Career Exploration Tours is a joint partnership between USD 383, Manhattan High School, Human Resource Management Network of the Flint Hills, and the Workforce Committee. The program is designed to help connect local businesses with Manhattan High School students. The tours will provide students with the necessary information to become an employee with the prospective employer. At these tours, students will be provided the daily life of the business functions — knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform required tasks, soft skills, technical skills, licenses, certifications, degrees, education levels, leadership skills, managerial skills, and the different job roles within the organization.
Area businesses participating in Career Exploration Tours this school year include Midwest Concrete of Manhattan, Foot Locker of Junction City, GTM Sportswear of Manhattan, R-Tech of Wamego, Kansas State University Foundation of Manhattan, CivicPlus of Manhattan, Apple Tech of Manhattan, and Blueville Nursery of Manhattan.
“Most students only see the company’s firsts and don’t realize that there are more roles in the business to keep it at afloat. For example, students may think that hospitals are only for doctors and nurses, but there are more jobs that keep the business going such as janitorial staff, chefs, maintenance, cashiers, managers, payroll, accounts payable/receivables, and other roles. It’s important for the students to see that there is no limit on job possibilities in our community,” states Michelle Bloodgood, Workforce Readiness Director for the Human Resources Management Network. “We spend many years preparing our students for college, but college may not be the one size fits all solution. We live in a society today where college isn’t the first step out of high school and we want to encourage students to see what is really out there for them when they do graduate from Manhattan High School. We want our workforce to be better prepared for work and our businesses ready to hire them for the work.”
If your business is interested in participating in the Career Exploration Tours, please contact Michelle Bloodgood at mlsshaw87@gmail.com.