Career academies aid local business

The events during this year's Pasco Economic Development Council's Business Development Week have focused on the future, just as they have in the past.

At one of this year's events, John Hagen, council president, co-hosted a workshop to show local business leaders how to invest in long-term growth for themselves and the county by helping to cultivate a homegrown talent pool.

Hagen, along with Rob Aguis, director of career and technical education for Pasco County Schools, and Jerome Salatino, president and CEO of the Pasco Hernando Workforce Board, were at Sun Toyota in Holiday to recruit local business leaders to get involved with the county's cooperative career academies. The academies are a cooperative effort between the school district, the council, the workforce board, local colleges and the business community.

"We have resources and possibilities," Hagen said. "The key is just figuring how to pull it together."

Hagen, who along with his council duties also chairs the steering committee for career academies, never misses an opportunity to emphasize the links between effective schools and a healthy local economy. He and Aguis have made frequent appearances to explain what the career academies are and how they work.

One of the most important points that always needs to be made to business people, Hagen said, is these are not the vocational programs they remember from their school days.

Pasco County schools' career academies often have been described as "schools within a school." Students enrolled in the programs take all their general courses plus a curriculum that progressively focuses on a single career field. The courses are designed so that by the time students graduate, they are ready to attain or have attained certifications in that field, and they are ready to either continue their higher education in that field or enter the workforce.

The academies have come a long way since coming off the drawing board in 2006 when the district opened health care academies at four schools. There are now 1,500 students enrolled in 17 academies in fields ranging from finance to culinary arts, commercial art to automotive service, veterinary assistant posts to business management and more. Every high school in the county has at least one academy.

"We've only scratched the surface," Aguis said.

The next step on the academies' development, Aguis said, is to provide more internship, apprenticeship and mentoring opportunities.

Getting more businesses involved is vital to this next step, and that has not been easy, Aguis said.

That was illustrated by the disappointing turnout at Tuesday's workshop.

But the business owners who were there had plenty to say about their frustrations in what they see in today's young people: they have a sense of entitlement, they can't handle criticism, they may have technical knowledge but lack a strong work ethic and the soft skills needed to cut it in the real world.

This is exactly how business partners can enhance the academies, Hagen and Aguis said. The teachers know how to teach, but the academies need professionals on their advisory boards to help shape what is taught.

The programs need opportunities to let students get a taste of the real world, so they not only have the technical know-how but the people skills suited for that industry.

In the long run, Hagen said, businesses benefit because not only are they developing the talent they need right in their own backyards, they are getting to scout new talent before the competition.

Peter Buczynsky, president of PharmaWorks in Odessa, a manufacturer of medication packaging machinery, was among those at the workshop. As both a member of the council's board of directors and a member of River Ridge High School's Engineering Academy advisory board, he is an avid supporter of the career academies.

Buczynsky said when he takes students on tours of his facility, he can see "when their eyes begin to gloss over."

"But when you tell them, 'Here's what we look for in an employee,' they light up," he added.

Employers know what it takes to succeed, and students want to know it. But as one business owner at the meeting said, there is only one reason that business hadn't been involved in the career academy program: No one asked.

"We're getting better at that," Aguis said.

The first class to go through the first academy system graduated last year. As students enter the job market, they are the program's best endorsement. But the academies will keep working at connecting with the business community to promote the program.

For information on the Pasco Schools Career Academies, call 813-794-2204 or visit www.pasco.k12.fl.us/ccte/.