Preparing for the 21st Century, Putnam County, Ohio

One way to evaluate the effectiveness of a Tech Prep educational program is for schools to work together with local companies to learn what qualities the businesses are looking for in their employees. Based on the recommendations from the companies, schools can better educate and prepare their students for future employment. It is also the case that partnerships often develop between schools and companies, wherein employees from the company visit classrooms and discuss with students how the concepts and skills they are learning in school will be relevant when they join the workforce.

Such a partnership began in 1990 between the Philips Display Components Company, a division of the North American Philips Corporation, and the Putnam County School District in Ohio. The Philips Display Components Company employs nearly 2,000 people at its Ottawa, Ohio, manufacturing facility, which produces direct-view picture tubes. Representatives from Philips were interested in becoming more familiar with the schools in the area surrounding the Ottawa plant. The company and the school district also hoped to develop a collaborative effort to create or expand existing educational programs, ensuring that students were leaving high school with the skills necessary for them to be productive members of the workforce.

With these goals in mind, the Putnam County schools and Philips began creating a program called Preparing for the 21st Century. First, Philips offered suggestions to the schools based on the skills and abilities that companies look for in employees. This list provided information to the schools about what skills the different curricula should focus on instilling in students.

After these recommendations were made, an initiative brought Philips employees into classrooms across the county. In 1992, Philips volunteers visited classes in Putnam County's nine public schools, meeting with students in sixth-, eighth-, and tenth-grade classes. The schools participating in the project were Pandora-Gilboa, Columbus Grove, Miller City, Continental, Fort Jennings, Kalida, Ottoville, Leipsic, and Ottawa-Glandorf.

Before presenting to classes, employees were encouraged to meet with or talk to teachers and discuss how the presentation would be handled. The employees were given a list of guidelines for volunteers concerning the presentation format. This design was updated and adjusted over the years as the program progressed.

Representatives from the schools and Philips worked together to come up with a list of topics to be covered during the employee's classroom visits. The list contained a summary of educational as well as personal skills that companies like Philips looked for in possible employees. The employees also offered the students a projected view of the labor environment of the future, as well as reasons why Philips became involved in a partnership with the Putnam County School District.

After the visitations were made, an evaluation was done to see how the program could be improved or augmented. Employees and the classroom teachers completed evaluation forms, and changes were made according to their comments and suggestions.

The cooperation between Philips and schools in Putnam County has had many positive effects on the community. Preparing for the 21st Century has been an effective means of promoting career education and the necessity of having employable skills among students. Educators have gained a greater understanding of the practical skills their students will need when they graduate. The program has given Philips employees the opportunity to contemplate their own careers and express their views and accounts of life in the modern workplace.