Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 4/25/2023
Students at Quabbin Regional High School and Quaboag Regional High School now have more options to explore within the already existing Innovation Career Pathways, a program that prepares students for careers in high-demand industries while they are still in high school.
What is an Innovation Career Pathway?
“Innovation Career Pathways are designed to give students hands-on coursework and work-based learning experiences in a specific high-demand industry, such as advanced manufacturing, information technology, environmental and life sciences, health care and social assistance, and business and finance, which are the five Innovation Career Pathways that Massachusetts currently offers,” according to the press release from the Healey administration.
Gov. Maura Healey awarded new Innovation Career Pathways designations, or vocational areas of study, to 27 high schools across the state, increasing the program by more than 30%.
“Expanding Innovation Career Pathways is one way we are helping transform the traditional high school experience. As we reimagine high school in the commonwealth, we are focused on increasing student engagement and creating new opportunities to access the tools and learn the skills that students need for their future career or college plans,” said state Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler.
How do schools adopt the Innovation Career Pathway program?
According to Quaboag Assistant Superintendent of Development Madeline Smola, there is a somewhat involved process to bringing this program to a school. Smola participated in Innovation Pathway Professional Learning Community to learn how to plan and build a proposal to be considered for the program. The school then had to secure a planning grant to write the proposal, and complete the requirement of finding at least one structured partnership, such as an employer in healthcare or manufacturing.
To do this, the school works closely with MassHire, and identifies what are considered priority industries in their region. Each region has a different “workforce blueprint,” which shows which areas of the labor market has or will have a growing need for skilled employees. For example, Smola said, Worcester County identified the health care field as high priority.
The school then chooses a pathway or pathways they would like to bring to their students based on the labor need in their region, and goes through a multi-step application process to ensure they have met the requirements for providing the program to students.
Quabbin Regional High School
Quabbin has two of these vocational options currently, according to Director of Teaching, Learning, and Support Colleen Mucha, and is adding a third, made possible by the award.
Mucha said the school has a program in engineering and manufacturing, and one in information technology. Based on information gained by working with MassHire, using the planning grant, and input from a council of community members, business representatives, and school staff, Quabbin found that adding a business and finance program satisfied the biggest need in the local economy.
What this means, explained Assistant Director for Teaching, Learning, and Support Joe Wyman, is that there is a need for “business related skills, from speaking with business partners, a need for communication, soft skills, leadership, conflict management, how to speak, how to listen.”
Wyman said the school hosted job fairs for students last fall, where there were “real people there looking to hire for summer camps, manufacturing, and so on. The kids have to prepare for interviews, learn resume writing, learn what it takes to get and succeed at a job.”
Mucha mentioned that the school also has a Distributive Education Club of America which “gets kids to think about themselves as leaders and entrepreneurs, and they do competitions, we have three students going and one competing at the national level for DECA in Orlando, Florida, this year.”
To complete a pathway, students have to complete two technical courses, two advanced courses, and a 100 hour internship which they also get credit for. Wyman said students usually start the programs in ninth grade, but can join as late as their junior year.
Wyman said students do internships within the school and outside of it, and local businesses are a big part of these programs. Some local businesses that offer student internships are Quabbin Wire and Cable, Flexcon, North Brookfield Savings Bank, Country Bank, St. Germaine Insurance, and Pine Acres Campground.
“All students have to go through MyCAP — a post-secondary planning program that starts in ninth grade — to find out what education or training you’d need to start a career in your desired field. This doesn’t mean you’re committed to that pathway, so students use elective courses to learn about other things also provides a framework to be able to figure out and explore in a more informed way which direction they want to go,” Wyman said.
Wyman said, “Students really enjoy some of the career skills that they’re developing. Another part of the program isn’t about just learning about your pathway but building career skills. They are developing soft skills, like working with one another to solve a problem or create something. It’s different in that you’re a part of something, and you really need to be contributing to it, not just there as a part of the group.” Wyman said another interesting thing about pathways is that students develop friendships around similar interests, which can be enriching in different ways.
Quaboag Regional High School
Smola said the school currently has a biomedical innovation program, which started in fall 2022, and it has been increasingly popular with students. The school will be adding an information technology option thanks to the award.
Students in the biomedical program can take a certified nursing assistant course as well as an EKG and phlebotomy class in partnership with Holyoke Community College. CNA students can also get clinical hours through a partnership with Quaboag on the Hill Rehabilitation, and, Smola said, it is possible that these students graduate high school with their CNA certification, ready to enter a job fresh out of high school.
This program also offers internships with partner Baystate Health in the emergency department, radiology and imaging labs, among others, where students get to work directly with Baystate Wing Hospital.
Smola said the administration is “hoping to meet the needs of diverse students, so someone who isn’t going to college still has a great career opportunity after high school.” She stresses the project based learning aspect of the pathways, saying it is a “great way for students to learn, it creates a buzz in the classroom – students come up with their own ideas and work really hard because they chose the project rather than it being assigned to them, and it really gets kids engaged.”