{"id":247997,"date":"2024-08-07T16:31:42","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T16:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=247997"},"modified":"2024-08-07T18:25:16","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T18:25:16","slug":"frce-helps-local-educators-prepare-students-for-careers-in-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=247997","title":{"rendered":"FRCE Helps Local Educators Prepare Students for Careers in Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) recently welcomed a group of Craven County school teachers to the depot as a part of an externship program focused on increasing student preparation for careers in industry.<\/p>\n

Four Craven County teachers participated in the five-day long program, which allowed the teachers to immerse themselves in FRCE\u2019s operations by touring the depot and gaining in-depth insight from individuals working in a wide range of career fields.<\/p>\n

FRCE K-12 STEM Education Outreach Coordinator Michelle Smith said the externship showcases the depot\u2019s many career opportunities and pathways to local teachers and, through them, area students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Eastern North Carolina\u2019s largest employer \u2013 one that is continuously growing, I might add \u2013 supporting programs such as the teacher externship is essential for FRC East,\u201d said Smith. \u201cRaising awareness amongst local teachers will allow them to reach more students than we ever could alone. That helps ensure we will have the skilled and motivated workforce we need to support the depot\u2019s future workload, contribute to the community and support the fleet.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

FRCE has participated in the Craven County teacher externship program since 2015 as a way to promote and enhance science, technology, engineering and math education in the local community. Smith said the externship sessions focus on connecting local teachers with the command\u2019s workforce so they can develop teaching plans that support the education needed to fill the technical careers at the depot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program\u2019s intent is to provide teachers with workforce development information and strategies for local opportunities that they can then share with their students,\u201d said Smith. \u201cWith this, teachers can set their students up for success by helping them better understand local career opportunities and paths they can take to achieve their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Innovation Lead for the Advanced Technology and Innovation Team Randall Lewis, said during their time at FRCE, the teachers toured various production and engineering areas. Lewis, who oversees the STEM Outreach Team, also said the teachers had in-depth conversations with many FRCE professionals to help them better understand the depot\u2019s varied career opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to see all aspects of working at FRC East,\u201d said Lewis. \u201cWe have a huge variety of jobs here and we want the educators to be well-informed when they leave. We try to maximize their time and give them exposure to everything from engineering to logistics. They get to see the production lines and engineering shops, as well as some of the other divisions such as Training, Information Technology and Cyber Security. We try to give them a complete snapshot of all that is offered at FRC East because that’s what is most beneficial for their kids when they go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many of the educators, the introduction to the variety of specialties found at FRCE was eye opening. FRCE\u2019s workforce consists of more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers whose jobs cover a broad range of career fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the main things I\u2019ve seen during our time here is how many different types of jobs there are at FRC East,\u201d said Michelle Roderick, Spanish teacher at Havelock High School. \u201cWe have visited with so many people and it\u2019s given us an extensive overview of the organization and its many opportunities. And to know that you can be a civilian working in all these high-paying, important jobs without having to join the military is wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roderick also noted how the up close and personal look at the depot also provided a better understanding of the broad skill sets needed in an industry workplace such as FRCE.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed hearing about the different skills they are looking for directly from the employees themselves,\u201d said Roderick. \u201cThey emphasized how even though a lot of FRC East is very STEM-oriented, it\u2019s still just as important for students to have skills outside of science, technology, engineering and math, like communication, technical writing and even public speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desiree Jones, multi-tiered system of support teacher at Tucker Creek Middle School, said her time at FRCE is something she plans to take back to her classroom and share with her students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an intervention teacher, many of my students do not end up going to college,\u201d said Jones. \u201cNow, we can go to our students and say hey, these are the places you can go for a career \u2013 not just a job, but a career \u2013 without having to go to college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Leyland, media coordinator at Grover C. Fields Middle School, said the various career opportunities offered at FRCE gave him hope for his students\u2019 futures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many opportunities here for different types of people with different skill sets,\u201d said Leyland. \u201cNow that we have been exposed to all that FRC East has to offer, we can share what we have seen and learned about jobs and career pathways with our students. I think there\u2019s power and hope in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said FRCE\u2019s participation in the externship program is just one example of the depot\u2019s extensive STEM education and outreach efforts, all of which focus on engaging, inspiring and educating students from Eastern North Carolina, while also highlighting the wide range of career opportunities available at FRCE.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everyone knows about FRC East,\u201d said Smith. \u201cPeople may know someone who works here but they often don\u2019t know what we do here. Outreach efforts like the teacher externship have allowed us to change that by speaking directly with our community. The work the depot does is important, so we want to make sure people know who we are and what we do. By keeping local students interested and involved, we hope they\u2019ll consider joining the FRC East team when they start choosing their career paths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis explained that the command is continuously expanding its outreach efforts as they have proven to produce positive results for FRCE.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur education and outreach program is constantly growing and evolving, and it\u2019s exciting,\u201d said Lewis. \u201cThe program\u2019s growth allows us to build and maintain our quality workforce, and effectively support the warfighter. It takes effort but, in the end, it\u2019s worth it when we see students who visited us years back in high school working in our labs or on our production lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about the future and being able to grow a high-quality workforce of students interested in living and working in Eastern North Carolina,\u201d Lewis continued. \u201cWe want students that are interested to know there is a potential career for them here in Eastern North Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) recently welcomed a group of Craven County school teachers to the depot as a part of an externship program focused on increasing student preparation for careers in industry. Four Craven County teachers participated in the five-day long program, which allowed the teachers to immerse themselves in FRCE\u2019s operations by touring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":247999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247997"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248000,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247997\/revisions\/248000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/247999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}