Nixa High School launches apprenticeship program

Ashley Finley: Apprenticeship credential gives students a leg up in potential career fields.

A recently launched apprenticeship program at Nixa High School aims to provide students with on-the-job training opportunities, as local educators seek more partnerships to grow the initiative.

Ashley Finley, college and career counselor at Nixa High School, said 13 students are involved in the state Registered Youth Apprenticeship program. The high school pursued the program in the fall after meeting with Betty Glascow, a registered youth apprenticeship consultant for the southwest region, who also works at Missouri State University.

“This school year, we just kind of jumped in with both feet and started making those connections and partnerships to get our students registered with the Department of Labor as youth apprentices,” Finley said, adding the students are involved in one of three program areas initially in place at Nixa: pharmacy technician, stage technician and teacher’s aide.

Finley said the initial desire was to reach out within the school district for partnerships with businesses. That led to conversations with officials at the Aetos Center for the Performing Arts and the XLT, which stands for extended learning time – a before- and after-school program the district has operated for around 15 years.

“We just reached out to those directors, explained the program, let them know that we were interested in partnering with them,” she said, adding a partnership with Alps Pharmacy also is in place.

Six of the students work as a stage technician at Aetos, while five are employed as teacher’s aides in the Nixa school district. The other two students work at Alps as pharmacy technicians.

“The ones that we have right now, we really kind of worked the program backwards,” Finley said. “We found students who were currently employed, or students approached us and said, ‘Hey, I’m working here. Can you help me get an apprenticeship?’”

Learning lessons
In the apprenticeship, students can remain enrolled in academic classes designed to meet high school graduation requirements while they work with local businesses for shadowing and hands-on learning. Through the program, students also obtain high school credits and can earn a nationally recognized credential.

Landon Cornish, the high school’s assistant principal, said the district registers the students with the state Department of Labor and works to connect with employers to grow the program. He said the school will be posting apprenticeship openings on its website, while Finley added there’s no cost to employers to participate beyond having jobs that offer wage progression.

“At the high school level, there’s not a specific number of hours they need to earn the high school credit,” Finley said, noting there’s also no cap to how many students can participate in the program.

Cornish said the credential signals the student has completed the apprenticeship program, giving them a leg up – if not with their current employer, then in the work field they may be interested in pursuing as a career.

“We want to create these real-world learning experiences for our kids where they’re out in the community and they’re getting work experience and we’re providing them with the background that they need to be successful and helping them get to their career path,” he said.

Still, he said being an apprentice doesn’t give students any guarantee of future employment with companies in their field of interest.

“That’s something I tell kids, too; there’s no guarantee that they have to hire you if you apply to their job for the apprenticeship program,” he said. “Maybe you’re not a good fit.”

The school district also offers instruction in areas that may help students be better prepared to enter the workforce, he said.

“We have classes to help them prepare for an interview if they’re uncomfortable, or we have classes that we make resumes,” he said.

Nixa is part of a growing group of area schools becoming involved in the Registered Youth Apprenticeship program. Around a half-dozen high schools, including Bolivar, Marshfield and Ozark, participate in the southwest region, according to Glascow.

Gaining experience
Three students are employed at Nixa’s XLT, which services kindergarten through sixth-grade students in projects such as art and science, along with social and emotional development, said program coordinator Cris Torres. While one student works consistently close to 15 hours per week, most of the teenage teacher’s aides work each week for five hours or less, usually due to extracurricular activities such as theater or debate.

“They can work up to 19 hours a week,” he said, adding students also work in its summer program, Camp Eagle, which typically runs late June to mid-August, just before the school year starts. “That’s where a lot of our high school students like to work to because they can take on more hours.”

Getting involved in the apprenticeship program was an easy decision, Torres said.

“We definitely wanted to give those students an opportunity for us if we were already hiring them to be staff anyway,” he said. “It’s just wonderful that they get credits towards what they want to do through us. That’s exciting for us.”

Through their work at XLT, students are given the opportunity to lead groups, deal with social and emotional behaviors of students and learn how to be a role model and teach children of varied ages.

“This is a great opportunity for them to get that experience and at the same time get paid where they don’t have to stop their life and give up that free time. That’s probably huge for this generation,” he said.

While Nixa’s apprenticeship program is still young, Finley said she’s working to expand its exposure to businesses. She soon plans to contact banks and plumbing companies.

“Currently, I am just reaching out to local businesses through kind of word of mouth or places that students have been employed frequently in the past,” she said, noting that includes the Nixa Parks & Recreation Department. “I would like for it to kind of be a revolving situation where we are always having different jobs posted for students.”