What Battle Creek schools are doing to prepare the next generation of workers

Andrew Mauney was playing games at school.

Standing in front of a Denso Manufacturing Michigan booth inside the Battle Creek Central High School gymnasium, the 15-year-old freshman engaged in a battle of wits with a robot in a game of tic-tac-toe. Mauney had his "passport" stamped by the Denso representative, demonstrating that he had explored some of the 43 businesses and institutions presenting at the school's Career Exploration Fair in December."I have my goals set on being an engineer at NASA," Mauney said. "Even if you don't know what to do coming in... there's a lot of things you can explore here to get an idea of what you want to do in the future."Through Career Academies — a sort of school within a school where the curriculum is organized by occupation or industry — Battle Creek Public Schools wants to help Mauney make his goal a reality.

Launched in the fall of 2019, Career Academies are a wall-to-wall effort to ensure all Bearcats leave the school "career, college and community ready."Every student in the high school, beginning with the class of 2022, will explore potential career pathways before "declaring" late in their sophomore year. The integrated approach was one of the initiatives undertaken through a $51 million, five-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded to Battle Creek Public Schools in 2017 aimed at bridging racial and economic divides in the district.

Career fairs are nothing new, of course. Internships, job shadows, apprenticeships, project-based learning, college visits and dual-enrollment programs are tried-and-true methods of preparing students for post-graduate success.What sets the Career Academy model apart is a more comprehensive approach to post-high school readiness. And it's a learning model being emulated by neighboring school districts, potentially causing a ripple effect for Michigan's economy in the years to come.

A 2017 study by B.C. Vision titled, "Equity and Excellence in Battle Creek, MI: Initial Findings and Recommendations for Expanding Career and College Readiness," revealed that years of racial segregation and economic disparities in the Battle Creek area had taken a serious toll on its largest school district.It also showed an unemployment rate of 18 percent in the Battle Creek district, more the twice the rate of neighboring districts Lakeview and Pennfield and nearly three times higher than Harper Creek.

Researches recommended freshman academies to help students with the transition from middle school to high school and special programs to appeal to students, such as coding and design-based learning.Following a visit to Nashville two years ago by representatives from each of Battle Creek's public school districts, BCPS decided to follow a road map provided by Ford Next Generation Learning — the philanthropic arm of the Ford Motor Company — which helped launch Career Academies at Nashville Public Schools.The BCPS School Board announced the implementation of specific pathways in February of 2019, becoming the second district in Michigan to adopt the model.

At Battle Creek Central, all students continue to take courses required under the Michigan Merit curriculum, while also taking specific elective courses that relate to their selected career pathways."Here is the distinct pathway that has all the steps pre-laid out, every option, and it's available to every kid in this building," said Della Ukert, career coach at Battle Creek Central. "Instead of, 'I'm taking two gym classes as a sophomore,' I'm going to take anatomy and one gym class so I'm taking those industry-specific courses that prepare me for either for an industry-recognized credential or dual-enrollment credits."A U.S. Department of Labor study on the impacts of Career Academies found students earned an average of $2,112 per month in the period of five to eight years following graduation from a career academy, compared to $1,896 in the control group. However, there were no statistically significant differences in educational attainment of the two groups.Battle Creek Central freshmen first take an aptitude test to determine their educational development plan before researching and exploring potential career pathways in two academies: Business, Engineering and Industrial Technology and Health and Human Services.Engineering and skilled trades, information technology, finance and business are some of the fields that fall under the Business Engineering and Industrial Technology Academy, while nursing, public safety and education pathways are provided through the Health and Human Services Academy.During the Career Fair in December, Battle Creek Central freshman Taylor Solis, 14, was enthralled by a United States Air Force officer who was demonstrating how to apply a tourniquet."Gravitating towards the nursing industry and health and human services. I really like helping people," she said. "I'm really grateful that I have the opportunity to do this, because I know not a lot of other schools get to do this. It gives me a big helping hand on what I want to do when I get out of high school."

"We've got to close the skills gap and get people into better-paying jobs," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said during her visit to Battle Creek Central on Jan. 6. "And so there is a path to prosperity for everyone in this state, whether it's through the trades, where you can make a really good living, or it's in a traditional four-year institution, or (Kellogg Community College) credentials. These are all ways to meet that skills gap, but also, most importantly, give people a standard of life where they can take care of themselves and their families and get ahead." Whitmer was visiting students and faculty as part of her “Don’t Stop Now” campaign, which aims to raise the share of Michiganders with a post-secondary credential to 60% by 2030.

