Owatonna creating career pathways for local students

The Minnesota Chamber Foundation Business Education Network (BEN) partners gathered at Owatonna High School in mid January. BEN partners reflect more than 20 local and regional chambers across the state who partner with the Minnesota Chamber Foundation on workforce strategies.  They are specifically focused on connecting students to employers in the community, and helping them understand the paths to high demand careers in their region – whether its going to work out of high school, or attending a two or four year post secondary institution.

Over the past year, 13 of our BEN partners have participated in the Greater Twin Cities United Way Future Ready Workforce fund program. This partnership provided grant funds to local chambers to provide high quality paid work experience, aligned with career pathways, to underrepresented youth in their communities. We are excited to launch year two of the program and are grateful for the partnership with the Greater Twin Cities United Way.

Participants at the meeting had an opportunity to hear about the growth of career pathways at Owatonna High School from Principal Kory Kath and Superintendent Jeff Elstad. Following the presentation, they had a tour of the new high school built with career pathways at the center, including specific learning labs and equipment in nursing, culinary arts, digital fabrication, science and engineering and others. The group also had an opportunity to learn about SteeleCo Works, the regional workforce partnership.