Massachusetts Connecting Activities

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Topic 4: Working with Employers & Understanding the Labor Market

In Connecting Activities, a core feature is our work linking classrooms and workplaces -- building connections to businesses and organizations that can provide worksite experiences, provide a professional, industry perspective for career development experiences, and support schools in developing career pathways and programs. We work with a wide range of employers, including businesses and organizations in the private sector, nonprofit sector and public sector, small, medium and large, and from a wide range of industries. One of the founding principles of the Connecting Activities initiative is that schools will benefit from having this regional network that helps to connect schools and workplaces.

As a network, we connect with employers through a wide range of professional roles, from working one-on-one with employers to set up internship experiences; to working with employers and schools to organize career fairs, to working with career guest speakers, to participating in regional studies about the labor market, to helping to bring together partners to support career pathway initiatives in schools. As Connecting Activities staff, your role may focus on building one-on-one relationships with internship supervisors or on building partnerships in the community. In any of these roles, these connections will help you to build a broad understanding and appreciation of the labor market in your communnity and region, so that you can be an effective advisor and resource for students in your community.

Reading:

· Employer Engagement and Outreach

· Regional Labor Market Blueprints

· A Primer for Labor Market Information

Practice / Application Exercises:

· CHART: Create a chart showing the distribution of employment in your local or regional area, by industry, occupation or other characteristics.

· DATABASE: Open the Employer Screen in the database and browse information for a few different employers in the region. Open one of the Employer List screens to see a list of employers who participate in Connecting Activities.

· DISCUSSION: With a colleague, make a list of ways that employers currently participate in the Connecting Activities initiative in your region or local area.