually, which represents a huge return on investment for the C2C program, as they continue to share their knowledge with students year after year.  Collectively, they earned 1,286 contact hours toward their professional development requirements and Teacher Excellence and Accountability for Mathematics and Sciences (TEAMS) credits, as well as one ALSDE-approved Professional Learning Unit (PLU) each for five administrators who participated.