The organization K12 says they wanted to give teens the opportunity to continue growing outside of the classroom since many of their studies have been interrupted during the pandemic.
That’s why they started job shadow week.
“We’re committed to the future of work and for us it’s really important that we expose high school students in particular to the world of work,” said Leilani Brown, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at K12
Job shadow week allows students to get an in depth look at a number of careers.
“We have professionals presenting from the healthcare industry, tech industry, hospitality, and a variety of other fields and we’re really excited about that,” said Brown.
All of this is aimed at exposing students to all of the opportunities available to them after high school.
“I mean, think back to that choice. If you had the opportunity to make a much more informed choice when you graduated, ‘do I want to study this in school?’ or ‘do I want to go straight to career?’ or ‘do I want to have some combination?’ So I think that is another thing this is providing to young people and their families, especially as we start to think about higher education and the future in general,” said Brown.
Teens will be able to participate in interactive workshops, professional development courses and will be provided networking opportunities.
“It gives the opportunity for a student who is living in rural Utah to access information about careers that exist outside of rural Utah and/or a person that’s in New York City to look at careers in agri-business and not necessarily available to them,” said Brown.
The program runs until July 17th. Kids can watch the live sessions online and interact with presenters as well.