TIPS Career Readiness Course Reaches 859 students in 31 Vermont High Schools
The TIPS Career Readiness Course and Internship Program provides Vermont high school students with an opportunity to develop essential workplace skills and participate in an optional internship while earning proficiencies towards graduation. Components of the TIPS program enable students to:
- identify their career interests and explore career fields;
- learn more about themselves in a real work environment;
- network with professionals within their own community;
- gain transferable skills they may carry into their future;
- consider the job opportunities available in Vermont; and
- plan for post-secondary education and training opportunities.
Careers CLiC has facilitated TIPS (Training Interns and Partnering for Success) in the Upper Valley region since 2007 through the support of the Vermont Department of Labor’s Next Generation Fund and has coordinated TIPS statewide since 2015. In the last four years, thanks in part to the hard work of our TIPS Regional Partners, participation in TIPS has more than doubled reaching 859 students from 31 schools in the 2018-2019 school year.
Educators value the breadth of the career readiness lessons, which are aligned with state educational standards and national career development standards. The benefit of TIPS is captured by this educator’s first-hand perspective:
“We want to really prepare [our students] to be mobile and motivated in the workforce, and to inspire them to pursue any type of post-secondary education that will prepare them for a career, not just a job.”
Employers across the state are instrumental in the success of the program, and currently there are over 300 businesses that participate by hosting student interns and visit classrooms as guest speakers. Careers CLiC offers employers support through training sessions designed for human resource personnel to aid in their efforts to host youth in their workplaces and to help employers provide quality training opportunities for future Vermont workers.
TIPS programming in Vermont is funded in part by:
- the Federal GEAR UP program through the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation;
- the J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation; and
- the Vermont Department of Labor’s Next Generation Fund.
Our TIPS Regional Partners are:
- Bennington County: Community College of Vermont-Bennington
- Chittenden County: Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce
- Rutland County: Rutland Regional Workforce Investment Board
To learn more about TIPS or to get involved visit https://careersclic.org/career-preparation/ or contact tips@careersclic.org.