Northern Kentucky Area Development District and NaviGo Join Forces
To Tackle Northern Kentucky’s Workforce Pipeline Issues
Written By: Adam Curry (@AdamCurryKY), Ignite Intern (@IgniteAtRIC), Stinger Media
Florence, Kentucky – March 2, 2023 – On January 9, 2023, The Rotary Club of Florence (@FlorenceRotary), Kentucky learned about the tools being used to develop the workforce with Correy Eimer of the Northern Kentucky Area Development District (@NKADD_CommDev) and Jennie LaMothe of NaviGo (@NaviGoPrep). Correy Eimer explained how there is a large out of school youth population in Northern Kentucky (these are students who are not enrolled in school or in the workforce). Correy Eimer then introduced NaviGo and YouScience and described how they are supporting the schools and working together to help these students find career paths that best suit their aptitudes and interests.
Correy Eimer began by sharing his experience with the workforce in Northern Kentucky. The youth and young adults in Northern Kentucky are one of the biggest issues of the workforce right now, as many of them are either uninformed or unmotivated to pursue anything after high school. It is both NKADD and NaviGo’s goal to properly introduce teenagers and young adults to the possibilities that lie ahead of them, both in and out of college.
Mr Eimer then went on to share some statistics about the workforce in Kentucky. There are two available jobs for every job-seeker in the state. In NKADD’s eight county development district, there are ~14,000 job postings per month. Despite these countless job opportunities, there are roughly 6,000 Northern Kentucky residents aged 16-24 that are not in school and not working. Although many of these people have their highschool diploma, most jobs that pay a self-sufficient wage require some form of training beyond high school. This is where the YouScience (@You_Science) tool comes into play, helping students and young adults identify what career paths and professions they are interested in, and also good at. Furthermore, he explained that this tool can only be used if there are high schoolers and young adults to use it. Since 2010, there has been a decrease from 24,500 Northern Kentucky high school graduates to just over 19,000.
Jennie LaMothe briefly discussed her previous 17 years of experience in higher education. It was during this time that she observed college students who didn’t know what they wanted to major in/study and were collecting the debt of paying for college without a plan. Asking students what career they are interested in pursuing can be limiting as students can only speak about careers they’ve been exposed to. It is also found that self-reported interest surveys are subjective and can easily be influenced by outside factors. This is defined by what is known as the exposure gap; students can’t have an interest in careers they’ve never been exposed to, and often only see common careers such as teachers, doctors, and the jobs present in their family.
Mrs. LaMothe explained how YouScience engages students. A report from Georgia Public Schools showed that based on interest alone, only 22% of female students were interested in key industries such as technology, manufacturing, construction, and healthcare. After they took the YouScience aptitude test, 78% of the same female students identified a fit for these key industries. Utilizing 11 brain games, YouScience identifies the students’ aptitudes, and the careers that would best suit them. Of approximately 10,000 NKY students, the top aptitude fit careers are healthcare, computer-science, education, engineering, and social sciences. Now the challenge is for our region to expose these young people to the careers that they have an aptitude and interest for and help them on a pathway to obtain the post-high school training which they need to be successful in these fields. This can only be done with the help of the community and professionals. Adults are encouraged to contact their local school districts to see how they can help provide mentorship or career exposure opportunities to students.
A recording of this presentation and past meetings of the Rotary Club of Florence is available on the club’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/H5FYVUwOmxE?
The Rotary Club of Florence, Kentucky (serving all of Boone County) is a community service organization focusing on “service above self”. The club meets weekly on Mondays in a hybrid format at the Florence Nature Center and streams the meeting via Zoom (for members) and to YouTube (for the general public). Guests are always welcome. To learn more about upcoming speakers and events, please visit the club’s website at www.florencerotary.org or follow their Facebook page.
#FloRo #Rotary #ServiceAboveSelf #PeopleofAction #ImagineRotary #NKADD #NaviGo #NKYWorkForce #Community #Careers #YouScience #CareerExploration
