Arkansas Department of Education DCTE Goes All-Virtual in Annual “Explore Success” Event

Rhea-AI Summary

The Arkansas Department of Education announced the virtual Explore Success Southwest Arkansas Development Alliance (SADA) Career Day for students, leveraging the Nepris platform. The event aims to expose 8th graders to diverse career paths through 14 live sessions with industry experts, covering fields such as entomology, software engineering, and healthcare technology. Keynote speaker Paul Vitale and industry representatives will provide insights into educational requirements and daily responsibilities. Over 285 public schools in Arkansas will access this career exploration initiative, addressing the skills gap highlighted by recent studies.

Positive

• The event will connect over 285 public schools in Arkansas with career exploration opportunities.
• Access to 14 live chat sessions with industry experts enhances student exposure to various career paths.
• The initiative addresses the educational opportunity gap, as highlighted by the Equality of Opportunity Project.

Negative

• None.

HOPE, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Arkansas Department of Education, Division of Career and Technical Education, today announced the Explore Success Southwest Arkansas Development Alliance (SADA) Career Day will be available to schools and students across southwest Arkansas through a virtual platform hosted by Nepris.

"Our vision for Explore Success is to help expose all students to careers within their communities,” said Mary Godwin, Secretary and Treasurer with SADA. “It is so important to help schools and industry explore mutually beneficial partnerships that impact Arkansas's future economy and we’re excited to present the 3rd year of this state and national award-winning event in a virtual conference format."

The event provides 8th graders with a learning experience in coordination with SADA, the South Central Education Cooperative, DeQueen-Mena Education Cooperative, Southwest Arkansas Education Cooperative, Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development District, and UAHT. This year, students can register and participate in as many events as they want, and if they are unable to join the live sessions, each chat will also be recorded and be available after the event.

Paul Vitale, inspirational speaker and Arkansas native will keynote the event along with a panel of local industry representatives. Students will then have access to 14 live chat sessions with industry experts from the following fields: entomology, 2D/3D animation, epidemiology, conservation biology, software engineering, CTO, 3D printing, cybersecurity and healthcare technology. The presenters will cover what educational background each role requires, how a typical day might look, and what opportunities are available for students interested in pursuing a career in the field.

“A recent study called the Equality of Opportunity Project revealed that the educational opportunity gap directly correlates with a lack of career exposure for students. In addition, nearly 92% of American executives have expressed concern that workers aren’t as skilled as they need to be,” said Sabari Raja, CEO & Co-Founder of Nepris. “When forward-thinking educators, like the Arkansas Department of Education, focus their efforts on providing early exposure to career pathways, the gap starts to close and the surrounding community, as well as the future of work, grows in a positive direction.”

The Arkansas Department of Education’s partnership with Nepris came out of an identified need to reduce the barriers between industry and education, increase exposure to career exploration, and fill the need for digital learning experiences. Throughout the 2020-2021, 285 public schools across the state of Arkansas will have access to the Nepris platform, ensuring student access to career pathways while providing companies the opportunity to efficiently and effectively extend their education outreach efforts.

Nepris’s network of over 39K industry professionals have connected with over 85K educators at over 600 school districts nationwide.

About Nepris

Austin-based Nepris provides a cloud-based platform connecting industry professionals with K-16 classrooms so that students see the relevance of what they are learning in school. Students are exposed to diverse role models and career paths in STEM, the Arts, retail, manufacturing, and countless other careers. Nepris makes it easy for teachers to leverage industry connections while offering a scalable platform for companies and regional intermediaries to easily and effectively engage the current workforce with the future workforce, virtually. Over a half-million students have participated in a Nepris virtual session or have viewed one of the over 10,000 hours of videos in its library. See Nepris in action at Nepris.com. @NeprisApp