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Charting a Path
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Interactive
web tool eases obstacles for employers who offer work-site learning
opportunities, encourages workforce development efforts.
By Susan Caba
Linda Faulkner cultivates “homegrown” nurses. A recruitment supervisor
at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, she nurtures students from high
school on up who are interested in nursing careers, moving them
through a series of ever-more skilled, hands-on jobs at the hospital.
Faulkner’s hope is that those who do wind up as nurses — or other
healthcare professionals in short supply — will join St. John’s
roster.
“Tracking students is integral to what we want to do,” says Faulkner,
student Flex Team supervisor at St. John’s. “By the time they graduate
from nursing school, I’m hoping we’ve already hired them.”
Above:
Tamara Flores, checking her schedule with Student Flex Team Supervisor
Linda Faulkner, found an entry level job at St. John’s Mercy Medical
Center using the PathFinder database. Flores, a senior at Highland
High School, hopes to become a pediatric emergency physician. This
is her first paid position in the healthcare field.
In late February, the hospital provided a new tool for recruiting
and monitoring budding nurses by joining a non-profit, centralized
database called PathFinder. By early March, Faulkner and Kim Prescott,
St. John’s manager of Recruitment and Education, had matched three
PathFinder students with opportunities. And she was talking enthusiastically
about posting the availability of hospital representatives as job
fair speakers, student mentors and advisors to career counselors,
as well as listing entry level positions.
PathFinder is a regional web-based system for matching students
with employers who offer career-oriented learning opportunities.
That description hardly does justice to the program’s wide-ranging
features or its user-friendly simplicity. For students at PathFinder-affiliated
schools or youth organizations, the system is one-stop shopping
for those interested in workforce development, whether the career
in question is professional, technical, or craft-based.
Above:
PathFinder is a regional web-based system for matching students
with employers who offer career-oriented learning opportunities.
For students it offers a catalog of learning opportunities — internships,
job-shadowing prospects, apprenticeships, mentoring programs — along
with profiles of local employers. Linked websites help them figure
out what a career demands in skills and education, while the PathFinder
planner helps track their progress in meeting those requirements.
As they work, they are building on-line resumes and portfolios.
What’s in it for employers? PathFinder takes the hassle out of participating
in career fairs and classroom simulations, and minimizes time and
money spent sorting through applications and answering telephone
inquiries for available positions. Businesses get streamlined access
to a pool of entry-level workers, with the ability to monitor a
particular person’s progress over time. There’s no fee for businesses,
agencies or institutions.
“It’s especially good for businesses that would like to do something,
but don’t really have the resources,” says James F. Duane, assistant
director of the Regional Center for Education and Work (RCEW) at
the University of Missouri–St. Louis, home base for PathFinder .
“There are a lot of ways to get involved. You don’t have to do them
all.”
“Many, many companies are interested in offering opportunities,
but they’re afraid of being overwhelmed by phone calls,” says Rosanne
Vrugtman, the PathFinder coordinator at RCEW. “With PathFinder,
all they have to deal with is one phone call from a central source.”
The program reflects the philosophy that high school students should
graduate with either job skills or a clear vision of what further
education and experience they need. PathFinder is a propriety program
licensed by VisionLink. In St. Louis, PathFinder is an initiative
of the RCEW in partnership with, among others, the St. Louis RCGA.
For employers, PathFinder’s real value is its one-point-of-contact
feature. They can browse the resumes of students (identified by
number, not name) throughout the St. Louis region, winnowing the
resumes electronically to select just those that are appropriate.
Students sift through posted opportunities to find positions in
their fields. When either side finds something of interest, the
staff at PathFinder coordinates the process of putting the two parties
in touch.
“You’re extending your reach into the community,” says Vrugtman,
“without over-extending your resources.” For more information, call
Vrugtman or Duane at 314/516-4378, e-mail them at rcew@umsl.edu
or log on to the PathFinder website, stlpathfinder.communityos.org.
Susan Caba is a St. Louis-based freelance writer. |
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