Seeking Host Businesses
Based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback received from our business partners and educators in response to the 2019 pilot program, the Chamber applied for and has been awarded a grant through the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to fund Educator Externships for summer 2024. To prepare students for the workforce, Educator Externships are an effective conduit through which teachers and counselors can acquire valuable experience within an industry. Through an externship, educators gain industry perspective on the skills training their students will need to be successful in the real world and can also identify ways to creatively integrate relevant, real-world application into student learning. Externships also give your business an opportunity to impart knowledge of career opportunities, hiring trends, and required skills for current and future work in your industry.
How it Works
Businesses host an educator extern(s) on-site for three days, July 16-18 and/or July 23-25. The Chamber will provide interested businesses with assistance in externship experience development.
The Chamber will host two, half-day, sessions for the educators. An orientation session before placement and a post-externship working session to share experiences and plan classroom integration.
Educators will create lesson plans from their experience and present them to their peers. This is a great opportunity for employers to infuse the world of work into the educational environment. Businesses can take this time to teach educators about the expectations of various positions/training and education required and provide insight into how middle and high school academic content ties to future careers. Your direct engagement with educators will support them as they work to prepare your future workforce.
To make this program a success, we need businesses to host educators! Thanks to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s Intermediary Capacity Building Grant, we have the opportunity to place up to 40 educator externs in the South Bend|Elkhart Region this summer. Each participating educator will impact up to 400 students through the knowledge gained from their experience – that’s more than 16,000 students!
We hope you can join us in this important endeavor and open your doors to an educator (or two!) this summer. If you are interested, please let us know by Monday, June 10, by emailing Executive Director, Education & Workforce Kate Lee, and indicate your week preference or if you’re interested in hosting externs both weeks!) and we will contact you with next steps. All businesses will have an opportunity to participate in a virtual meeting to review the program in detail prior to the educator’s arrival at your facility.
Educators
If you are an educator and have interest in being an extern, view this PDF.