By DONNA RYDER, Editor
The keys to a thriving community are jobs and an ample workforce. Both are needed for success. Obion County Joint Economic and Community Development Corp. officials work to get businesses and industries to not only locate here, but to stay here. Part of that quest involves an educated workforce willing to move here or stay here once they have completed their academic studies.
In an effort to keep young people in Obion County, both the Obion County and Union City school systems offer their students opportunities to experience work in the “real world” while completing their high school requirements. Promoted as Career Connections, educators, local business leaders, workforce development officials and three young participants spent Monday morning at the Obion County Public Library learning what that programs entail.
Alli Kate Frilling worked at Twin Oaks Technology while in school and has retained her position after graduation. She said she gained worked ethic while on the job. Gracie Rae Martin said she learned real world problem-solving at Flowers with Sass. She will be leaving soon for the U.S. Air Force. Addison Carr, who is currently in the program with Dr. Jordan and Bondurant, said she always wanted to be a doctor and work in a clinical setting. The opportunity for these girls, who were or are active in extracurricular activities, to work during the school hours helped them gain job skills.
Lana Wood said Workforce Innovations Inc. offers employers the ability to bring students into their companies with the students’ income covered 100 percent for three months when utilizing grant funds. The students would make at least $10 per hour, she said. Another program pays 50 percent of their salaries for an additional 320 hours, while some grants are available for people to go to school to learn specific skills. Workforce Innovations Inc. also goes into school systems to educate students on the on-the-job training opportunities. They have recently been focusing on the hospitality, tourism and retail fields.
Sabra Bledsoe said the Tennessee Department of Labor connects employers with job seekers, making sure to build a talented pipeline. The American Job Center also works with youth and young adults to find them employment, internships, job shadowing and on-the-job training.
Darla Hale with Boujee on High, who has utilized student workers through the program with the local schools, said she has a high standard for everyone who works for her. She said she knows teenagers can be shy and they don’t want to speak up, but she expects every customer who comes into her store to be spoken to by her employees. She said the program teaches the students real-world responsibility and she has had an “overall great experience.”
Obion County School System’s CTE (career and technical education) director George Leake explained the process that system uses for the Career Connection program. He said the students must find the jobs themselves, which will hopefully give them experience in what they want to do for a career. “Any job will teach them work ethic,” he said.
There are guidelines which they follow when a student wants to participate in the career program. First, he said, the student must have a 94 percent attendance rate. “If they don’t show up for school, then they probably won’t show up for work,” he said, adding that a student who does not show up for work is a bad reflection on the school system.
The student must also attend classes, keep up their grades, be recommended for the program by a teacher and show capability. Once they’ve met those requirements, then they can find a job and present it as a possibility to meet the program criteria. The students are evaluated during the program and can have their program terminated if they don’t meet expectations.
Obion County Central High School guidance counselor Heather Kendall said many people may remember co-op from when they were in high school and, while the program is similar, it comes with more requirements. She said students are expected to have a path they work towards and must take three classes toward that goal. It is in these classes that students learn the skills they will take with them to their jobs.
Leake said they have had students work in the school cafeteria and at Vaughn Electric, Interstate 69 Motorsports, Baptist Memorial Hospital and in dentist offices. He said the most unique is a student whose work program has him in the duck blind working along side his father in the family business. Some of the students get paid to work their jobs, while others have positions that are unpaid and considered job shadowing.
Leake said while both OCCHS and South Fulton High School students participate, there are more opportunities for students at OCCHS because it is a bigger school with more CTE offerings. Obion County assistant director of schools Dr. Greg Barclay said the school system wants to be more proactive with the program and OCCHS principal Chris Lownsdale is working to make sure more students know it is possible. Students who complete the program can earn two credits toward their graduation, Leake said.
While the county school system has been offering a job program for some time, it’s a new endeavor for the Union City School System. Union City assistant director of schools Michael Paul Miller said the city’s school workforce program is different. Students don’t find their own jobs, but rather are placed.
He said students in the city system are exposed to different career avenues, even in the middle and elementary school levels. They meet with the students to find out what they want to do when they get out of school. And, while some may want to play professional sports, he said the school system tries to ground them without extinguishing their hopes and dreams.
One way Union City is exposing its high school students to different jobs is through the Leadership Innovation program. A select number of students, who serve as ambassadors for the school, tour local businesses, finding out what kind of positions are available there, before bringing that knowledge back to their classmates.
Miller said Union City High School career counselor Lisa Carson has been working to get local businesses in front of the school system’s students, even in the kindergarten classrooms. Ms. Carson said they have a small student body at UCHS and the system is not as advanced in the workforce program as Obion County, so things will be different. They also have students who are busy with Magnet School and dual enrollment classes, as well as sports and band.
She explained students who do participate in the workforce program do so at the beginning of their school day and they don’t get paid. “We don’t allow the students to be paid because we want it to be a learning experience, not considered a job,” she said, adding that if they were not on the job, they would be in a classroom where they don’t make money.
OCJEDC executive director Lindsay Theobald said they are trying to “bridge the gap” and get the word out that Obion County has a workforce, but they are in school now. She said it is hard for someone at age 17 and 18 to know what they want to do when they get out of school and that is why she preaches career elimination — find out what you don’t like, until you find out what you do like.
This is where the Career Connections program comes in, because they can see the benefits — including when young people decide to stay in Obion County to live and work. Employers in Obion County who have job opportunities for local high school students are encouraged to reach out to the schools.
Editor Donna Ryder may be contacted by email at
