Long Beach : Council Funds Program to Match Student Skills, Jobs
Area businesses will be asked which skills they want students to learn in middle and high school through a program that received $125,000 from the city last week.
The City Council voted 7 to 2 to fund the School-to-Work Transition Partnership. Voting against the program were Councilman Warren Harwood and Vice Mayor Jeffrey A. Kellogg.
Under the program--devised by Long Beach Area Compact, a group of business and education leaders--companies will be surveyed to determine which ones will provide lasting careers--in foreign trade, transportation and electronics, for example. They also will be asked the skills students should learn in order to work in those fields.
The plan was endorsed by Long Beach schools Supt. Carl A. Cohn.
Long Beach Area Compact plans to work with schools to match students with mentors from area businesses and line up internships and part-time jobs as “a pathway to employment,” Chairman Marc Coleman said.
Initially, one high school and two middle schools in the Long Beach Unified School District will be selected to participate, but the group plans to apply for federal money to expand the program to other schools, Coleman said.
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