Under the Consortium’s small-group career mentoring model, employers partner with educators to provide students with opportunities to explore careers and learn about building professional relationships.
Recognizing that mentoring is a critical ingredient in anyone’s career development, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) established career mentoring as one of several ways for students to fulfill the state’s work-based learning requirement. Since then, PDE has approved our small-group model as a substitute for the one-on-one experiences it originally defined for meeting state standards.
Our model pairs small groups of professionals with small groups of students to help them overcome any stress related to one-on-one experiences and allows many more students to engage with employers over the same amount of time. The flexible structure allows for engagement by many different combinations of businesses and schools based on local needs.
Further, the small-group model can help overcome barriers for schools ranging from transportation and time, to making business contacts. Businesses have a chance to connect with the next generation of workers and showcase their work and careers.
Interested employers or educators who would like to implement the model in their communities can engage in a training with Consortium staff. To express interest or to ask questions, email us!
