Unique Web-Based Business-Driven Initiatives Motivate Students to Prepare for Tomorrow’s Challenges
December 20, 2006 (Trenton, NJ) -- Technological advances in the workplace are driving demand for high-skilled jobs. The same trend is rapidly eliminating many low-skill jobs. As a result, more than 84% of available jobs by the year 2020 are expected to require some level of college education. Research shows that students will need the same set of skills whether they enter college or go to work after high school.
As part of its commitment to workforce preparedness, The Business Coalition for Educational Excellence (BCEE) at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the U.S Chamber of Commerce, is introducing a new and unique national program called Learn More Now, Do More Now, Earn More Later. Learn Do Earn is a powerful suite of Web-based tools dedicated to ensuring that students – and their parents – have the information they need to make the best possible academic, behavioral, career, and financial decisions in middle and high school. Learn Do Earn awards credentials and certificates to students who meet the criteria defined in each of its five programs. Students can earn credentials and certificates they can use in college admissions processes and job interviews.
The Web site (www.learndoearn.org) was created in direct response to deficiencies that employers have identified in many young workers, such as critical thinking and problem solving; computer literacy; math proficiency; and professional work ethic. College professors have identified similar deficiencies in incoming students. As a result, college remediation rates and corporate training costs are soaring.
Key components of the Learn Do Earn Web site are free to educators, students, parents, teachers, employers, and other community stakeholders. Resources available include: motivational student curriculum, student performance credentials, classroom posters, surveys, teacher manuals, online exercises and assessments, and much more.
The programs centralized on the Learn Do Earn. Web site include: World Class Students, School Counts, The Technology Challenge, Work the Money, and the Math Challenge.
World Class Students: Research clearly indicates that all students need to complete a sequence of rigorous courses in high school that best prepares them for college, work, and life. These courses include four years of English, three years of a lab science (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics), three years of math (Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II), three years of social studies, one semester of economics, and two years of the same foreign language. Eligible students who complete the rigorous sequence of courses can receive extra scholarship funds from the federal government.
School Counts: Students are encouraged to develop a professional-level work ethic. School Counts focuses on attendance, punctuality, and other essential behaviors that students will need to be successful in college or work. As part of this program, students earn an annual credential that can be used during interviews with potential employers.
The Technology Challenge: In order to improve proficiencies with computer software applications commonly used in the workplace, students are asked to complete a series of successively more challenging exercises that prove and improve their competency in word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.
Work the Money: Most students and many teachers do not know that many employers are now using credit checks at the point of hire. This program builds fundamental financial literacies and explains the connection between life decisions, money, and wealth.
The Math Challenge: Research has proven that math, more than any other subject, correlates with college graduation and success in the workplace. This program provides online exercises that ensure students know the math they need.
"Learn Do Earn has resulted in real change in student behaviors in schools that have implemented the program," explained Dana Egreczky, president, BCEE and vice president, Workforce Development at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. "We've seen significant increases in enrollment in rigorous courses, especially in key math and science courses."
The BCEE is currently in the process of studying the impact of Learn Do Earn on urban teens in after-school and classroom settings, under a four-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in New Jersey's GEAR UP Campus Programs that serve students in Camden, Newark, Trenton, Jersey City, and Paterson.
"The programs that make up Learn Do Earn were built around feedback from employers who told us that new hires need critical thinking skills, a solid work ethic, increased computer proficiency, and money management skills," said Dana Egreczky. "As students challenge themselves in school, they learn more and do more, which enables them to earn more as part of our future workforce."
Individual or partial components of Learn Do Earn are also being used in more than 60 school districts in New Jersey, thanks to corporate sponsors: Prudential Financial, Merck Institute for Science Education, Washington Mutual, Johnson & Johnson, ConocoPhillips, IBM, Maher Terminals, SunBank, Bank of America, Elizabethtown Gas, BAE Systems, PSEG, Atlantic City Electric, FirstEnergy/JCP&L, Alcoa Howmet Castings, Elberon Development Co., and Infineum.
About the BCEE
The Business Coalition for Educational Excellence (BCEE) at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce is committed to ensuring that all students achieve at high levels, become productive citizens, and are well prepared to succeed in the workplace. The BCEE serves as the voice of business in the education policy debate, and supports programs that address the business agenda in education reform. The BCEE is guided by its accountability to the business community. BCEE programs are supported by tax-deductible contributions made to the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. For more information please visit www.bcee.org.
Press contact AllyceForan
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