Jeff Roberts

JACKSON TWP — For many students and parents, a goal of education is to prepare teenagers and young adults for the workforce.

But, Jeff Roberts said, that can be hard when teachers went right from high school to college, then to teaching.

“While we say we want to prepare kids for the 21st century workplace, it's hard to know what that is if you haven't experienced it yourself,” said Roberts, Seneca Valley's supervisor of gifted education and student services.

With the help of a Department of Labor and Industry grant, however, Seneca Valley teachers will bring a new perspective on industry to the classroom.

The Teacher in the Workplace grant will fund job shadowing and industry education opportunities for teachers to learn about how workers in many varied occupations go about their day-to-day jobs.

Occupations about which the teachers will learn include registered nurses, medical secretaries, paralegals and many types of trades like brick masons and pipe fitters. Those were identified by the state as being in need, specifically seeing double-digit percentage growth in vacancies.

It might be difficult for a teacher to finish observing workers and revising their curriculum in just a few short days, but those selected for the program will have a week to complete those tasks. The school district hopes to finish agreements with local partners and select teachers by the end of April.

While targeted occupations are likely seeing more vacancies throughout the nation, they were identified by the commonwealth because those industries need workers in Western Pennsylvania, Roberts said.

The regional aspect of the grant has two benefits, he added. The first is that it allows teachers to learn about jobs nearby, for example in Cranberry Township, Zelienople or Evans City, rather than having to travel.

The second, he said, is that students will gain skills that are needed for nearby jobs.

“Regionally, there are specific jobs that are needed here, different than in Erie or Scranton or Meadville,” Roberts said.

Skills identified may not be job-specific, either. Encouraging skills like collaboration in a manner more conducive to a work environment may be one item teachers bring back with them.

“Let's say a teacher observes that people at a particular industry frequently work in three-person groups. We need to make sure that we're modeling that and giving our kids that experience here,” Roberts said. “Collaborative work in the adult workplace is probably different than school collaborative work.”

Even seeing what tasks workers in a profession accomplish can have value.

“We might know what we think a computer user support specialist does, but until a teacher sees it they can't really prepare our kids for it,” Roberts said.

Another benefit of the program, Roberts said, is that teachers will be able to tout the positive aspects of job shadowing from personal experience. He said Seneca Valley encourages students to shadow, but now teachers will be able to explain “more genuinely” the benefits of such a program.

“We're very excited to do this and see improvement in our curriculum for next year and more excitement for students to job shadow,” Roberts said.