The Aiken County Public School District recently premiered the first set of commercials for its Aiken Works initiative. Aiken Works was launched in January of 2017 and aims to build awareness about Aiken County’s workforce opportunities.
It connects high school students with options to explore future employment interests, and emphasizes careers in health, energy, cyber technology and industrial manufacturing. Aiken Works also seeks to broaden the traditional definition of post-secondary success to include opportunities such as military service and technical school.
We think this is a great program and commend the School District for taking a proactive approach to training students for future careers. According to the Aiken Works website, 50 percent of Aiken County’s workers are eligible to retire in the next five years.
Those workers will need to be replaced, and by training Aiken’s youth in skilled trades and professions essential to our community, those jobs can be filled by current residents. Not only will this program better prepare students to enter the workforce, it will help keep young people in the Aiken area.
According to Dr. Sean Alford, superintendant of Aiken County Public Schools, more than 37,000 new career opportunities will be available locally in the near future.
“They will require the skill and expertise of individuals who have been properly trained, and that’s not someone who has to come from the top 10 percent of every graduating class,” Alford said. “There are opportunities as long as you have a desire to do well, contribute to the community and get the training, which is readily available.”
We also think promoting education paths other than college is an important component of the Aiken Works initiative. Most people still see a four-year degree as the only path to success, but this is not always the case. Plumbers, welders and electricians are all needed professions and don’t necessarily require a four-year degree.
And Aiken Works aims to show students and, especially, parents that multiple avenues – some post-secondary education but not always a four-year college degree – exist to achieve success after high school graduation.
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