After a year of bringing in guest speakers periodically, OHS welcomes Workforce Wednesday to their weekly agenda. Workforce Wednesday is a recurring event every Wednesday throughout the year up until May 1, with the exception of December 20 due to semester exams.
“We invite someone from the community to come to the library during lunch,” Jeff Jones said. “They spend a few minutes letting students know exactly what they do daily, how they got their job, how much training/school it took, and how long they have been with the company, etc.”
Workforce Wednesday has taken a team approach this year in order to grow the program. Jones serves as Workforce Wednesday’s Work Based Learning Coordinator with hopes that students will have a broader understanding of what people in the community are doing on a daily basis, and the types of careers and jobs available to them. Jones is happy that the Workforce Wednesday program is growing and occurring more regularly this school year.
“Mrs. Phyllis Green, the OSD Transition Specialist was already bringing in some people from the workforce last year, but it was monthly or quarterly,” Jones said. “We decided to put a lot more time into it this year in hopes of it being a weekly thing.”
Jones has had help from other teachers and administrators in making this program happen.
“Mrs. Osborne has been a huge help with the logistical issues of the library, as well as marketing the program.” Jones said.
Mrs. Green, Dr. Gray, the career coaches, and CTE teachers all play a significant role in Workforce Wednesday by using their resources to get as many professions as possible. Many careers will be represented during Workforce Wednesday this year. Workforce Wednesday started off the year with a court reporter, athletic trainer, and a research ecologist in just the first three weeks.
“All 16 career pathways will be represented at least once during the school year. We try not to duplicate any one career, but there will always be some overlap,” Jones said. “If this can help any student decide on their career path, we consider the program successful.”
Homecoming week at OHS (September 5-8), was also Workforce Week. This means there was not only a guest speaker on Wednesday, but every day of the week. All of the speakers during the week were OHS Alumni, starting with Class of 2001 graduate Karlous Miller. Followed by Joshua McGlawn (Class of 2006), Richard Cross (Class of 1999), and C.J. Terrell (Class of 2018).
“So many students say they are going to be a certain profession, but they don’t really know what that profession does,” Jones said. “We try to help with that; help them ‘fill in the blanks.’”
The number of students who attend Workforce Wednesday varies based on the visitor and the lunch period.
“Our goal is not to get a large crowd, but to have many different professions represented over a school year, so the setting can be small enough to encourage conversations,” Jones said. “We can have anywhere from 12-30 students at any given lunch group.”
Each profession will get attention from a different amount of students, leading to the numbers varying from week to week. The goal is for as many high school students as possible to have exposure to a wide variety of career opportunities.
“It’s a big goal, but if it worked perfectly, every OHS student would attend at least one Workforce Wednesday,” Jones said. “Again, the number per week isn’t a goal. Some professions will attract more students than others, and that’s okay. The real opportunity is getting educated on what people do for a living.”
