“I was so impressed by how engaging the virtual externship wound up being!”
Wallis Group Waving
Teachers and their students have a unique bond; a relationship that allows for connection and trust. Teachers may also be one of the few sources for students’ knowledge of careers outside the ones represented in their personal lives. Our educators care deeply about the future success of their students but don’t necessarily have insight into careers outside of the classroom. On top of this, teachers are constantly looking for new ways to make classroom lessons relevant to the rapidly changing world of work that their students will enter. Externships give teachers a “sneak peak” into STEM career fields that earn a living wage and the skills their students will need to be competitive.
Past externships have demonstrated that when teachers visit multiple industries they gain deeper knowledge of synergies across all job sectors. They are encouraged to build connections that can be called out in their classrooms. This year 37 teachers visited virtually with nine industry sites and panels:
Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute (PNCI)
Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF)
TimberCon
Kittelson & Associates
Wallis Engineering
Clean Water Services (CWS)
Pacific Power of Portland
Portland Community College: Medical Laboratory Program (PCC)
Kaiser Permanente
Teachers were excited to learn that many of the high wage/high demand careers that they were introduced to at these sites had varying levels of educational requirements. At PNCI, Amber McCoy, Outreach Coordinator/ Concrete Work Specialist described a career path that included a formal, paid apprenticeship and help with career resources. Teresa Wolfe, the Director of PCC’s Med Lab Program, offered specific advice about the associates degree and training available and the high demand for graduates. Discussions with representatives from Wallis Engineering, TimberCon, and Kittelson & Associates offered insights into careers demanding bachelors and professional degrees can take unpredictable turns.
“So many folks at the different externships are telling us that they stumbled into their careers/fields pretty unexpectedly. I think that communicating that to students is so important! We need to encourage students to try different things, explore what’s out there, and be open...”
Being able to suggest varied careers with different entry-level requirements--a certification, associates degree, apprenticeship, or bachelors and more--can open doors to students.
Professional skills (sometimes called soft skills) came up again and again across all industries.. For example, problem solving and resilience or as one teacher put it: “the right balance of humility and willfulness. Being willing to listen to the folks around you while still being able to push through a problem when needed.” Teachers remarked on the power of providing real-world examples in the classroom of how this skill results in career opportunities.
“I know that students have been told that problem solving will open all kinds of doors for them, but actually being able to see the doors helps a LOT.”
Wayne Kittelson of Kittelson and Associates, repeatedly emphasized that skills like collaboration and communication were just as important as technical abilities. At Wallis Engineering, Jane Vail indicated that emotional intelligence and an understanding of one’s strengths is a crucial skill she looks for in prospective employees. A sense of cultural and global awareness emerged as a significant professional skill in high demand. Discussions with employees also gave teachers advice for students who might face issues of equity and inclusivity in their careers. PNCI instructor Val Campa described her experiences as a woman of color in a white, male dominated industry and suggested seeking out a mentor within the industry that has experience with some of the same issues. Educators also discovered new ways to spark cultural connections in their lessons.
“It gave me ideas for cross-curricular connections and ways to make my classroom more culturally relevant.”
Each externship concluded with an hour of teacher collaboration. These dynamic conversations included reflection and action planning. At the CWS externship, teachers remarked on the fact that employers may require experience for entry-level positions and many don’t have the means to get that through unpaid/low paying internships. So why not offer lab experience in class and give time/guidance for students to write this experience into a resumé? Because employers brought up a willingness to take risks, a teacher at the BEF visit described the challenge of creating a safe atmosphere so that students will risk failure while in a virtual classroom. In that setting, so much is out of the teacher’s control. Another teacher offered a method that she was going to try that uses a Google Slides add-on, Peardeck. Students can use a four-digit number to remain anonymous so that they feel comfortable taking risks when offering opinions or answering questions. A specific example that arose in the Healthcare panel concerned the publication of a research study. The author misapplied a formula in their spreadsheet and came up with wildly implausible results. Katy Reid, a science teacher at the Beaverton Academy of Science and Engineering, remarked, “I really loved the real-world example of what happens when you...don't check your work or run it by others before submitting it. I'll absolutely be using that example in the classroom and will start teaching students to self-check with the questions ‘Is this result what I expected? If not, what may have gone wrong?’”
