This year the Cascades Job Corps Career Center took on the challenge of making  job shadowing both fun and successful for our students. 34 students, 31 employers and 1 community partner participated, and many of the employers had not worked with Job Corps prior to this event.

As a result of the students’ outstanding training, professional attitudes, and great work ethic, we established 9 new workbased learning sites. Of these sites, 6 are in the construction industry, where we have struggled with establishing sites in the past. The students reported that this was one of their greatest Job Corps experiences and that they were able to apply what they are learning in trade to on the job real experience. Instructors noted that many students shared those positive experiences with those who did not participate. Instructors are seeing renewed motivation and an improvement in bookwork studies.

One construction site employer told center staff and the two cement mason students he was sponsoring to contact him when they’ve completed the program to discuss potential employment. Because of schedule conflicts and other committments, some employers have had to wait to do their job shadowing with our students in April. We expect to see additional workbased learning sites during this time, and the Career Center will continue to use job shadowing as an effective way to introduce workbased learning to area employers.