Workforce readiness starts in the classroom
Cory Frank, Vice President of Business Development and Project Management
A recent letter in the Las Vegas Sun raised an important question for our community: how do we better connect Nevadans with the jobs employers need to fill?
As a construction employer, I believe part of the answer has to begin long before someone applies for a job. It begins in our classrooms and requires employers to become active partners in preparing students for the opportunities ahead.
Employers can’t continue to cite workforce shortages and criticize graduates for being unprepared if we haven’t taken the time to work alongside educators and define what career readiness looks like in our fields.
The Clark County School District has made workforce development a central part of its new five-year strategic plan, including an ambitious goal of ensuring that 100% of its graduates leave high school with a marketable asset by 2031. That asset could be an industry-recognized credential, college credit, a work-based learning experience, technical training or another form of preparation for continued education and employment. But reaching that goal will require more than the school district’s commitment. Employers must connect what they see in the workplace to what students are learning in the classroom.