WHAT

The ABEC Career Exploration and Development (ACED) Project, in collaboration with business and community partners, introduces middle and high school students to different career pathways for the purpose of

• helping students better understand the relevancy and application of the courses they take in school;
• introducing information and hands-on activities that are community driven and focused on key workforce demands and career; and
• helping students understand and make wise course selections in high school.

WHY

ACED provides a meaningful and successful project for business and education to partner, and is designed to meet the shared common goal of preparing students to enter and succeed in the workforce. ABEC wants all Arizona high school graduates to be prepared for either post-secondary education or the workforce and so recognizes that there must be a focus on the "forgotten middle" -- those years when our youth start to make informed or uninformed decisions about their futures. Business partners are eager to participate because this project provides them a meaningful role in shaping career modules and providing classroom presentations and hands-on activities that support students in recognizing and pursuing careers that will help meet future economic and workforce demands.

WHO

ABEC specifically targets schools with limited capacity to implement career exploration activities on a large scale, providing a successful framework for businesses to partner with schools.

HOW

• Collaboration with Business Partnerships to leverage expertise and resources and provide career exploration activities aligned with future workforce needs.
• Career Exploration Activities customized to meet the needs of each school, the students they serve, and participating business partners.
• Professional Development to prepare teachers in implementing career exploration software/curriculum.
• Parent Engagement including parent meetings, surveys, and activities related to the career exploration project.

MORE INFORMATION

Visit the ACED website for full details or contact Debra Raeder, ACED project lead, at debra@azbec.org.

THE STATS

Over the past 10 years:

• More than 10,000 Arizona middle school students impacted
• More than 450,000 hours of direct career exploration activities delivered in multiple high demand, high wage, high skill career pathways
• More than 300 business and community partners engaged in opening doors to students' futures with financial or in-kind support of nearly $1 million.

AWARDS and RECOGNITIONS

It can be argued that one way to measure success is whether the project can garner news media interest; win local, state, or national awards or recognition; or that students in the project are also participating in or winning local, regional, state or national competitions.  Proudly, the Career Exploration & Development Project can boast success in all of these areas as the project has grown and expanded over the past six years.

• Landmark School was awarded first runner-up for the prestigious WestMarc Best of the West, Educational Program Award in November 2017.
• ABEC received the ACPE 2017 Pathways Award for the AMSCEP at the ACPE Higher Education 13^th Annual Conference in December 2017.
• In 2016 and 2017, two Landmark teams, as part of the IT Modules, participated in the First Lego League Robotics regional competition. In 2017, Sunset Vista also had two teams from the IT Module participate in a regional competition.
• In 2016 and 2017, the Landmark Health Module partnered with the Moon Valley High School student health care club, AzHOSA, and students competed both years at the state convention winning top awards and the opportunity for students to compete each year at the national competition in Florida and Texas respectively.
• The Arizona Chapter of the Associated General Contractors Young Constructors Forum received the 2017 Associated General Contractors’ Community Special Recognition Award for work with and support of the Landmark Construction Module.
• The Landmark Fire CERT Module received a 2017 FEMA Individual and Community Preparedness (ICP) Awards Honorable Mention.