Survey Seeks Insight on Northeast Indiana Career Choices
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The Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership is trying to gauge perceptions about talent development and career choices for students.
The Fort Wayne-based organization has launched a survey to better understand how influential people in student’s lives are explaining education, training, and possible career paths for young people.
“It’s about helping students uncover and discover what their own God-given talents are. And then give them the tools to connect that to a career path, knowing that it won’t be the last one they’re ever in,” said Ryan Twiss, vice president of talent Initiatives at the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership.
The partnership, along with the Olin B. and Desta Schwab Foundation, Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana, Ivy Tech Fort Wayne and Warsaw, and Region 8 Education Service Center, is aligning resources to guide students in grades 6-14 through the discovery and process of creating and executing a career plan.
The Fort Wayne-based foundation last year awarded $2 million to the NEI Regional Partnership to launch a collaborative initiative to help students in that region of the state to identify their strengths and talents and develop them into careers. The survey is a critical element of the endeavor.
“What we’re really doing is trying to understand how students consume information, where they are learning about meaningful careers, where they’re getting a lot of their influence,” said Twiss.
The survey takes about ten minutes. There are six categories and individuals fitting those descriptions are encouraged to take part, including middle school, high school, and post-high school students, as well as parents, educators, and business leaders & employers.
The Regional Partnership is working with Britton Marketing and Design Group of Fort Wayne to develop a marketing and communication strategy for talent development and career exploration in northeast Indiana.
Twiss hopes to discover not only communication patterns but to identify what is being said when it comes to identifying higher education.
“The perception and the persistent perception that every student needs a four-year college degree to be successful. Part of this work is on changing perceptions about what success after high school really means,” said Twiss. “We’re just trying to understand what sort of perception really is out there so that we can develop that strategic communications to change that perception.”
To take the survey and learn about the effort, click here. The deadline is October 30.
Twiss said results of the survey will help steer intervention to help guide students.