Volume 17, Number 1, Fall 2006

Copper Country Helps Youth Touch the Future

Bertha Rogers

“Touch the Future” is a multi-county, career exploration program, which encompasses ten school districts throughout the Copper Country Intermediate School Districts (CCISD). It began as a direct result of 4-H leaders attending the Kellogg Brighter Future Conference in the fall of 1992. Counties were given seed money and the challenge to go home and come up with a program to benefit youth.

School counselors work with students to assess their interests in six career pathways: Natural Resources and Agriculture; Arts and Communication; Business, Management, Marketing and Technology; Engineering/Manufacturing and Industrial Technology; Human Services and Health Sciences. Each student participates in a careers class prior to the Touch the Future career fair.

Because the school districts are geographically isolated, students are bused to a central location on the campus of Michigan Technological University. At the university, students attend a career pathways presentation, hear an inspirational speaker and are given the opportunity to visit onsite career presentations pertaining to one of the careers in their chosen pathway.

The purpose of the Touch the Future program is to promote self-exploration by providing opportunities to learn about the six career pathways and scope of careers within each pathway. Touch the Future is designed to help eighth- and tenth-grade students get a real ‘world of work’ prospectus and to use this experience as a starting point in the development of their individual educational development plans.

Touch the Future is a developmentally appropriate career exploration program for middle level students. All area schools have adopted the Touch the Future program as one component of their comprehensive career preparation system. Touch the Future provides all students with career exploration opportunities rather than targeting only a select few students. Touch the Future is a multifaceted program providing students with opportunities for career assessment, exploration, development and planning. Beginning in the fall semester of each year, career assessments are given to each student to identify their career interests and to identify an initial career pathway for further exploration. Results are used to help students become aware of their career interests.

The CCISD provides funding and coordination for the program. Ten local school districts each provide transportation for students to the program. Each school district provides a program coordinator to be available for planning and implementing the program. Michigan Technological University provides its physical facilities and contributes a number of career presenters for the program. Finlandia University also provides a number of career presenters for the program. The local business community provides over 60 onsite career exploration opportunities. Michigan Sate University Extension 4-H Youth Development is fundamental in providing staff support for planning, as well as providing presenters for the program. Parents of area students act as volunteer chaperones the day of the Touch the Future program. Presenters are provided with a guide as to what is expected of them at the career fair. Students are also provided with questions to ask the presenters.

Each presenter provides information on workplace readiness skills and related labor market information. In addition, many job shadowing, work-study and summer job opportunities have developed as a result of the business community’s active participation in the Touch the Future program.

Since the beginning of the program, students have become more aware of their range of career options with the Career Pathways System. The Touch the Future program provides students with a focus for making decisions about high school and beyond.

The goal of Touch the Future is not to prepare students for specific careers, but to expand their knowledge base about the multitude of career choices available to them. Informal assessment and formal evaluations gathered from the presenters, chaperones and local businesses indicate that students are exploring many career options previously unknown to them. Results of formal evaluations are also used to make adjustments to each year’s Touch the Future program.