Over the last several months, as restaurants closed, businesses hit pause, and the community rallied around social distancing guidelines in order to help stop the spread of COVID-19, schools, teachers, and students were thrust into remote learning. In addition to highlighting the innovation of educators, and their willingness to go above and beyond to connect with students, it laid bare the inequities we know exist all the time, pandemic or not, in our education system. Lack of technology access became even more of a barrier, kitchen tables became classrooms, and we’ve been reminded that there’s a critical role for remote learning in career readiness.
Students in Newark, especially those graduating soon, need support in preparing themselves for careers and college. Some of that support is received in school, but beyond classrooms, many of the internships, externships, or volunteer opportunities pursued by young people, eager for help and knowledge as they navigate their next steps, occur in-person, and thus, have been paused. While New York will not be operating it’s summer youth employment program this year, cutting around 75,000 jobs for youth this summer, Newark’s Summer Youth Employment program will still operate. Still, young workers ages 16-24 make up 24% of employment in industries most likely to be impacted by COVID-19 closures. If our city’s young people can’t access career readiness opportunities at school, and are unable to pursue traditional work or internships, how can they possibly prepare for a critical moment in which no one knows whether higher education or the job market will ever be the same?
That’s where remote learning in career readiness comes in. With technology playing increasingly larger roles in not just how we connect and communicate, but how work, education, and society are structured, using the materials we have available to equip students with skills that set them up for future success has never been more important.
Remote learning in career readiness can take a multitude of forms: we’re seeing companies and businesses pivoting already-existing internship programs virtually, and in our own work at Schools That Can, we’ve found new ways to create even stronger partnerships between local businesses and students. Nearly 200 students participated in our Virtual e2e program this spring, in which volunteers from organizations like Panasonic and Prudential connected with students online to edit resumes, conduct mock interviews, and hold career office hours and chats in which they shared their own on-the-job experiences. The connectivity element was powerful: while it would’ve been a challenge to coordinate one-on-one time for students with volunteers in-person, the remote learning element allowed for steady attention to be paid to tangible skills with a wide range of professionals stepping up to lend their time and knowledge.
What this says about the future of remote learning, and how it connects to education and employment, is that we have more opportunities to engage young people than ever. Career readiness isn’t a box that can be easily checked; it’s hands-on, dynamic, and necessary to students thriving beyond the classroom. As we reconsider the virtual elements of our community and workspaces, it requires us meeting young people where they are, too–including online.
