BY AMY BALTODANO
Hays Post

Kansas Workforce One will be able to help more high school students in the coming year. Employers will be able to hear more about it at 10 a.m. June 23 at the Hays Welcome Center when Youth Vision Coordinator Ginny Prickett discuss upcoming changes.

The Workforce Investment Act program previously served only out-of-school youth, but staff investigated ways to also serve in-school youth, leading to a grant application to the Dane G. Hansen Foundation.

The Logan-based foundation, which primarily focuses upon 26 counties in north-central Kansas, offers funding help for agencies that fund opportunities and incentives for residents to remain in rural areas.

Prickett said Workforce received the grant without any issues.

“Our director wrote to the Dane Hansen Foundation. She had this idea for this program to provide career services in high schools. We serve … 62 counties and Dane Hansen was so impressed with the proposal and with what we do that they agreed to fund for all 62 counties, even though they are normally focused on 26 counties,” she said.

She along with four other colleagues — located in Hutchinson, Colby and Dodge City — cover the 62 counties. Prickett is in charge of 17 counties, including Ellis County.

The program will allow students to receive the National Career Readiness Certificate, an examination from ACT.

“We can proctor that into the schools and pay for it. So that is been exciting to be able to take it to them, whereas usually people have to come here to our workforce centers to take that exam,” Prickett said.

There are several different workshops that the schools can choose from including job search, career success, youth financial literacy, and resume building, among others.

One of the more requested workshops is the career success workshop. It specifically speaks about soft skills that might seem like common sense to some — but are becoming increasingly sought-after by employers.

“Why is it important to be dependable as an employee? Why is it important to show up on time? How can you get along with your coworkers,” Prickett said of the workshop topics.

Another beneficial workshop is one on social media. Students go over how to correctly use social media and how it can affect you.

Interaction with the employers is important and Workforce’s summer goal is to reach out to more and educate them on the services being provided at schools.

Employers will also receive a survey to fill out, allowing the business to share what they are seeing currently in their field. If they are seeing specific skills that are lacking, then they pass that on to Workforce to allow the agency to improve services. On the back of the survey, the businesses will be able to express how involved they want to be with the high schools.

“It’s an important part of the process improving the workforce we need to have the employers involved as well,” Prickett said. “We want to have this information so when we go back into the schools in the fall, we can share this with the schools and say we talked to these employers in your area, here are some of the things that they are saying, here are some of the things they seeing with the workforce.”

Prickett invites employers to the June 23 presentation and said more could be scheduled, depending upon the turnout.