Fayette Business Education Partnership adds programs in 2019 to help bolster career readiness
Eric Morris/For the Observer-Reporter
Fayette Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Muriel Nuttall addresses students at the 2018 Fayette County Business Pitch Competition, an event held annually by the Fayette Business Education Partnership.
Eric Morris/For the Observer-Reporter
Laurel Highlands students, from left, Nick Simpson, Matt Buckingham and Ryan DeCarlo present their business plan to a panel of judges at the 2018 Fayette County Business Pitch Competition, an event held annually by the Fayette Business Education Partnership. The sixth annual competition is slated for March 20.
A coalition aimed at joining education and business leaders to drive workforce development and career readiness among Fayette County youth is set to kick off 2019 with a flurry of activity to provide area students and teachers with developmental opportunities.
They unveiled its program schedule for the year, which includes several new events covering the areas STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) and entrepreneurship education and professional development.
The collaborative, spearheaded by the Fayette Chamber of Commerce and Westmoreland-Fayette Workforce Investment Board, comprises area educators, legislators, community groups and businesses.
“Every single program we try to focus on a different area,” said Muriel Nuttall, executive director of Fayette Chamber of Commerce.
“When the state changed the career pathway education standards, there are different standards for different grades going through from pre-k to senior high. So our goal at the partnership is to try to touch every piece of that in some way,” said Nuttall, who heads the program with Fayette Business Education Partnership coordinator Kathi Hull.
Highlights for first quarter include the sixth annual Fayette County Business Pitch Competition, a county-wide tenth-grade career fair and a business education seminar.
The high school business pitch competition tasks students with creating a product or service, developing a business plan and pitching their idea to a panel of judges in front of a room of their peers for cash prizes.
This year, however, students will receive extra help in their preparation to the event, which is split into two days for the first time. Students will benefit from a workshop day in January before they pitch their businesses on stage at Penn State Fayette March 20.
“What we’ve noticed happen over the past couple of years is that the groups of students that we bring in are coming from different areas, so they don’t get the same level of preparation,” said Nuttall, explaining some students competing in the completion may be enrolled in an entrepreneurship course while others may come from a less-intensive business club.
The workshop day will feature interactive sessions on business planning and marketing and will pair students with business professionals who will mentor them on their business pitch.
The tenth-grade job expo is intended to reach all sophomores in Fayette County on the morning of Feb. 26. To be held at the former Sears location at the Uniontown Mall, students will have the opportunity to interact with employers and be introduced to industries and careers.
The fair will be open to the public from noon to 4 p.m.
The partnership will host a business education seminar this spring to provide an overview of the current workforce situation of the region. With consultation from former Brownsville Area School District Superintendent Dr. Phil Savini, the seminar will feature interactive discussions regarding how businesses and schools can work together to develop a strong and vital workforce through career pathway education.
“The partnership continues to grow. We have well over 100 people that are active participants. To know that we have now filled our meeting room and will have to move to a bigger place is just evidence of how the community is understanding the career need (in the area) and responding to it, and it’s exciting to see the growth in the movement,” Nuttall said.
The Fayette Business Education Partnership was formed in 2012 to work with businesses and area school districts to address employment needs and career readiness among students.
Nuttall said the events planned throughout the year help get students active in STEM education and interested in exploring career opportunities.
Other programs and initiatives planned for the year include:
- Teacher in the Workplace presentation, the final portion of a 2018 pilot program for educators to interact with local manufacturing and health care businesses to improve career readiness instruction, Feb 12.
- Entrepreneurship is Elementary, a new component of the Fayette County Business Pitch Competition to introduce entrepreneurship at the elementary level, spring.
- STEAM Day, a new program for girls ages 7-14 to learn about different types of engineering, in partnership with Penn State Fayette and Penn State Extension, fall.
- Williams Fay-West-Greene Fluid Power Challenge, an annual STEM competition for seventh- and eighth-grade students focused on hydraulic and pneumatic engineering, fall.
- YouthLEADS!, a new leadership training program for high school seniors, to begin in the 2019-20 school year.
- Career Ambassadors, a program featuring business and community leaders visiting classrooms to speak to students about careers and education paths, ongoing.