FutureReady is working on a program with members of the business community, River City High School and the Washington Unified School district to provide paid internships for West Sacramento high school students in high-quality college and career pathways. This program is funded by a $150,000 grant that FutureRedy won t in the national CommunityWINS competition sponsored by the United States Conference of Mayors in partnership with Wells Fargo.
“Our prosperity as a community depends on our young people getting access to 21st Century skills, technical training, workplace experience, and quality teaching and learning. We’re launching an ambitious initiative in partnership with companies and schools, with a promise that our community’s employers will guarantee a paid internship for every high school student who is on track in a high-quality pathway that both prepares them for college and gives them strong skills in one of our fast-growing job sectors. Winning this prestigious national competition is the essential starter fuel to power our success. This is our best hope of closing the skills gap between our workforce and our emerging jobs, and of making education relevant for teens as part of a suite of initiatives to turn our whole city into a classroom.”
In addition to student internships, FutureReady will help place teachers in externships with local companies, where they can learn about industry trends and needs, design student internships that are aligned with Common Core standards, and create real-world applications to bring their classroom instruction to life.
“West Sacramento companies are stepping up to the challenge right from the starting gate,” added Mayor Cabaldon. Jon Bisell, CEO of the West Sacramento based chemical and research company Micromidas agreed saying "We have a history of hosting successful student internships at Micromidas. The FutureReady program provides us the opportunity to be matched with quality student interns that have relevant in-classroom academic experience while we develop a local talent pipeline for entry level workers. The teacher externships will facilitate the connection between our team and teaching faculty at River City High School allowing us to assist teachers in developing curriculum that has real world examples and teaches the skills we need." Wallace Kuhl Associates and CSHQA have also committed to internships, as has the City of West Sacramento itself. Bill Elrick, Executive Director for the California Fuel Cell Partnership, added “As fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen stations come to market, developing a pipeline of educated and interested students is vital. The potential to connect real-world examples in alternative fuels and vehicles to classroom instruction makes new technology more relevant to high school students and teachers. We’re excited to support FutureReady in this pilot project”.