Educators gather for four days of ‘industrial immersion’
Twenty educators from three school districts — Anderson County, Oneida City, and Clai- borne County — visited and participated in local industries so they can better inform and advise their students about career opportunities.
Twenty educators from three school districts,Anderson County, Oneida City, and Claiborne County, participated in the program, which gives educators the opportunity to visit and participate in local industries so they can better inform and advise their students about career opportunities.
On the first day of the program, Anderson County Chamber President Rick Meredith engaged educators in an exercise on regional business development.
Meredith walked educators through the steps and nuances involved with securing new industry for a region
Educators then took this knowledge and pitched different sites to a mock industry as part of an industry development simulation.
Later that day, educators toured the Roane State Community College/TCAT Knoxville joint campus in Clinton.
The group was split up into three smaller cohorts on Day Two, and each one spent a full day with one of the partner industries for the program: AISIN, Clayton Homes, and SL America.
Educators were able to participate in a wide range of experiences, from building parts on assembly lines to attending HR meetings, to examining products for quality control
Cohorts rotated among industries on Day Three so that each was able to spend at least half a day with each industry partner.
The program wrapped up with presentations from educators on what surprised them about the experience and what lessons they would take back to their schools.
Industry and chamber representatives sat in on the presentations and listened to the feedback about the experience.
All educators in attendance said they would participate in a similar experience again and would recommend the opportunity to fellow educators.
One participant singled out “getting to develop beneficial relationships with the local manufacturers” as the most-valuable takeaway from the program.
Another appreciated “the way [local industries] want to work with [educators] and are genuinely welcoming of teachers and students.”
The STEM.LD externship program will be available to participating schools again next year with hopes to expand the number of seats and industry partners.