During the governor's visit, Battle Creek Public Schools Superintendent Kim Carter lauded the launch of career academies as a way the district will help Michigan's economy."We've been talking with our local businesses and organizations about what's getting in the way of their workforce development, and what we found is there is a skills gap," she said. "Kids will leave Battle Creek Central with either an associate degree, certification or a post-secondary plan to go on to a four-year university."It's not that unemployment here is high. The November report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics showed Michigan's unemployment rate at 4%. But as a generation of Baby Boomers heads into retirement, Michigan’s Department of Talent and Economic Development projects that 545,000 skilled trade jobs will be created by 2026, mostly in construction, manufacturing, healthcare, automotive and information technology industries.Economists say employers can help close the skill gap by simply paying more for talent, or they can expand training programs.

For 50 years, select high school students in the Battle Creek area have had a place to receive training focused solely on careers and industries.In 1970, the Calhoun Intermediate School District built the $3 million Calhoun Area Vocational Education Center on East Roosevelt Avenue, offering 24 occupation-based courses for some 1,200 dual-enrolled students in Calhoun County.Later renamed the Tech Center and eventually the Calhoun Area Career Center, it currently offers 20 programs following the Michigan Career Pathways model, with students spending half of their school day learning job-related skills.While attending the Career Center, students may earn college credits through dual enrollment or articulation agreements. The programs use project-based learning. For instance, Culinary Arts and Hospitality students developed their own eatery this school year, with goods available for purchase by students and staff.

What continues to separate the Career Center is its exclusivity. Enrollment is limited to juniors and seniors from 12 Calhoun County public schools, as well as home-schooled students and those from private schools within Calhoun County. "We turn away 15 to 30 welders every year, and that's unfortunate. Because there is a big demand for them," said Steve Yurisich, principal at the Calhoun Area Career Center. "Enrollment is based on how many juniors and seniors in your school - then we smooth it by how frequently do you use that program. Say Tekonsha is constantly putting kids in this (particular) program, they'll get a little more than a school that is a lot bigger, but doesn't send anybody."There has been a longtime cultural emphasis sending students to college, Yurisich added, but he believes "the pendulum is swinging even nationally. "For the 40 years plus, we've been telling kids 'You have to get a four-year degree or you can't be successful.' Not true," he said. "That's just not true. And the economy just cannot support that... There's more jobs than there are people to fill them, it's just that there is a mismatch in skill level."

Despite the rising demand for workers in skilled trades, data shows that people with college degrees continue to earn more on average than those who don't.A 2019 report from the College Board showed that individuals with bachelor's degrees will earn $400,000 more in their lifetimes than those with just a high school diploma, even after factoring in the cost of earning a degree.Yurisich noted the Career Center continues to evolve, and cited the school's Robotics and Intro to Engineering programs as examples of how students can thrive in those fields in the face of rising industrial automation. "We teach them to run the automation. They have to have an operator or someone who can work on that stuff. Machines don't fix themselves yet, fortunately," he said.

The success of Battle Creek Central's Career Academy, the Calhoun Area Career Center and other pathway programs hinge largely on the partnerships between the schools, regional colleges such as Kellogg Community College, Western Michigan University and Grand Valley State University and the local business community.Lakeview Schools, for instance, offers a pathway for students in the medical field through its partnership with Kellogg Community College and Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed).

"We want to create the next workforce for Battle Creek," said Lakeview Schools Superintendent Blake Prewitt. "That's one of our goals. The hard piece is coming up with, what are we asking from the businesses? That's where education needs to get better: What are we asking from them and what's the benefit to them now and the long-term benefit." As one of the first steps in the Career Academy, Battle Creek Central freshmen conduct mock interviews, while sophomores attend industry tours, job shadows and have career panels specifically based on their chosen pathway."Getting the opportunity to expose kids to real world professionals and people who are currently making a difference in the community, shows them that it is possible," said Josh Harter, who teaches freshmen seminar at Battle Creek Central. "And it's so much more real than when a teacher or instructional coach gives them information, because they get to talk to people who are out doing it right now."Michelle Henderson, human resources supervisor at Bleistahl North America, a powdered metal facility in Fort Custer, volunteered to conduct mock interviews with Battle Creek Central students in November. Each student was scored on a rubric, which focused on basic skills such as eye contact.

"This is meant to teach them, not evaluate them," she said. "It's a teaching experience as in how to do an interview, but also get that first hump out of the way. We can train people, but we can't train a good attitude and that personality you see when you come in."Jim Frances, vice president of business development at Blue Ox Credit Union, was also among the volunteers doing mock interviews. He said local business leaders have a responsibility to forge connections with students."As members of our community and business people, we need our kids to be the next level," he said. "Every generation has always proven that they have been better than the previous, and we need to make sure that tradition continues."

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Nick Buckley can be reached at nbuckley@battlecreekenquirer.com or 269-966-0652. Follow him on Twitter:@NickJBuckley