[Graphic provided by Ryan Van Amburgh.]
SARATOGA SPRINGS – The Saratoga-Warren-Washington Workforce Development Board, in conjunction with The Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex (WSWHE) BOCES and the Saratoga County Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), are presenting the region’s inaugural Career Jam on Wednesday, Oct. 25.
“Career Jam is a one-day hands-on career exploration event for eighth and ninth grade in our area,” according to the SEDC statement.
These Clusters are: Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources; Architecture and Construction; Arts, A/V Technology and Communications; Business, Management, and Administration; Education and Training; Finance; Government and Public Administration; Health Sciences; Hospitality and Tourism; Human Services; Information Technology; Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security; Manufacturing; Marketing; Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics; Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics.
A contact at Clarkson University reached out to SEDC and introduced them to the Jefferson-Lewis Workforce Development Board (WDB) who has been hosting this event for the past three years through the Jefferson-Lewis BOCES in Watertown, New York.
This will be the first time Career Jam is taking place locally. The closest it has taken place previously is in the Finger Lakes Region and Watertown Region.
Ryan Van Amburgh, Economic Development Specialist for SEDC, said “our main goal for the event is to highlight local job options to young students.”
Approximately 500 kids will be attending from school districts around the region.
“We are working with The Clean Tech ECHS junior and seniors as our volunteers and Joseph Dragone, Superintendent from Ballston Spa Central School and Joseph Greco, Director of K-!2 Math, Science, and Technology Integration, from Saratoga Springs Schools as our volunteers,” Van Amburgh said.
“We are most excited about showcasing the business community and all the opportunities locally for students,” Van Amburgh stated.
“Local businesses from each Career Cluster will be present with hands-on activities that will engage and encourage students to look at the many career opportunities and areas of study that are relevant to our local area. We want to provide our youth with this valuable information as they decide what careers and education to pursue in their futures,” the statement declared.
“Our objective is to expose students early on to the careers that are available right here in their own region as well as the opportunity to be educated for them in that region and provide well paying jobs and it’s not really too early for them to start considering what that looks like. So we have some great business partners throughout that come and help us with our curriculum so we thought it would be a great idea to offer an opportunity for all these students to come in and see what’s there. The thing that we wanted to make sure that it was not just one of those career fairs where you get a brochure and you hear about the company but you don’t actually do anything. So, the intent is to have each business partner have a hands-on event, so students get to do some hands-on experiments,” said Kim Wegner, Coordinator of Enrichment S.T.E.M. and Career Connections at BOCES.
This event will take place in the TEC-SMART building, which is on Hermes Road in Malta.
If you are a business or students interested in learning more about Career Jam, visit www.Career-Jam.com.
