Elberta High School teaching kids life skills through community-based work training

By Jessica Vaughn
Posted 1/13/20

ELBERTA - Students at Elberta High School are getting life and work skills through the Essential Pathway diploma track, and are getting out into the working world through the Community-Based Work …

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Elberta High School teaching kids life skills through community-based work training

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ELBERTA - Students at Elberta High School are getting life and work skills through the Essential Pathway diploma track, and are getting out into the working world through the Community-Based Work Training Program. Students who sign up for this path, while not going for a typical diploma, don’t have a change in curriculum and are still expected to take the same classes as their peers. The only difference is instead of taking the same amount of coursework, there’s a workforce component to it.

“With this path, they can still attend most two-year technical colleges, but they can’t go to a four-year college,” said Coach Lanny Jones, Special Education teacher and head of the program. “Our kids get a community-based work experience. I call around to local places that we can get to in a short amount of time to make the time count, and with the Elberta Co-Op being right beside our school it was very beneficial for us to be able to just walk over there and give the kids all kinds of work experience and teach them different skills.”

The program is open to 10th and 11th graders, and every Tuesday the eight students currently enrolled in the program head to the Elberta Co-Op where they’re put to work in various departments, such as the Garden Center. While working earlier this year, the students were instructed on plant identification, plant division, containerizing, and bagging and labeling seeds for resale.

The students also help out around the school as part of their work experience. During football season, Jones says the students do quite a bit of work pregame, setting up barricades and the field.

As a paraeducation program, the students gain a lot more than work experience.

“Throughout the year the kids will learn how to do mock job interviews, and we have them fill out tons of different job applications and work on their resumes,” Jones said. “After Christmas we contact places such as Tanger Outlets and allow the kids to choose what stores they’d like to get job applications from, and we let them go and ask for them. This way they learn how to approach picking up applications, it gets them out of their comfort zone and helps them get over their fear of asking for applications.”

Though not actually applying for the positions, the students learn about what type of jobs interest them while getting over the fear of the unknown when searching for a job. Jones states even though most job applications can be obtained online nowadays, he wants students to get experience speaking with adults and learning about the social part of acquiring a job. As part of social skills lessons, Jones also has taken his students to local restaurants, teaching them how to tip appropriately and interact with adults in a social environment.

Everything combined plays a large part in graduating from the class successfully. The students must have two successful evaluations from their community-based work training, and are currently receiving their first evaluation from the Elberta Co-Op. All the skills they’ve learned come into play during senior year, when the students are required to have 140 work hours to pass the course. Even more, Jones says his students are breaking social barriers.

“Most of our kids are in special education,” he said. “Some of these kids have certain limitations with cognition abilities and social skills, but they have a great work ethic and abilities. We’re teaching them life skills, breaking social barriers, and helping them become more independent one day.”

For more information about Elberta High School, check out their website at https://www.bcbe.org/elbertahigh.

For more information on the Elberta Co-Op, check out https://www.elbertacoop.com.