Submitted article
Students in the Wynford district had the day off on Friday, February 12th for teacher professional development. But rather than work in their buildings getting trained in what are typical in-service topics, 42 Wynford high school and junior high school educators toured three companies, Advanced Fiber Technology, General Electric, and Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, as a part of the W.A.G.E. program.
W.A.G.E. (workforce awareness for graduates and educators) is an initiative of The Crawford Partnership for Education and Economic Development and has two components, a teacher tour and a student tour. The Wynford student tour will take place in May. To date, four of the six county schools; Bucyrus, Crestline, Galion, and Wynford have participated in the program with a total of twelve different companies in Bucyrus, Galion and Crestline involved in conducting tours. Buckeye Central and Colonel Crawford are slated to participate during the 2016-17 school year.
“While the program advances collaboration between business and education in our county, a goal stated in Crawford:20/20 Vision, the basic purpose of this program is to break down the misconception that jobs aren’t available in Crawford County. The first step in that task is to educate our educators so that they can communicate these opportunities to students.” explains Gary Frankhouse, executive director of The Partnership for Education and Economic Development.
According to Crystal Jennings, family and consumer science teacher at Wynford, that goal was successfully met, “The WAGE tours allowed me to see the diverse employment options available to our community as well as the different educational needs. This knowledge will enable me to better prepare my students for the work world when they leave high school, hopefully returning to work in our hometown.”
New Wynford superintendent, Fred Fox concurred, “The tours were a great opportunity for our teachers to see what jobs and careers are available in Crawford County. The tours are valuable for staff and students to see real world applications of the skills taught in the classroom.”
After the tours were completed a working lunch was provided by General Electric where the educators and representatives from General Electric, Advanced Fiber Technology discussed how the event could be improved and how the teachers could integrate what they learned into their instructional content.
Steve Crall, community development director for The Crawford Partnership for Education and Economic Development, was especially appreciative of the efforts of the three companies to make the event a successful one. “Casie Grau (Ohio Mutual), Mike Prenger (General Electric), and Doug Leuthold (Advanced Fiber Technology) are to be commended for putting together a program that was a great success for these teachers and is just further proof of a new era of collaboration in our county between education and businesses.”