By Josh Beavers
Twenty Webster Parish students earned valuable credentials this summer during training from local agriculture teachers as part of Jump Start Summer.
The Journal is publishing a series of stories over the coming updates to highlight the parish’s Jump Start Summer initiative. Jump Start empowers school districts, colleges, and businesses to collaborate in providing career courses and workplace experiences to high school students. Jump Start prepares students to continue their education after high school while certifying them for the career fields most likely to lead to high-wage jobs.
Today, we are focusing on the Welder’s Helper program.
“We had a huge success and maxed out our numbers,” Dr. Beverly Smith, the district’s Jump Start coordinator, told The Journal during a phone interview. “This is the first time we’ve had a full schedule all summer.”
Smith said all students had the opportunity to earn OSHA 10 certification as well as NCCER core. They all received Carnegie credit, and students at North Webster High School had the opportunity to earn first aid certification.
The term OSHA 10 refers to the OSHA Ten Hour Training that is part of the OSHA Outreach Training Program. Its purpose is to promote workplace safety and health. It is a tool that can be used to make workers more knowledgeable about their rights related to workplace safety and health and overall workplace hazards.
NCCER develops standardized construction and maintenance curriculum and assessments with portable credentials. These credentials are tracked through NCCER’s Registry System that allows organizations and companies to track the qualifications of their craft professionals and/or check the qualifications of possible new hires.
NCCER’s workforce development process of accreditation, instructor certification, standardized curriculum, registry, assessment and certification is a key component in the industry’s workforce development efforts.
Louisiana’s Jump Start is the new paradigm for career and technical education (CTE), requiring students to attain an industry-based credential in order to graduate high school. It is the state’s new program for school districts, colleges, and businesses to collaborate in providing career courses and workplace experiences to high school students. Students have the opportunity in high school to earn industry-valued, industry-promulgated credentials in the career fields most likely to lead to high-wage jobs, while preparing them to continue their post-secondary education in 2-year and 4-year colleges and career development.
