JACKSON TWP — Seneca Valley School District will be able to place a greater emphasis on helping students figure out their future, thanks to a grant.

Jeff Roberts, the district’s supervisor of gifted education and student services, told the Seneca Valley School Board on Tuesday that the district won a $5,000 Career Readiness Mini Grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

The grant money will enable the district to teach elementary students about post-secondary options and strengthen the district’s career advisory council through relationships with local and regional employers. It will also allow for the exploration of vocational and technical career fields and give students a chance to travel among chosen career clusters to worksites in areas of interest.

“Our career readiness efforts have moved from primarily high school efforts down to middle school and then down to elementary school,” Roberts said.

Roberts said counselors have talked to students about potential careers or areas of interest as early on as first grade.

“At this point in time, it’s really important to see our students develop stage-by-stage,” Roberts said.

Roberts said he hopes to reach students earlier, before they have a plan in place. That way, they can learn about another career path which may be a better fit for them.

The stages in the new program include showing fourth grade students college campuses, eighth grade student vocational and technical schools and coming up with career-based plans for 10th grade curriculums.

Part of the grant process required Roberts to demonstrate innovation and potential impacts to students if the district were awarded the money.

“We know that some students are ready because maybe their family has an interest in this or maybe they’re personally invested in being ready for life after high school,” Roberts said, “but for most students, it’s not a part of academic coursework.”

Roberts said school counselors have provided activities for kids to learn about “the world of work” in the past, but the new initiative will give students a hands-on understanding of their interests.

Roberts said every student in the curriculum does a series of trips to various workplaces.