More 'Show and Tell' with entry-level, hourly wage employees

From time to time, schools invite business men and women to come talk with students about careers and employment. More often than not, the person invited is not a recent high school or college graduate in an entry- level job, but a seasoned and experienced worker, and most often an executive.

Probably school youngsters should meet such people, but the professional people they most need to meet are those who are beginning their careers, not those who are about to complete them.

What a fount of information the entry-level worker is for the student just about to become an entry-level worker!

Also, the tendency is to bring in those with executive or professional qualifications and not those who are hourly wage earners, assembly line workers, young people earning the minimum hourly wage, or those doing domestic or janitorial work.

But again, the need is for students to learn about workers at these levels and in these types of jobs -- the sorts of jobs they will soon be seeking and hoping to get as they complete (or drop out of) school.

Visits to school by new employees might take the form of an older Show and Tell program, with older students encouraged to find and entice to school such an entry-level worker for a career counseling session with other interested students.

Probably such a program would need to be coordinated through a school administrator, so that time off for such counseling could be forthcoming from the employer, and the wage earner would not made to suffer financially for bringing his expertise to school.

Next week: Articulation