American Graduate

High school nursing students

Lee’s Summit Nursing Program Preps High Schoolers For ‘Rewarding’ Career

What does it take to be a nurse? Teamwork. “To be able to comfort and be a part of that is very rewarding,” said Peggy Chandler, a nursing instructor at Summit Technology Academy’s Professional Nursing Program. Chandler is preparing high school juniors and seniors to fill the gap left by retiring nurses. Students at Summit…

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Olathe High School Students Learning ‘Magic’ of Welding

Gary Pommier is a veteran welder, but the process of heating and melding metal continues to amaze him to this day. “I have been around welding my entire life,” he said, “and it is still magic. When you make a good weld, it is a matter of pride.” Pommier is passing along that passion to…

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Hear What Kansas City Students Say About High School Prep For Careers

Do you remember the first time you tried to do your taxes? It took months for the clumps of hair to grow back, right? Well, Asiyah Lanier just had her first experience with paying Uncle Sam, and it wasn’t pretty. She said she wished her high school had helped her with practical skills like that….

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‘I Just Care. They Become Family.’

A Kansas City-area special education teacher wants to find a way for students with disabilities to find jobs once they graduate. She introduced us to a former student of hers who did and shares why it matters.

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Finding Equitable Access to Education and the Workforce

A mother whose son has autism filed a federal civil rights complaint against a Kansas City school district. This is why and what she plans to do for other kids with disabilities.

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Educators And Execs Welcome Workforce Development Collaboration

“Our students are not widgets!” Certainly that is the sentiment of educators who see business involvement in schools as “putting in orders” for workers. Yet that refrain might be less common in an era when the whole notion of career and technical education is evolving way beyond shop class. Maybe that’s because each side understands…

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The Kansas City streetcar

A Role For City Hall

Google Fiber, the new streetcar and a booming downtown have all helped Kansas City recruit talented young people, Mayor Sly James said when a group of mayors sat down to talk about workforce development at Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s Conference on Economic Development. Not so long ago, he observed, people moved to a place because…

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skilled labor graphic

Blue Collar Jobs Make (Lots Of) Cents

What would you say to making $18 per hour after less than half a year of postsecondary training? Or $35 an hour in a union job? Those aren’t hypotheticals. Workforce experts say those jobs exist in the Kansas City area, and workers are in demand. One of the biggest hurdles in matching people with those…

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Bedell signing contract

Poor Report Card

Educators from around Missouri were brutally honest when they met as a panel at Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s Conference on Economic Development. Many of the state’s schools, including the ones they lead, are not doing enough to prepare students to succeed beyond graduation. When he came to Kansas City two years ago to lead the…

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woman working in construction

Building A Better Future

Clyde McQueen seethed recently when an employer — a friend, no less — moved 20 welding jobs to Iowa. “Because we didn’t have enough welding classes going on,” McQueen told an audience at Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s Conference on Economic Development in Kansas City recently. As the chief executive of Kansas City’s Full Employment Council,…

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